The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I haven’t experience any incidents where I was the target of bias, prejudice and/or oppression. I have seen in several movies acts of oppression and biases specially directed to black people, but I think the one that impressed me the most was the treatment that HIV positive people got in public hospital in Mexico. I saw a play that talked about this subject and they represented how this people were treated in the past. They were in the dungeon of the hospital, and the food was left on the floor for them.

This incident diminishes equity because people should be treated equal and they should be able to have the same access to health care, as well as a dignify treatment. I felt bad for the people that have suffered these injustices and I think most of it happened because of ignorance and lack of tolerance towards others.

I think that today we have a better understanding of the HIV disease and how to treat it. Although there are still some people who prejudice towards HIV positive people, I think that thanks to a better knowledge of the disease nowadays people don’t treat HIV positive people as bad as the used to. In this case, what changed was the understanding of the disease and the awareness built up to treat patients with dignity.