Let's talk about Prejudice and Racism
This is one of my quest to understand better about prejudice and racism, a word that I often read, watch and heard all over the media yet the word is almost nonexistent in my daily life. If you are easily triggered, I strongly advise you to not engage in this discussion. If you have opinion and willing to help me better understand about prejudice and racism by answering my following questions, I really appreciate the help.
I think asking from people here, who comes from various background will give me a lot of fresh point of views and perspective. So, to open this discussion, I am going by the definition of prejudice and racism.
To its simplest form prejudice is an unreasonable dislike and distrust of people who are different from you in some way, especially because of their race, sex, religion etc meanwhile, racism is an unfair treatment of people, or violence against them, because they belong to a different race from your own.
Without further ado, let's begin.....
Reflecting to my daily life
I always watched and observed my classmates interaction very closely. They come from different background, upbringing, religion, race, nationality And all I could see, was simply a human being. They sat together, receiving the same education and being very modest in addressing their views. And the thing I watched in the media, doesn't even seem to exist in my reality. I sure did listen stereotypes now and then, but we often shrugged and laughed it all off. I am not sure if that was something to be laughed on but prejudice and racism seem to be least of people concern.
I look at how people here call names or having a terms to call a foreigner. Not only to foreigner, but they also have terms to call other people from different skin color (race). I was educated to not call a foreigner with a derogatory term. The topic was also brought up in my folklore class on how to address name properly for instance, native American instead of Indian.
I used to educate people to stop calling a special name for a foreigner until I get tired of it. It was because everyone seems to be least concerned and doesn't care. To understand better about how the foreigner think, I asked some of them who lived long enough here. The result was surprising, they were fine with the term. However, I still think it was disrespectful.
I also experienced some of special treatment when I and my partner went to café or restaurant. I hate that kind of place where they treat people differently just because you are a foreigner and presumably going to spend more than everyone else. However, there are many places that we visited which treated everyone equally like Pizza hut, KFC and the modern fast food chain lol. Not only experiencing myself, I also heard complain from friends even stranger who received different treatment and told me to not visit a particular place with a shitty waiter.
Also, I often see a house advertisement that only accept tenant from a certain religion. Everyone seems to be fine with it and never had a problem, well simply because there are many other options available but my only question is can I call this religious prejudice?
Are we having prejudices and a racist?
I honestly will say yes, I say a lot to my classmates and received agreement that we're having prejudices and racist tendency to some extent. We form stereotypes and often unconsciously treat someone from different race, background and religion differently.
The prejudices I have, was because the unpleasant experiences I had with certain people. However, I am not easily forming attributes or stereotypes just because I talk with one single person. I can only affirm if I talk to more than ten person from different upbringing to see their similar traits. But mine was more of distrust.
There are a lot of racist jokes thrown everywhere these days that seems to be normal and okay. I know it was never right but what can we do to minimize this without having to be a social justice warrior?
Have you experienced prejudice or racist treatment?
If you've experience both issues, feel free to write about it and share your approaches in tackling the problem.
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I am a white male, so I never face any prejudice or racism. I have a lot of friends of other backgrounds, and it is very interesting to listen to their takes on life. A lot of them are very accepting of stereotypes and will even crack their own jokes about them. Racism and prejudice are a major issue right now and more people need to open up and talk about it.
@superbuckles umm perhaps if you go to another part of the world, you will be called farang, bule and all sort terms like that. So like I mentioned it's actually a kind of derogatory term but the foreigners are fine with it as long as the people don't add another adjective like " bule bodoh" which means " stupid foreigner. It is indeed a major issue these days even these issues has been actually there for decades.
Thank you for writing down your thoughts.
@superbuckles im white too... maybe not as bad as coloured people but i experienced racimse def. However im not prejudiced with that. Nuff love on this planet.
@macchiata and @superbuckles it always been a problem racisme. Here in The Netherlands : Katholieken vs Protestanten. East European Jews who couldnt get a job. Elite vs the poor , Women who werent allowed to vote let alone to be in the government etc. Its nothing new.
@macchiata
I expected something like Blenda? :)
peace
@markush, speaking about women who weren't allowed to vote that's interesting case. I'd drop in soon an interview I had, which still in the process of translating. It was covering this matter too.
Well, yeah even here, religious prejudice is happening too :) but the most intriguing thing is that none of us yelled "racist" to each other face.
LOL, do things a re getting worst back at home. Now religion is a very very sensitive things and its gets excalated very fast. racist? well i don't have to tell you right?
ha ha I think you understand it better don't you @ekavieka?
Exactly, I love Bali for a reason that It's very detached to religion problems although well a little prejudice is still here and there. But it's very inevitable and a global problem
Yes. I have experienced it my whole life. That's why I have to laugh whenever someone makes the absurd claim that only white people can be racist. I grew up around brown-on-brown racism and prejudice. In fact, that's one of the reasons I am writing my novel, to expose some of that prejudice and racism that is prevalent in society in the islands I'm from.
As you know I am Venezuelan and the only similar issue I see in my country is discrimination and fighting because of political and ideological differences. But those are justified since my country is pretty much destroyed.
I hope for a better next year for my country.
I'm white and have not personally experienced prejudice or racism but I wanted to bring up a discussion that you did not mention in this post. Something I frequently hear people say is "I don't see color." The problem with this phrase, in my opinion, is that instead of accepting, understanding, and embrassing the diversity around us, a blind eye has been turned. A person may be African America, Native American, Indian, Hispanic etc. Instead of saying we don't see the color, we should embrace the diversity, learn about various cultures, and respect those who differ from ourselves in color, ethnicity, race, and religion.
Thanks for the post and for trying to get such an important conversation started.
Prejudice?
Yes, all the time.
Either I was not good, or not enough or not ... Insert whatever you want here... Just because some people judge me by something they subjectively thought of me and it was completely untrue.
When it comes to the racism, I was never subject to this because there was probably enough other material to object me and judge off....
Keep it up lady...impressive .