October 31, 2005
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This is my entry for this week’s discussion on Socrates Cafe. The questions this week are “What is a hero?” and “If we were not equipped with sight would, we still have prejudice?” There is some lively discussioin going on. Go check it out.
If we were not equipped with sight, would we still have prejudice?
It seems to me that the sense of sight and the formation of prejudice are not necessarily related. Certainly, we can form prejudice based on what we see. My husband and I like to travel and are very fond of the Caribbean. I have friends who very much dislike the Caribbean based on what they see there. Many people there live in housing that would be considered primitive by our standards. Their lifestyle is quite different. That is why we love it and why some others hate it. It is not the sights that cause that, though, it is the meaning that we give to those sights. Each person who visits a particular place, sees a group of people, or sees a painting has a similar experience. It is the meaning that we give to those experiences that causes us to react so differently.
Prejudice can form in many ways. We may generalize from the actions of a minority to the characteristics of a group. That has happened recently to Muslim people because of the actions of terrorists. Terrorists are radicals and do not represent the mainstream Muslim religion, yet some people condemn the whole group based on the actions of a few.
We may also form prejudice out of fear or misunderstanding. I teach ESL. Most of my students are Hispanic. I live in a very small community. Until recently, everyone in this community has been white and has come from a similar background. Now we have a large population of Hispanic people. Most of them do not speak English. Their culture is very different from ours and they are very dedicated to maintaining it. They face horrible prejudice. Many local people are afraid of them and do not trust them. I tell my students that learning to speak English so that people can get to know them is the best thing they can do to reduce the prejudice and make life better for themselves. As long as few people know them, they are lumped as a group and whatever conclusions people reach about one member of the group are applied to the whole group. Hispanic people are like any other people. Some are very nice and some are not. Until the community can get to know them individually, though, bad experiences with one are applied to all. Lack of understanding of their culture and their ways accentuates that, and prejudice runs high.
We collect the information that we use to form prejudice in many ways. It can come from what we see and hear. It can come from the way we are treated. The media certainly contributes. Our families and our culture build in prejudice as we grow up. Everyone has prejudice. A person who says that he or she does not is demonstrating prejudice against prejudice. As long as those around us share our prejudices, the prejudice is invisible. It is only when we meet someone whose prejudice is different that we see the prejudice and we usually see that person as wrong.
It is very important to understand that prejudice and all our other feelings come from within ourselves. They are caused by the meanings that we assign to the events in our lives. That is why some people consider a sunny 95 degree day to be beautiful and others (like me) consider it to be way too hot. It’s why some people like red and some like blue.
So,my answer to the question “If we were not equipped with sight, would we still have prejudice?” is yes. Prejudice is part of being human. It will always be here. It comes from the meanings that we attach to things, not from sensory input. As long as we think, we will have prejudice. We could reduce it within ourselves if we would stop and honestly ask ourselves why we think, feel, and believe the way we do from time to time. It’s my opinion that we cannot change the prejudice of others. Each person has to do it for him/herself.
Comments (28)
I agree. It’s a part of us that we have to fight. Just like that urge to kill and eat your neighbor when he makes you mad.
Hmmm…good question. I think that every action affects someone along the way eventually. Make sense? Rosa Parks didn’t know that she was doing something for the whole Civil Rights movement, she didn’t set out to begin a revolution, she was just tired and didn’t feel like getting up to let a white man sit down. I still consider her a hero even though she wasn’t actively trying to help someone.
I agree. I think the world would be a much nicer place if we all remembered that our actions always affect someone, somewhere in someway. The smallest thing we do could affect the entire future of another person. Mind boggling!
This reminds me that I am actually prejudiced against prejudice–no way around it, is there? ::Blushing at your comment. Thank you. You need to play with your inner child more-teach her happiness!
I suppose we have to except that we are all prejudice in some degree but its how we deal with it that sets us apart
I agree that we would still have prejudice.
Happy Halloween!
Great examples. Very well spoken! With both examples though, I think racial profiling also plays a part. And that tends to be based on the physical, thus vision. Go to the airport sometime and watch someone of Middle Eastern descent. Watch them as they go along. They’ll be judged on looks because they ARE of that descent. Same with Hispanics. I’ve had a series of neighbors that have been rude and loud and boorish. I see someone of Hispanic looks and I have to watch myself from thinking the same thing about the whole group.
RYC–No, I don’t think there is a soul that has no prejudice. We’re all prejudiced against something. I guard against my own. People who listen to rap music tend to be misogynistic. Or do they? People who listen to opera tend to be snooty and superior. Or are they? Is it in our nature to prejudged based on stimuli? I think it is. Maybe it’s a safety net of some kind other than the one for our fragile egos and our insecurity.
Maybe one day.
Charity in that we often do things not because we want to but because we must, hope in that what is done was the right thing to do and faith that it was the right thing to do.
Thanks for the comments.
CM
i think your strongest point of argument is that prejudice can come out of fear or misunderstanding. i believe people are prejudiced because they have a certain set of norms and rules that they will not bend for any price. most of these people are afraid of changes and regard new concepts or situations as “unacceptable”. but really, if they open up to wider philosophies, they might realize that the truth they grew up with is not universal.
RYC on what makes a hero: the requirement that people know what you did takes away nobility in a praiseworthy act. this can lead to people doing great acts primarily for the glory and not for the good that it does to others, and thus, lead us to question the element of heroism in such an act. yes, mr. anonymous cna be a hero as well.
Yes, you are right on many points. that prejudice can come out of fear or misunderstanding and that the media is a big influence on what we are prejudiced against… good post
Okay, linking you now. I’ll stop back later to read
You and I basically reached the same conclusions. I think we can agree there will always be prejudice..but ,and I am not sure what your thoughts are on this ,as old as I am I still hope that we can reduce prejudice ,especially institunalised prejudice….Very well reasoned..oooh I wish I could travel!
I agree we cant change other people’s prejudice, only our own, but I think we can try to help them see. Opening people’s eyes and letting them see is one of the goals of my poetry. I hope to get it out to more people soon. Thanks for your comment!
~Mia
Prejudice I think too is part of being human. I really liked your examples you gave Nance, that we cannot change others but only our selves. Good points. I forgot about the media being a sway. Good example. Have a great day! ~Namaste, T.L.
ryc: Yes very excited and proud.
Very good post, Nance. I agree with you . I see no lessening of prejudisms were the world blind or we as one person.
I enjoyed reading much.
Peace and Love:)
Great post!! Great points. How horrible, that your students face so much discrimination. In my life, I realize we all break sterotypes and knowing just about our ethnicity, religion, where we live, occupation, etc. really tells us very little about each other.
GREAT POST!!!!!!!!!!!
Beautifully put. I agree, sadly, that even without sight we we would be prejudiced.
I think it is wonderful that you teach ESL, and you are right, being able to communicate will cut down a lot of that prejudice….Thanks for making a differance.
I agree
well done
I agree with your conclusion.
RYC…very relieved..three little letters…TMJ one big weight lifted off my mind…
Nance – very centered thoughts, and as you opened my eyes wider, you caused me pause to think about ALL the contributions in society that pave the way to wanting to belong to the the “group” – we quickly glom on to prejudicial views of our world. A thought you stimulated in me – was, you know, it’s a catch-22 to say we’re not prejudiced (whoever we are), yet when we hear another person’s view, differing from our own, we become prejudicial in order to give credence to our own view. And, you so well put it: when we are around those in agreement with our prejudices, we really are not prejudice, but just in agreement with the greater community. At least, that’s what we tell ourselves. I hope I am interpreting your thoughts well, and if not, I beg of you to point that out. After all, I am trying to listen on all fronts and need help! RYC: Yes, of course, Helen Keller had taste, smell and touch…..interesting how I blocked that out and did not put those senses into the category of being manipulated into the views of others, versus her own.
Thanks Nance, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Lisa O’Hara
Lots of good thinking going on here, and in response to a very well thought out post. Thanks for visiting the others, by the way. You’ve helped ensure a very productive duscussion.
Excellent post, and I agree with everything you said. Great examples.
I especially agree with the line, “It is not the sights that cause that, though, it is the meaning that we give to those sights.” I find that even though prejudice has its roots in learning often faulty information from others, such beliefs are often perpetuated by sight unless we get to know individuals for who they are.
Nice post. BTW, I’m one of those people who find cold weather very refreshing.
Nancy I think you mean a open mind is necessary .
Love
Michel
I know all about Americans who don’t like West Indians. They come into my shop and half-whispering in case my staff hear, “What are the natives really like?” And when I tell them they are nice, mannerly, shy, people I point out that the late model 4WDs and the big houses on the hillsides all belong to the locals, they look at me as if I’m a liar and a fool and carry on talking as if I hadn’t replied to them. They ask me if the natives really drink a lot of rum and what they do for a living, and I say well they work in the banks and hotels and own most of the businesses: it’s their island. So then they want to know if there are a lot of drugs here and if the natives are involved in that and are they like the blacks in the US always involved in crime. Its so much stereotypes. And I long to shout at them, you are a bunch of obese cruise shippers wearing cheap polyester clothes from the ‘resort’ dept. of some downmarket catalogue, you are so cheap you want ‘a deal’ on postcards, yet you feel superior to the ‘natives’ because you are white and they are black.
Its a well-off, well-educated island and we have manners here, we greet each other on the street very formally and always step off the pavement for someone older and we do not wear short shorts in the street, so I don’t shout anything out. Besides it wouldn’t do any good, the rot in them is so deep, its part of them. That’s real prejudice.
Hi Nance – always, always need writers, esp of your caliber – you betcha!!! Pls. submit your poetry, articles, prose, opinions, etc. etc. etc. I’ll talk to ya more – send them to the mag. – December issue is getting ready for on-line print, but March is wide open……Might be able to squeeze ya into December, but it’s pushing a time limit. So, if not, don’t worry – YOU’ll be in there next issue. Hugs, Lisa.