Overcoming my bias by Alparslan

Overcoming my bias by Alparslan - March 2024 Scholarship Essay

When I reflected on my experiences of working with a person with a
different perspective, one particular experience stood out to me. This
experience is different from the others because it caused the first
instance of me self-reflecting on my prejudices, leading to a series of
improvements in my thought processes that made me who I am today.

A couple of years back, in my history class, I was assigned to work on
a group project with two other people. One of those two people was
Jace, and the other was William, who is Armenian (This detail will make
more sense later). Me, William, and Jace worked on the project well
together, finished it, and got a great grade. I made friends with both
of them and became close with William specifically because we shared
some other classes. The teacher of that history class was the kind of
teacher who tried hard to engage his students, asking frequent
questions. As he said, he "wanted to be the compass, not the map," which
meant that he would usually present us with some background information
and want us to think out loud, making us come up with our own opinion
at the end. During these processes, William and I nearly always agreed,
came to similar conclusions, and worked together. This shared
perspective naturally increased the connection. We also sat with the
same group at lunch.

One day, while talking with him during the lunch break, the topic of
his ethnicity came up, and I learned that he was Armenian. During that
time, I was full of biases against other people and anything from their
ethnicity to religion. I also specifically had biases against Armenian
people, most likely caused by my upbringing in an environment heavily
focused on national identity in Turkey. The day that William told me, as
I was on my ride home, I thought about William being Armenian.
Normally, I would not have even friended an Armenian person. However, my
opinion of William had not changed at all after hearing his ethnicity. I
spent some time in the car thinking about why that was, and then I figured
out that it was because I saw him as my friend, as an individual who had
many more characteristics than just being Armenian. Then I kept
thinking, going back and forth in my mind about whether or not William
was an "exception," then I realized that William was not an exception
but that my biases were wrong, which made me feel ashamed of myself.

This experience had a great impact on me. From that car
ride on, I made a conscious effort to challenge my assumptions and
embrace diverse perspectives. This journey of self-discovery continues
to this day, and I am grateful for the impact William and that history
class project had on my life.