Prejudice
I'm gonna be frank here, as far as I can tell, anyone who has a past has prejudices. There are some groups against which I am prejudiced. Groups of young men hanging around for no reason, for example. Beautiful people - especially women. SUVs cutting recklessly through traffic. People talking on mobile phones while driving. At its base, the word means "pre-judging" and we all do that based on past experiences. We have to, it's part of survival; life's too short and sometimes, you have to make a split-second decision based on experience. You have to pre-judge.
It cuts both ways. You are going to judge others based on the ways people who look like them have behaved in your past; other people are going to judge you based on the ways people who look like you have behaved in their past. It's not fair, but that's life.
Prejudging is not a bad thing, per se - it's how you handle it that makes a difference.
There are some people who act as if they feel justified to hate all people of a certain ethnicity or religion because they have been hurt by persons of that ethnicity or religion in the past. They start out hostile and hating and then, when the people they've treated like dirt turn around and don't like them back, they feel justified in their initial behaviour. If a person has encountered enough of that kind of thing from people of a specific ethnicity, they are justifiably wary of others in the same ethnicity.
Justifiably wary. That's not the same as hating. That's not the same as the way the word "prejudice" is tossed about as a label, a justification for bad behaviour, as an accusation.
I am white - Caucasian if you will. Growing up down south, there were plenty of African-Americans who acted resentfully toward anyone who was white. Stating that is not prejudice, it is a fact, something that I encountered often. In school, I tended to avoid the places where those people hung out, not because of prejudice, but because of caution.
These days, when I encounter a group of people whom I find intimidating - such as those idle young men I mentioned earlier, I look for a way to unobstrusively go around them. In traffic, I attempt to avoid SUVs that are driving in an obnoxious manner and people who are more intent on their phone conversations than the traffic. I don't go into so-called redneck bars. That is me, prejudging and acting with justifiable wariness.
One on one, face to face, I tend to be bolder. I greet people with a smile and a word - whether I know them or not (I have a mental problem in that I cannot reliably recognize people - so I tend to be friendly to everyone to avoid giving insult to those who recognize me.)
Growing up, my parents - my mother and my father, both - dealt with everyone around us with respect and courtesy. From them I learned to deal with everyone in that manner. I have no complaints with the way I was raised.
When the day is done and the light fails, there is this - you have to live with who you are and the way you've behaved. That's not a judgement; it's a fact.
It cuts both ways. You are going to judge others based on the ways people who look like them have behaved in your past; other people are going to judge you based on the ways people who look like you have behaved in their past. It's not fair, but that's life.
Prejudging is not a bad thing, per se - it's how you handle it that makes a difference.
There are some people who act as if they feel justified to hate all people of a certain ethnicity or religion because they have been hurt by persons of that ethnicity or religion in the past. They start out hostile and hating and then, when the people they've treated like dirt turn around and don't like them back, they feel justified in their initial behaviour. If a person has encountered enough of that kind of thing from people of a specific ethnicity, they are justifiably wary of others in the same ethnicity.
Justifiably wary. That's not the same as hating. That's not the same as the way the word "prejudice" is tossed about as a label, a justification for bad behaviour, as an accusation.
I am white - Caucasian if you will. Growing up down south, there were plenty of African-Americans who acted resentfully toward anyone who was white. Stating that is not prejudice, it is a fact, something that I encountered often. In school, I tended to avoid the places where those people hung out, not because of prejudice, but because of caution.
These days, when I encounter a group of people whom I find intimidating - such as those idle young men I mentioned earlier, I look for a way to unobstrusively go around them. In traffic, I attempt to avoid SUVs that are driving in an obnoxious manner and people who are more intent on their phone conversations than the traffic. I don't go into so-called redneck bars. That is me, prejudging and acting with justifiable wariness.
One on one, face to face, I tend to be bolder. I greet people with a smile and a word - whether I know them or not (I have a mental problem in that I cannot reliably recognize people - so I tend to be friendly to everyone to avoid giving insult to those who recognize me.)
Growing up, my parents - my mother and my father, both - dealt with everyone around us with respect and courtesy. From them I learned to deal with everyone in that manner. I have no complaints with the way I was raised.
When the day is done and the light fails, there is this - you have to live with who you are and the way you've behaved. That's not a judgement; it's a fact.