Communication and Diversity: Understanding Personal Bias and Its Consequences

Running head: COMMUNICATION AND DIVERSITY
Communication and Diversity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1COMMUNICATION AND DIVERSITY
Description of the Visualization:
Djalu suffered a head injury due to which he was brought into the hospital by his
friend. Djalu was profusely bleeding, and had blood all over his face.He had blood on his
shirt, and his friend was panicking. Djalu was about 6 feet tall, dark, had long dreadlocked
hair and a beard. He had a strong and athletic build with jade black eyes and a broad
nose.When I saw Djalu, my first impression about Djalu was that of a native warrior type of a
person. I immediately assumed that the injury experienced by his friend was the result of a
fight or an accident. I also assumed that Djalu to be an aggressive person, judging him by
his warrior like dreadlock and beard, which intimidated me.Upon questioning later on, he
informed that he was a footballer, and he brought in his teammate Peter who had an accident
while practicing. Djalu also told that he was not yet married, and stays in a rented flat.
Analysis of personal bias:
Bias can be understood as a type of tendency, inclination, trend, opinion or feeling,
whichcan be unreasoned, preconceived and prejudiced. Bias can also be unreasonable and
hostile opinionstowards others, which is not based upon any fact or reality, but instead
formed on misconceptions and anill formed reasoning. According to Payne et al. (2017),
biased opinion of the public can lead to personal prejudices, and thus affects the individual’s
decision-making process. Pope et al. (2018) further suggested that a lack of awareness and
understanding can also increase the chances of biased opinions, and that increasing the
awareness is a strong step towards the reduction of these biases. It is also suggested that
prejudice or prejudgment is formed when an individual forms an attitude towards a certain
social group before gaining enough understanding about them that is needed for a well-
informed opinion. Bias can be either implicit (untold or unexpressed) or explicit (told or
expressed), and both can be equally damaging (Petersen 2017; Izumi 2017).

2COMMUNICATION AND DIVERSITY
I was able to understand my biased view towards the Aboriginal people, after I
reflected upon my assumptions about Djalu. His muscular physical buildup, good height,
facial features and hairstyle intimidated me, and I assumed he was an aggressive native
warrior type. However, he was actually a sportsperson, and brought in his teammate who was
injured in the match. This insight helped me identify how biased my view towards the
Aboriginal people was,which was influenced significantly through the popular mainstream
and social media as well as a lack of interaction with Aboriginal people.
Up until this personal experience, I had stereotypical views about the Aboriginals as I
considered them as mostly nomadic and primitive, lacking complex laws and social structure,
being prone to alcoholism, often violent in nature, living in the outback, lacking proper
education, being involved in crimes, eating unhealthy food.I had a preset notion that most
aboriginals were dark skinned with wide nose.I also thought that they receive more privileges
and welfare from the government compared to the white Australians and are treated with too
much leniency. Moreover, I had a belief that most aboriginals were too lazy to work, living
on the outskirts, not using the land they are given and a drain on the country’s economy and
resources.
Prior to this incident, I lacked any personal experience in dealing with Aboriginals,
because of which my understanding about their culture, way of life, their nature and their
heritage was very much limited. This lack of personal experience as the biased portrayal of
Aboriginal Australians in the popular mainstream and social media allowed me to developan
ill formed view about them and thus in the development of a prejudiced and biased opinion
about them (Paradies 2016).
Media and the society have a very big role in the perpetuation and continuance of a
biased view about the Australian Aboriginals. The media have been historically portraying