Haris Iqbal 9/3/23 PSY 4010 Reaction Paper 1 Source: Chapter 2 pg. 50-52 These pages made me reflect on my own experiences of favoritism in the workplace and how it left a sour taste in my mouth. I previously worked in a retail clothing store which was predominantly made up of white people that I joined during a summer. From the beginning in that store I could feel the strong sense of favoritism for the other employees as they were often given lighter tasks, not being micromanaged, and the managers were much more friendly with. The manager ostracized me quite quickly and labeled me as lazy, unmotivated, and “not what they were looking for”. I was fired for being late twice by only five minutes even when other coworkers were often much later and more frequently late than I had been. I was part of the outgroup as there were only two other coworkers who were not part of the in-group and were treated similarly by the head manager. As my first experience of such drastic favoritism and discrimination I was shocked, disgusted, dissatisfied, and uncomfortable at that job. Page 51 changed the way I perceived crime rates on various levels. It is interesting and very well put with differing levels of statistics how marginalized minority groups like latinx and black people are by law enforcement. Additionally, the media outlets continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes by portraying poverty, crime, and drugs with suggestive imagery. I never truly thought too much of it before but this page was very eye opening to me. I was surprised that I had previously been oblivious to information like this and how I have previously not dug deeper to understand racism on deeper levels. It makes me beg the question, are media outlets paid/instructed to further perpetuate negative stereotypes on minorities?
