2.3 Undoing bias: learning about others

Am I learning for myself or learning from labels or stereotyping?

Let’s think for a moment about how you have personally learned about other Black cultures. What was the source of your education? If you were asked to describe what you knew about the cultures of Jamaica, Montserrat, Ghana or Rwanda, what would you say? How is Rwanda referred to in politics and the media? Do you recall the disparaging remarks by Donald Trump referring to the African continent?

How much do you know about the other cultures mentioned beyond surface-level stereotypes? In Jamaica, does everyone look like Bob Marley, run like Usain Bolt, and drink rum? What about in Ghana? Could you locate Montserrat on a map? If you were to draw a diagram with everything you knew about each of the cultures mentioned without an internet search, how much information would be on it and where did that ‘learning’ come from? How much would be from:

• your own family, friends or peers
• the news or newspapers
• the tabloid press
• Western movies or books?

Now ask yourself, did the source of my learning confirm or change my biases?