A very interesting read. Do we all have prejudices? For sure, no doubt about it. We do it/need it constantly during the day, as it gives us a sense of protection against various things. Part of it comes from tribalism which dates to millions of years probably. We need to attribute things including voices, appearances and race to some mental models in our minds. We need to categorize things, so it is easier for us to deal with things. The look is the easiest one that helps us to make inferences, if not available then voice or even a name come into play. But is it racism? It is not pleasant, but I don’t call such prejudices racism. Some are personal preferences. Even, in a city or a neighbourhood which people are not from different races they do such things at different levels (Belongingness). However, I distinguish between these let’s say prejudices and racism. I think the word “racism” has been pushed way beyond in its meaning by both sides (those victims of this act or those belonging to the groups that do such act and I don’t mean “whites” only). I understand that racism has been frequently played by far left in Western society and there I a high tendency for labelism. This labelism is the major issue in my opinion. I think prejudices does/should exist in a sense because our brain is made for analysing our surroundings, otherwise human being would have vanished ages ago. With prejudice we have some assumption however we want to try/face things as a part of our brain is still not shut down to the opposite. We expect that generally a person with non-English name may not speak a good English however the other part of the brain is aware that we have the opposite possibilities. With racism, we are pre-decided and, there is no chance is given to prove ourselves wrong meaning this is done deliberately. So, based on my observation, most of what is attributed in Western society is not really racism rather prejudices. It is not pleasant to me as a non-white person, but I see it a part of broader spectrum. Most of the stuff that you mentioned I also have done or experiences as a non-white person, so it is not really about the race, is it ideal? No, but that’s how our brain works, and we always don’t have control on millions of analyses being done by our brain at the background!
Great article and not just relevant to racism; internalised homophobia, sexism, chauvinism...so many forms prejudice takes
A very interesting read. Do we all have prejudices? For sure, no doubt about it. We do it/need it constantly during the day, as it gives us a sense of protection against various things. Part of it comes from tribalism which dates to millions of years probably. We need to attribute things including voices, appearances and race to some mental models in our minds. We need to categorize things, so it is easier for us to deal with things. The look is the easiest one that helps us to make inferences, if not available then voice or even a name come into play. But is it racism? It is not pleasant, but I don’t call such prejudices racism. Some are personal preferences. Even, in a city or a neighbourhood which people are not from different races they do such things at different levels (Belongingness). However, I distinguish between these let’s say prejudices and racism. I think the word “racism” has been pushed way beyond in its meaning by both sides (those victims of this act or those belonging to the groups that do such act and I don’t mean “whites” only). I understand that racism has been frequently played by far left in Western society and there I a high tendency for labelism. This labelism is the major issue in my opinion. I think prejudices does/should exist in a sense because our brain is made for analysing our surroundings, otherwise human being would have vanished ages ago. With prejudice we have some assumption however we want to try/face things as a part of our brain is still not shut down to the opposite. We expect that generally a person with non-English name may not speak a good English however the other part of the brain is aware that we have the opposite possibilities. With racism, we are pre-decided and, there is no chance is given to prove ourselves wrong meaning this is done deliberately. So, based on my observation, most of what is attributed in Western society is not really racism rather prejudices. It is not pleasant to me as a non-white person, but I see it a part of broader spectrum. Most of the stuff that you mentioned I also have done or experiences as a non-white person, so it is not really about the race, is it ideal? No, but that’s how our brain works, and we always don’t have control on millions of analyses being done by our brain at the background!