Prejudice
Table of Contents
Prejudice
is a term that has been associated with the ‘mischief of irrationality’ because
it is a prejudgement or an opinion about something or someone that has no
foundation in real life or makes any sense. Such prejudice could be harmful or hurtful
to a thing or an individual who is prejudiced against it. It may not be immediate
or direct, but it is the beginning of a negative association narrative about
that thing or individual. Therefore, prejudice should always be viewed with consternation
and dealt with before it settles as normal behaviour or way of life.
Prejudice against Another
When
you are prejudiced against something or someone, you are at the same time, indirectly
prejudiced by that thing or individual.
It is like a reflection in a mirror. When you look in a mirror, you get exactly a copy of yourself staring at you. You see back your beautiful or ugly face, smiling or frowning cheeks, white or coffee-stained teeth, and scary or friendly countenance.
Examples
abound for cases of prejudices in life, belief systems, workplaces, races, and
community living. There are a few anecdotes by G.W Allport:
In Rhodesia, a white truck driver passed a group of idle
natives and muttered, "They’re lazy brutes." A few hours later he saw
natives heaving two-hundred-pound sacks of grain onto a truck, singing in
rhythm to their work. "Savages," he grumbled. "What do you
expect?"
In Boston, a dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church was
driving along a lonesome road on the outskirts of the city. Seeing a small
Negro boy trudging along, the dignitary told his chauffeur to stop and give the
boy a lift. Seated together in the back of the limousine, the cleric, to make
conversation, asked, "Little Boy, are you a Catholic?" Wide-eyed with
alarm, the boy replied, "No sir, it’s bad enough being coloured without
being one of those things."
Different
people experience prejudices in different forms and manners. It is not a
monopoly of any group, class, race, age, sexual orientation, or background.
Prejudice enforcing Alteration
Prejudice
exists when people conceive and try to change their likeness. No one thinks
that their natural likeness will diminish their roles or capacities to be acceptable
or believable in society. It beggars description. Simply looking at the
racial backgrounds of such individuals culls complexes from prejudice. Complexes
like the need to be liked, eager to appear superior, the hunger to feel equal to
another, the urge to be beautiful, or the desire to hide an image.
There are cases of some people applying bleaching creams
to fit into the conscious and popular narratives of belongingness or
socialization. Or some even go further to the point of ‘nose jobs.’ Such people
could be said to be prejudiced against themselves and their natural likeness.
When
we try to define ‘ourselves’ to fall into the conscious and popular narratives
of belongingness or socialization, we are discriminating against the original and
natural association of ‘who we are’. This is a free world. Everyone
can become who they want to be or change their likeness. The point that is
emphasised above is that we may be prejudiced against ourselves, and our natural
likeness. Your new likeness discriminates against your old or natural likeness.
Prejudice as a result of Dislike
If
you can prejudice against yourself, it is easier to feel prejudice against
someone different from you. When something is liked, it means that the opposite
of that which is liked is disliked. I know that this may not make sense. When
you like something, you go for what you like. And when you loathe a thing or
someone, you tend to distance yourself from that thing or person.
G.W
Allport wrote about this form of prejudice in the following anecdotes:
In one of the West Indies, it was customary at one time
for natives to hold their noses conspicuously whenever they passed an American
on the street. And in England, during the war, it was said, "The only
trouble with the Yanks is that they are over-paid, over-sexed, and over
here."
In South Africa, the English, it is said, are against
the Afrikaner; both are against the Jews; all three are opposed to the Indians,
while all four conspire against the native black.
Prejudice engendering paranoia
Prejudice
can open the door to paranoid encounters or relationships. I know that at the
beginning, prejudice was associated with ‘mischief of irrationality.’ What if
prejudice is viewed from the perspective of the rationality of mischief? Will there
be any good sense in mischief?
Sitting on a train from London to York, a heavily bearded
Asian man was sitting alone on a 3-seater train seat. Though the train was heavily
packed nobody dared to sit beside him. Why?
On a sidewalk in Newark, in an open street, a black man
was walking in an opposite direction of a middle-aged white lady with her
handbag over her left shoulder. The moment she found out that the black man was
to pass her on the left, she removed her handbag from her left shoulder and
hung it on her right shoulder.
There’s
unconscious paranoia everywhere. False fears are created every now and again
and innocent people are victims of prejudices based on patterns of linked criminals’
behaviours. Because of these patterns, everyone has been dubbed a criminal in principle.
Walk into any superstore, and you see a security guard
following shoppers from corner to corner and watching every move they make.
A black man was very hungry while on a holiday in Great
Yarmouth. It was on a Saturday afternoon. He saw a Chinese restaurant and went
in. Sat on three different tables were other holidaymakers having their lunch.
He went to the counter to place an order, and the Chinese at the counter told him
that they had finished serving for the day. The black man turned and looked at
all those having their lunch and saw that he was the only person different. He left
and waited at the corner to process what had happened. After about 10 minutes,
he saw other holidaymakers enter the restaurant and were served lunch.
Prejudice as delusional
Many
times, through stereotyping and associations, prejudice can become delusional. Not
knowing what the person or group prejudiced against would become is always an
ostensible phobia that may be construed as a conscious threat. G.W Allport in
one of his many descriptions of prejudice viewed such consciousness in this
anecdote:
Pressed to tell what Chinese people really think of
Americans, a Chinese student reluctantly replied, "Well, we think they are
the best of the foreign devils." This incident occurred before the
Communist revolution in China. Today’s youth in China are trained to think of
Americans as the worst of the foreign devils.
As
noted above, prejudice is not a reserve of any person, group, race,
belief system, or nationality. No one can claim a monopoly on it. It is a
part of human nature. It will be hard to wean off humans from prejudice. It can
be controlled just like you can control your anger or habits.
The only prejudice that becomes dangerous has grown from being an ostensible phobia to becoming a construed conscious
threat.
Such
prejudice could become discriminatory, alt-right, dangerous, unbridled, violent
and even deadly. Only then that you see prejudice was written into laws, immigration regulations,
company policies, employment laws, or religious practices. It could see
agitations in social mores, civil liberty fights, religious freedom, and dress code
liberation campaigns.
Some citations were taken from Allport, Gordon W. The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1979.
