Jenna Duran

Professor Douglas
ENG111_52
10 September 2016

I Believe in Being Unbiased

I believe in being unbiased, especially when it comes to making decisions that could
concern someone else's life and well being. Sometimes a persons belief system, such as
religions, can get in the way of important decisions that dont just affect the person making the
decision. I find myself not entirely sure of where this belief originated from, but more than likely
it comes from the injustices I have witness in my life that have made no sense to me, and from
my mother who told me to always be kind and thoughtful towards others, no matter their own
beliefs and race.
One such injustice that may have shaped my belief is the government, any form of
government really, and the decisions they make. In Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, California,
and a few other states it is illegal to discriminate based on someone's sexual orientation and
gender identity. While New York, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin have only made it illegal to
discriminate based on someone's sexual orientation and not their gender identity. North Carolina,
South Carolina, Texas, Florida, and a majority of the rest of America have either very limited or
no such laws of protection. Of all those states mentioned above only New York as a bill that
disallows the use of religion to be used to discriminate, this means that only in New York if
someone denies someone else the use of the bathroom due to their gender identity they could be
charged with a hate crime. It is well known that North Carolina passed an Anti-LGBT law, HB2,
that prevented people from going into the restrooms that matched the gender identity, and it is

happenings like this that pushed me into trying to be constantly unbiased when making any
decision. Being unbiased means one can see multiple viewpoints. For example, I can see how on
one hand people would be fearful of having a biological male in a female bathroom because
humans hold little to no trust in fellow humans, but, on the other hand, I can also see how a
transgendered person could be fearful of walking into the bathroom that matches their gender
identity because, like Ive stated above, humans hold little to no trust in their fellow humans.
Fear of the unknown seems to be a lead motivator when it comes to passing such laws, but laws
like North Carolinas HB2 needs to change, while others need to get passed that could help this
country as a whole, but because of a select few with power, different viewpoints and different
beliefs many laws have been shot down. People just cant seem to wrap their minds around the
fact the not everything they believe in is correct or right for others.
Another possible injustice that shaped my viewpoints is the jury, or court, system, where
complete strangers hold the future of another human in the palm of their hands. Strangers who
could despise the accuseds race, religion, sexual orientation, or identity. There are so many
different factors that can stack up, and before you know it you could be found guilty while in
reality you're innocent all because someone couldnt set aside their beliefs to simply look at the
facts. Dr. Marc W. Pearce and Samantha L. Schwartz wrote an article for the American
Psychology Association called, Can jurors religious biases affect verdicts in criminal trials?
The article spoke about how a Saudi Arabian man, Homaidan Al-Turki, was studying for a PhD
in Colorado when he was accused by his housekeeper for unlawful sexual contact, extortion,
false imprisonment and other charges. There were a hundred and nine possible jurors to chose
from for this one case, in order to narrow down the amount of people they were questioned to
weed out any potential bias. Eventual there was only the needed twelve jurors, but as the jury

was going through the process of being sworn in a juror interrupted the proceedings. He said that
his understanding of the Muslim religion was that the laws of God are higher than the laws of
man, and he then went on to ask about whether the fact that he was more likely to believe a
person of faith would commit a crime if . . . the faith conflicted with the laws of our government
amounted to a bias or not. He also indicated that his bias might somehow come into play if it
came to a situation where it was a he said, she said issue. Despite the fact that this juror held
possible bias he was not dismissed. Homaidan Al-Turki was found guilty and has not yet been
able to appeal his conviction. Now, I dont know if this man is truly guilty or not, but what really
caught my attention in this article was the following excerpt, research indicates that prospective
jurors may be reluctant to disclose biases for a number of reasons: They might perceive their bias
to be socially unacceptable, they might not be aware of their biases or they might view the
questioning as an invasion of privacy. This is just fascinating and, at the same time, highly
disturbing. To think that someone would, and could, hide their bias and hatred towards another
human being and use that bias to formulate a decision long before any facts are presented to
them is mortifying. My mind finds it difficult to grasp the idea that other people cant separate
themselves from their beliefs in order to serve the greater good.
My mother has always said, Be kind to others, no matter how different they are from
you. Treat others the way you want to be treated, what goes around comes around. And always
listen to what someone else has to say. Who knows, they may have something new to teach you.
My mother is the most important person in my life. Whatever life lesson she has to say I listen
and usually try to write it down. Unless what shes telling me has something to do with doing
chores, than what she has to say goes in one ear and out the other. Some people allow their
religion to guide them, others have other forms of beliefs that do so, all of this is fine as long as

you dont let it cloud their judgement when you're deciding to do what is doing what is right. I
believe in being unbiased because it allows you to look at many different perspectives that could
end up helping you in making a well informed decision, especially when it concerns someone
else's life. I cannot see myself changing this complicated belief system anytime soon, it's to far
ingrained into my psyche.

Work Cited
Cavaness, Candace. Personal Interview. August 1998.
"Non-Discrimination Laws: State by State Information - Map." American Civil Liberties
Union, 7 Sept. 2016 https ://www.aclu.org/map/non-discrimination-laws-state-stateinformation-map.
Pearce, Marc W., and Samantha L. Schwartz. "Can Jurors Religious Biases
Affect Verdicts in Criminal Trials? "American Psychology Association, http:// www. Apa.org

/monitor/2010/07-08/jn.aspx. Accessed 7 September 2016.