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What follows is a loosely structured musing on prejudice/discrimination – the reasons for it and what it means. I have no idea what to do with it, am a little wary of pushing buttons, so am posting it in my livejournal. My safe haven. ;-)
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Read an interesting series of posts today on the atpo discussion board. These posts crystallized for me something that I’d been wrestling with off and on for some time now. Not consciously so much as subconsciously – in the back of my mind. Something that I couldn’t quite reach but was nagging at me. One of the things I love most about the atpobtvs discussion board is the off-topic intellectual discussion threads – this one concentrated on the issue of racism and prejudice. Before, I say anything more – I should explain that it wasn’t just these posts that got me thinking – it was a combination of unrelated posts and presentations that did – the first: a documentary on Rod Serling, the second: numerous and increasingly offensive posts on a listserve I lurk on about actors sexual orientation and weight and their attractiveness based on weight and how one can tell one is gay. Discussions with my parents over the holidays about corporate employment practices. And finally the wonderful atpo posts. What interested me most about the posts or rather what “triggered” this rambling essay – was what was hinted at but not really delved into. And that is – prejudice is *not * limited to racism, if anything racism is only one of the many forms prejudice can take. Also, the far greater issue – why do we prejudge others based on how their physical appearance and mannerisms differ from ours? Instead of celebrating the differences we appear to ostracize and ridicule them.
To get to the root of why people discriminate against others or form negative opinions – you need to expand the definition of prejudice a bit and realize it includes everyone. A male college counselor once told me that every man was a male chauvinist and every person has prejudices. That was 20 years ago and I still remember his words. Every human being on the face of this earth has experienced in one form or another prejudice and discrimination. Likewise every human being on this earth in one form or another is prejudiced or has discriminated against someone else, and not always intentionally or even consciously.
( some personal stuff, some BTVS/ATS, some Twilight Zone )
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Read an interesting series of posts today on the atpo discussion board. These posts crystallized for me something that I’d been wrestling with off and on for some time now. Not consciously so much as subconsciously – in the back of my mind. Something that I couldn’t quite reach but was nagging at me. One of the things I love most about the atpobtvs discussion board is the off-topic intellectual discussion threads – this one concentrated on the issue of racism and prejudice. Before, I say anything more – I should explain that it wasn’t just these posts that got me thinking – it was a combination of unrelated posts and presentations that did – the first: a documentary on Rod Serling, the second: numerous and increasingly offensive posts on a listserve I lurk on about actors sexual orientation and weight and their attractiveness based on weight and how one can tell one is gay. Discussions with my parents over the holidays about corporate employment practices. And finally the wonderful atpo posts. What interested me most about the posts or rather what “triggered” this rambling essay – was what was hinted at but not really delved into. And that is – prejudice is *not * limited to racism, if anything racism is only one of the many forms prejudice can take. Also, the far greater issue – why do we prejudge others based on how their physical appearance and mannerisms differ from ours? Instead of celebrating the differences we appear to ostracize and ridicule them.
To get to the root of why people discriminate against others or form negative opinions – you need to expand the definition of prejudice a bit and realize it includes everyone. A male college counselor once told me that every man was a male chauvinist and every person has prejudices. That was 20 years ago and I still remember his words. Every human being on the face of this earth has experienced in one form or another prejudice and discrimination. Likewise every human being on this earth in one form or another is prejudiced or has discriminated against someone else, and not always intentionally or even consciously.
( some personal stuff, some BTVS/ATS, some Twilight Zone )
