Prejudice is a universal human vice.
Indispire Edition 310
raises the question whether ignorance is the mother of prejudice. To a large
extent, ignorance is the mother of prejudice. Or father, let us say. When we
use the word mother here, isn’t there a bias?
Psychology defines prejudice
as a negative attitude towards people based on their membership in a group.
Prejudice prejudges people particularly on the basis of the group(s) to which
they belong. For example, Muslims are communal: this is a very common prejudice
today in many countries. Prejudice can often lead to violent conflicts, hate
crimes and unfair treatment of people.
Ignorance is the chief cause of
prejudices. Ignorance makes us categorise people too easily. Categorisation
is inevitable as it helps us to organise and simplify our world. I lived in North
India and the Northeast for most part of my adult life and I was labelled as ‘Madrasi’
quite often. The fact is I had nothing to do with the city that was called once
upon a time Madras. I belonged to a different state altogether. I didn’t even
know the language of the people of Madras. Yet I was a Madrasi for the North
Indians and the people of Shillong. They just categorised me for the sake of
their convenience. Most of them didn’t even bother to check how many qualities
or vices I shared with other South Indians.
I was guilty of the same error too. I
imagined that all the Khasi people in Shillong shared the same qualities and vices.
The Malayalis in Shillong had a particular term for the Bengalis there which presumed
that all Bengalis were voracious fish-eaters.
Most people don’t bother to check
whether their prejudices are based on facts. Most people are in love with the stereotypes
they acquire from their society and these stereotypes create most of the
prejudices. We often hear opinions such as women are sensitive, gentle and
emotional while men are tough, aggressive and virulent. It’s a blatant
prejudice born of a stereotype. I have come across women who are far more tough, aggressive and
virulent than men and vice-versa.
We can always check the facts.
That’s the way to deal with our prejudices. But who cares for facts? Look at
present-day India. See how full of prejudices it is. The ruling party and its
numerous accomplice-organs are doing whatever they can to foster prejudices
against certain communities. Unfortunately our leaders are encouraging the
popularisation of such prejudices. They even make use of the national media for
cultivating and propagating prejudices against certain people.
Competition for limited resources is another cause of prejudices.
India today is faced with this problem rather acutely. There’s more poverty,
unemployment, and frustration in spite of all the big promises and brags that
are foisted upon us time and again by eloquent speakers. Prejudices breed like
viruses in such an environment.
Low self-esteem is a hotbed of prejudices. A person
who does not have a healthy self-esteem is eager to belittle others. You become
great by denigrating the others using prejudices. The other’s smallness becomes your bigness. If
you can’t become great, then the next best (facile, I mean) option is to make your
rival appear small in front of others. How often have Nehru and Gandhi suffered
this fate in the last few years!
How prejudiced are you? Find out by
taking the Implicit
Association Test.
Wow! I liked how your researched thoroughly into this.
ReplyDeleteLoved the implicit Association test.
Glad you liked it. I didn't do much research. This came from the post-graduate psychology course I did some ten years ago.
DeleteA very good post!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Delete