Racial Bias

I am choosing to talk about the Gabriel Fernandez trials again because I am truly disturbed at the case and the things that went on. In my last post I talked about how it was believed to have been a hate crime. In this post I want to talk about how this could have also been a case of racial bias. Racial bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individuals understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. The reason I write that definition is because in this trial I believe that this was happening with the social workers and the police officers that were involved in this case.
In this society we have a lot of stereotypes and many towards minority groups including Mexicans. Being Mexican myself I have heard a lot of them, the one that I believe fits this case is the one where people say that Mexicans hit their kids (with their sandals to be more specific). The documentary also talks about how that neighborhood that Gabriel lived in was not a very good one. The reason I bring this up is because the people that were involved with this case never took the meetings seriously (social workers or cops). They got calls to check on Gabriel because people had serious concerns and there could have been more done to save Gabriels life and nothing was done.
Were these people not taking the situation seriously because of racial bias. Maybe they thought "well this is a bad neighborhood it's a normal thing" or thinking something about the race. In the definitions it says in an unconscious manner and that is probably what saved them. Even if it wasn't intentional there could have been something leading them to not making any effort to save Gabriel.