Free «Biases towards Africa» Essay Sample

Curtis Keim in his book has given an imperative elucidation on biases evident in the Western countries regarding Africa. It has resulted into the discovery and gained knowledge on the issues concerning cultural biases toward Africa. With the diverse cultural practices between African and Western countries, I have had an approach that the practices of the Western are more valuable and right to be emulated. I have dragged the colonial perception of Africa to the present time[1]. The fact that Africa was professed to be the weaker continent that could not come up with its innovation but emulated the Western world is still articulated in my habits. I have had the belief that has facilitated the perception that even in the present century, the Western countries’ comments about Africa are characterized by their incomplete analysis, stereotyping with factual errors. Reports that have the same intensity, happening in both Western and African countries are not reported in the same magnitude. The notion in most of the population in the European sense of exception is centered to the worldview. The Western civilization that had developed in the heights of the empires of European colonization has not vanished, just like the Western population. In the period, biases dominated my habits in various matters concerning the lifestyle of Africans and whites.

I have had cultural biases in various fields, including intelligence, teaching, media coverage and events’ highlighting. Although the urge of contacting research has led to the widening of the gap between different races, it provides crucial information for the populations on why they ought to work towards eradicating biases. I have perceived the intelligence of Africans for a long time to be lower than westerns. Different cultures have different definitions of intelligence, and it has led to various controversies. The content in the cultural beliefs on matters of intelligence has facilitated to cultural biases during the process of the research, thus giving out unreliable results[2]. Various incidences have led my mistaken view of Africa. The event of biases occurs in the scenario that the results are complied by Westerns, whereby they give out the results according to their cultural beliefs about intelligence. Most of the African cultures define intelligence on the basis of the ability of community members. It is based on the complexity and contradiction and, at the same time, have the capability of playing critical social roles successfully recognized by their culture. My definition on intelligence has been contradicting the African, thus leading my mistaking cultural biases towards Africa.

I have had a view of intelligence in the perspective of individuals devising various categories concerning their culture and engaging into rational debate. Since most Africans prefer not to create some separation between the aspects of cognitive speed of someone’s intelligence from the aspect of social responsibility, it has paved a way for biases to rule on the Western cultures. Previously, the intelligence of Africans had not resulted to tangible fruits, and it led to my belief that nothing worth and valuable could come out of the African setting. Contemporary research exhibits that vital innovations and creativity has emanated from Africans that formed concrete evidence that is contrary to my biased perception of their intelligence. Research data from Africans was not used in the compilation of the whole research, in order to bring an accurate data analysis. The information given by Africans used to be treated as substandard, and priority was given to the data from the Western source. It happens when the completion of the data is done by a person from the Western culture. The act portrayed biases radiating from the Western people, and it led to a perception that my intelligence was more superior to Africans.

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A cultural bias has dominated my view in the aspect of teaching. It is evident in that administrators and teachers in various areas are still holding to the past popular belief about the mainstream and dominance. For numerous education researchers, bias on cultural teaching is confirmed within a variety of academic modules and texts across many academic domains. It has increased the instillation of my mistaken view on cultural biases. In most Western cultures, researchers concur that the majority contributions towards academic subject matter, particularly in social studies, history and natural sciences are done by people of the majority culture or race. Most of the text throughout the subject matter that may be coming from African is utilized in order to provide reinforcement to the superiority of the group whose majority is from the Western. For instance, majority of secondary and elementary American textbooks about history give a romanticized sight of the experience of Europeans’ in the U.S., while majority of the experiences of Africans in the same areas are either underrepresented or misrepresented. Many of the texts have constantly continued to provide marginalization to the significant traditions and the achievements of many cultural minorities of the populations living in America[3]. The extra academic domains like the field of English and natural sciences have shown promotion the European and American ideological focus. In relation to the authors of the books, they are barely spearheaded by Africans - a fact that strengthened my personal mistaken view of Africa.

Owing to my cultural bias in the field of teaching, I had the perceptible mainstream adherence to the forms of learning, thinking and the way of behaving. The culturally and ethnically diverse learners regularly have the habit of terminating their learning activities and behaviors that tend to reflect some aspects of their indigenous or home culture. As a matter of fact, they are habitually advised to replace the indigenous value-laden cultural behaviors with the practices in their classroom and behaviors that are reflective of cultural values of the mainstream. Failure to do so, often facilitates to misperceptions of the learning abilities of students’ and, in some instances, recommendations related to the in-school remediation and psychological services.