It's mean. It's unacceptable. It's not good to have. But what is it? Prejudice - Learned pre-judgement about another person based on the characteristics they show. Prejudice uses stereotypes we unconsciously learn from media, family, friends, school, work, and society. We are always learning prejudice ideas even if we don't think about it. It's about ideas of groups of people which we are told are true. Then we start to believe them, sometimes without noticing, which then leads us to discrimination, or treating a certain group of people in a way that fits our prejudice. Someone else might also see our actions, specially kids, which then leads to others believing in the same prejudice. This cycle then keeps going. Now, we all know that we sometimes laugh when we see others acting from a prejudice idea we all know is false.
We see vines of black guys laughing while they film themselves and the store worker following them around the store. Of course this can be funny to an extent, but it is only because we are aware that not every young black male is always robing a store. Therefore we laugh at the store worker who believes in this prejudice but what if I very rarely meet young black males? What if I don't have any black friends and there are no black families in my neighborhood? The only memories I would have of people of color then would be the rare people of "meet" and the people I see on TV, computer, movies, and media. What would I be seeing? I would most of the time see a black male as the robber, the bad guy, the tough one, and the aggressive one. What can that do to my perspective of people of color? In this case, maybe I wouldn't find this vine very funny. Maybe, I would be the store worker following around the young black male because most of my ideas about him are bad.
My point here is that we are only aware about what we know rather than thinking about why we believe/know/think the way we do and why others do the same. We need to be aware about what we see and indirect ideas we get all around us. Laughing at the store worker doesn't resolve much. It gives some of us a good time but we need to not only know what we are really looking at but also share the knowledge around. Talk about what others think, feel, believe, then try to find out why. Don't assume! Don't be prejudice! BUT, learn how and why things work the way they do. Most of all, don't ignore or "resolve" a problem by saying it doesn't exist because it does. It's something that may not be possible for it to not exist.
We see vines of black guys laughing while they film themselves and the store worker following them around the store. Of course this can be funny to an extent, but it is only because we are aware that not every young black male is always robing a store. Therefore we laugh at the store worker who believes in this prejudice but what if I very rarely meet young black males? What if I don't have any black friends and there are no black families in my neighborhood? The only memories I would have of people of color then would be the rare people of "meet" and the people I see on TV, computer, movies, and media. What would I be seeing? I would most of the time see a black male as the robber, the bad guy, the tough one, and the aggressive one. What can that do to my perspective of people of color? In this case, maybe I wouldn't find this vine very funny. Maybe, I would be the store worker following around the young black male because most of my ideas about him are bad.
My point here is that we are only aware about what we know rather than thinking about why we believe/know/think the way we do and why others do the same. We need to be aware about what we see and indirect ideas we get all around us. Laughing at the store worker doesn't resolve much. It gives some of us a good time but we need to not only know what we are really looking at but also share the knowledge around. Talk about what others think, feel, believe, then try to find out why. Don't assume! Don't be prejudice! BUT, learn how and why things work the way they do. Most of all, don't ignore or "resolve" a problem by saying it doesn't exist because it does. It's something that may not be possible for it to not exist.