The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

I am proud to be a retiree because I have worked most of my life and I am proud of my achievements and experiences.  However, when economical situations caused me to get back into the job market, I found that my age has been playing a significant role in me not being hired for jobs I know that I am more than qualified for.  Despite the fact that I have a college degree and years of specialized experience, I found myself being passed over for jobs and seeing younger, less experienced and less educated people (both Black and White) get jobs I have applied for.  The only obvious reason I can see, is the fact that I am in my late 50’s.  In fact, one of my close associates had recruited me and referred me for a Training and Development Coordinator’s position.  I have many years of experience and education in this particular area.  I had a great interview; however I did not get the position.  My associate confided in me and told me that they were looking for a younger, more energetic person because the position was fast-paced.  This made me feel so angry because the interviewers assumed that I could not keep up with the pace of the job or would not be energetic because of my age.  Being an African American female who grew up in a low income community in Mississippi during the 1960’s and 1970’s, I have some very salient experiences encountering racism, classism, and ableism.  But this was the first time I have encountered being discriminated against because of my age. 

From what I have experienced and witnessed, society denies power to so many of the old for reasons having less to do with the aging of bodies and more to do with society’s construction of old age as sickness, dependence, lack of productivity, unattractiveness, and decline.  According to Robert Butler in his 1969 article in The e Gerontologist, “Ageism: Another Form of Bigotry,”  ageism is “the systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are old, just as racism and sexism accomplish this with skin color and gender,” (Harris, 2011).  Society, including media and advertisements, has to change in order to turn the incident I experienced into an opportunity for greater equity.  Ads use the work place as a setting to play on the fear that looking old is a disadvantage, especially in the application process. Employers may indeed look negatively at old-aged job applicants for various reasons, many of which are myths. It is a myth, for example, that the old can’t learn new things or won’t be as productive (Harris, 2011).

 

Reference:

Harris, S. (2011, Winter). Do not let them know you are OLD. Virginia Tech "Research"      Magazine, 26--            31. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Academic Search Complete database:             http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr       ue&db=a 9h&AN=57626783&site=ehost-live&scope=site