Prejudices about Aboriginal people

Running head: COMMUNICATION AND DIVERSITY
Prejudices about Aboriginal people
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COMMUNICATION AND DIVERSITY
My Visualization of Aboriginals:
Part 1 Part 2
Name Illuka
Illuka was brought into the
emergency department with a deep gash
in his head, and bleeding profusely. He
had blood all over his face and shirt and
showed signs of disorientation. Illuka was
a 30 year old Aboriginal, slim and
underweight, and clean shaved. Upon
seeing him, my first impression was that
he was a drug addict or an alcoholic, and
might have had the accident while being
in a drug induced or a drunken state. My
idea was the injury was due to a fall, as
the injury mark looked similar to an
accidental injury.
Height 5.5 Feet
Build Slim, underweight
Complexion Fair
Eye colour Blue
Hair style Short hair
Facial hair Clean shaved
Clothing Shirt and Trousers
Shoes Slippers
Partner Yes
Children 2
Location Wagga Wagga
Home Leased
Occupation Teacher
Hobbies Gardening
Weekend
activities
Visiting relatives
Favourite
food
Fish and Chips
My Personal Bias:
Biases are result of an ill opinionated and unreasonable type of thinking process,
which leads to the formation of false or unbalance thoughts, which does not reflect upon the
reality, and is based upon false beliefs. This is also the result of a prejudice and pre judgment,
which is formed before an actual understanding is developed fully. A biased opinion is also

2COMMUNICATION AND DIVERSITY
caused due to a lack of understanding, or wrong perceptions towards reality, and fostered
through reinforcement from misinformation, stereotyping and stigmatization. Several authors
have suggested that the ability to make decision can be significantly affected by personal
biases, prejudices and improper reasoning processes (Blumenthal-Barby & Krieger, 2015).
Other authors also proposed that biases are caused when there is a lack of understanding
towards something, which gives space to the formation of misconceptions and misnomers. It
has been suggested therefore that biases can be best reduced through the increase of
understanding and awareness, thereby removing any misnomer or misconceptions. The biases
are often exerbated thought eh development of inflexible or rigid mindset before fully
understanding it (Aronson et al. 2013). For example, the misconceptions and biases that are
often exhibited by While Colonials on the Indigenous people, where the indigenous people
were considered as uncivilized, uncultured and lacking social complexities (Jalata 2016).
Meeting Illuka, my personal biases led me to form incorrect assumptions about him.
Seeing a young Aboriginal man, admitted to the emergency department, because of a head
injury, promptly led me to believe that he had the injury out because of alcohol or drug
related effect. The physique of the person further led me to believe that he was probably
unemployed and spent much of his time drinking or smoking, keeping in line with the
stereotypical image of an Aboriginal Tribal Elder (Paradies 2016). However, after talking to
Illuka, I learnt that he was a teacher in a community school, was married, had 2 kids, and was
well respected in his community for his wisdom and helping attitude. I was able to
understand how misinformed and ill opinionated I was regarding Aboriginal people.
My views about the aboriginal people were mostly developed through what was
shown in the popular media and also due to a lack of personal interactions with the
Aboriginal people. As a result, I always thought of the Aboriginal people as tribal
communities, living in either in the outskirts of the cities or in reserves, and still leading a