Vazirsingh’s Weblog

All of us are influenced by our society. As children we are born with very little powers of discrimination. Generally the bolder babies travel happily from shoulder to shoulder while some babies would limit their travel to recognized faces. But ask a baby its colour or religion, and it is blissfully uncluttered with these considerations.

In the process of growing up, parents,teachers and peers pass on quite a few of their ideas and thus influence the children. They develop the child’s power of judgment and make them ready to be citizens of the world. In this process quite a few of the ready made algorithms  or shortcuts get taught consciously or  unknowingly.  We teach children that a dog could bite, so be careful. We teach them that  doves and deer are gentle and so on and so forth, without the child having to go through the act of self-discovery.

In the process of growing up if there is a clash between what a child learns from his nearest and then what he learns from society, a clash can result. This can lead to rebellion or produce complexes in the child.

Importantly there are some basic fundamentals which are absorbed in such a way that they become part of the person. The person with this latent quality may not really be aware of this development.

Prejudice. It is defined as an act of pre-judgment. It is the act of assuming or classifying something  or someone without knowing the entire facts. It is in fact a shortcut applied by the person on the basis of his understanding of race,religion,language,culture,country,intelligence,beauty, gender etc. The list goes on.

Closer home, you can hear statements like “Bhaiyya”, “Ghaati”, “Madrasi” ” Papad” the list is endless. These pejorative terms are used to paint an entire segment of society. Then the entire segment is given attributes.

Recently in  Bahrain, there were some high profile crimes committed by Bangladeshis. This resulted in the government banning the entire community. For all young and impressionable minds the image of the Bangladeshis has been imprinted emphatically. It will not be a great wonder if they grow up with this fixed prejudice. It is like the Puerto Ricans, infamous the world over while experienced only the US.

What is the outcome of prejudice?

I can best relate to the book “To kill a mockingword”. Harper Lee won a pulitzer for this work. This novel describes how a black handicapped man is charged with rape of a white minor girl, leading to his unfair conviction by the jury. The defense advocate proves it beyond doubt that the act was not possible physically. The jury decides otherwise. This book was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck. Since it was at a time when segregation was still fresh in black minds, it was a very evocative and emotional piece of literature.

In deed in our daily lives, we face and commit prejudices on a daily basis. I worked with an extremely talented and intelligent gent who prided himself with the ability to make decisions based on his observation powers. So within a few minutes into a conversation with a stranger, this gent would have strong opinions on the stranger’s character.Indeed his geography and history. He would be able to rationalize the most trivial things and  present them as facts. While strangely  the truth is that even after spending lifetimes together, partners make mistakes about each other.

It is of little consequence if your grocer or milkman is prejudiced. But what happens if you feel its presence in family or workplace?

When presented with such prejudiced and judgmental behavior, people tend to either spend their energies in trying to prove the fallacies of the assumptions, or sometimes they are trapped by self-doubt.This could result in introspection and possibly loss of confidence or mental balance.

Early in life I learnt that it is futile to try and correct a prejudice. Prejudice is a blind spot, and a prejudiced person never realizes this fact. So the more you correct him, the more it seems like a challenge for him.

I believe that it is best for everyone to be true to themselves. Those who love you and care for you, will accept you with warts and all. They will overlook your flaws if any. The rest don’t amount to much anyway.

By the same coin, you will have to learn to live with the flaws in the others if you care for them. “Forgive them for their sins” from the bible resonates with this message.

Forgive people their prejudices, and be open to own up your own prejudices.Amen.