The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

• What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, or witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

The English trailer link is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xB3_v09vuw.

I want to introduce the much-discussed scenario in a Netflix series, which showed in Turkey in November.

Fahri Karataş comments on this series as follows (2020) "Ethos is one of the most insightful and nuanced representations of the diverse segments of contemporary Turkish society we have watched. When you go deep into the psyche of each individual — with the trappings and the biases — you reach universal themes of alienation and trauma, arrogance and othering, as well as healing and mutual understanding."

"Meryem, performed by Öykü Karayel, is a daily cleaner who gets examined by Peri, a therapist who comes from a different socio-economic background. The film starts with this encounter and casts a wide net into a multitude of characters tied to one another in unexpected ways in the mosaic of Istanbul. Each character is unhappy in their own way, deeply buried in anxieties, contradictions, biases, dilemmas, and shortsightedness. The characters are also trapped in the ugly concrete jungle of the metropolis (Fahri Karakas, 2020)."

• In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice, and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity?

The tv show is emphasized that we should not be superficial. We should look beyond the visible in order to discover the person underlying the socio-economic background, education, speech way, profession, the title acquired, the style of dressing, and all other given labels of an individual.

• What feelings did this incident bring up for you?

Everything was in the show, and everything was very realistic. Meryem was dressed in the same way that I did when I was in high school. Sections were describing the countryside where my brothers and I lived. The richly cultured, educated Psychiatrist Peri in the series has always been in her life as a character who humiliates covered people around them. It tells about a non-religious, religious, Kurdish, lesbian, and secular segment. All that despite their complex social structure of Turkey, in short, I think that reflects the best.

• What and/or who would have to change to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity?

In this incident, it describes the Peri and Meryem characters' reality and the need for liberal secularists to change their perspective on the rest of society. I understand the importance of the absence of dialogue in the series and the masses' lack to make peace and understand each other. When we start judging a humanitarian issue, we lose the chance to know that person. As soon as we deeply understand and empathize with the other person, we grasp the complexity, contradictions, and beauty of the human condition.

Fahri Karakas (2020) “Ethos” Is The Best Turkish Series Netflix Has Ever Commissioned. Published by https://medium.com/an-idea/ethos-is-the-best-turkish-series-netflix-has-ever-commissioned-fdc1b129a5c8