Race may play a part in some prejudices against a variety of ethnic groups but the real issue is not the color of skin or the slant of a person's eyes it is often our own conscience that pre-judges and creates the prejudices. Prejudice is the dislike, the hate, and lack of understanding of other people's cultures, values, political views, personal appearance and gender. Surely there are more reasons but we can begin with the observation that many social and economic segments of the world today include not only people of different colors, they dress differently, language is not the same as ours, and they have different religions and lifestyles than we do. We are an intolerant and multi-cultural, judgemental world indeed.
Who are we, that includes everyone on the planet; prejudice is not a one-way street! Being judgemental is human nature. Our individual conscience and our group conscience tend to judge everyone and every thing we encounter in life. We judge not only each other but ourselves as well.
Blacks resent many whites, Jews hate Palestinians; Hispanic people dislike many other cultures; most Americans of all races don't like immigrants; this list can go on forever.You find the rich don't enjoy the poor regardless of race. Stupid people or illiterate people hate smart, educated individuals. Skinny people have low tolerance for fat people regardless of color. Sick people are needy and many people don't want to be around them regardless of color. Young people don't like old people and vice versa, regardless of color. Rednecks are not fond of socialites in most cases. Gangs hate other gangs regardless of color. Criminals prefer to hate different kinds of criminal for various reasons.As you begin to realize none of the real reasons for prejudice are about color but in fact about differences perhaps a light is beginning to shine in your mind! Our conscience tells us it is uncomfortable, we judge the situation to be somehow unacceptable to our way of thinking. Often we feel pressure from peers to show prejudice and our conscience is in fact telling us to feel otherwise and stand up for our beliefs. Both sides know the issue is from each person's conscience intolerance and lack of understanding towards the situation and people involved. There is always more than one side to every situation.
Everyone judges someone and in doing so we also find our conscience allows us to judge our personal thoughts, actions and behaviors. We give ourselves permission to behave badly at times no matter what side of the coin we are on.
A room full of charming people from any other country speaking their language and dressed in their own style, eating their own particular foods, acting as they would in their social setting would nine times out of ten make many people from America or another country feel uncomfortable. The differences would be remarkable and stressful. Perhaps they suddenly speak the language of the guests but with an accent. Poor understanding could lead to an unintended insult or embarrassment to both parties. Once again it is the intolerance of being different that leads to prejudice.
While we may be at war with one nation or one group of people this does not mean that all people of that race or ethnic group should be disliked. The worldwide order of humanity should consider that race is truly not the issue as much as difference is. Our real issues are that most of us allow our own prejudices to control our conscience decisions to act or not, then to judge; up to judging our own actions or inactions.
How often have we found minutes after we have commented or acted in a heated moment that we regret the words or actions? Our conscience is the judge of those actions, we know right from wrong, we know proper respect and ethics but failed to handle the situation in the best manner. It is human to make mistakes and hopefully we learn from them. We need to set our standards above reproach and try to live with that goal.
Our society should not dumb down anyone. If all colors and ethnic groups are going to the same schools with the same educational opportunities then why should any ethnic group not be able to speak, read and write English? Not learning is a fundamental difference between many races and cultures. It happens to all races and all ethnic groups but is in fact a choice made by individuals to keep them apart from others. A seed is planted and prejudice grows. We begin to judge the people who are under-achievers, people who are different.
The official language of these United States is English. We allow immigrants and ethnic groups to speak their own languages and allow them to set themselves up to be different to the majority of Americans. We accept it in schools, universities, and businesses so that it is now prevalent in every walk of life. Most people do not admire E-bonics, Chicano, or twisted forms of English. Once again, it is not the skin color but the setting apart that creates the real prejudice in most cases.
Racism is used to stir up passion and anger. Racial tension comes from all kinds of life choices made by individuals of any race. Our conscience tells us not to judge a person by skin color or looks alone. Yet differences fuel the hate and keep us apart. Differences are all easily fixed by developing a unity in language, dress, family values, education, respect for law and order. When we think and act alike we as humans are more tolerant and comfortable. A truth that is possible yet because we are humans it is impossible to attain such a change among the diverse cultures of our world.
People hate dirty, unclean folks that do not wash on a daily basis. This is made worse when the unclean have the facilities and the toiletries to do so but don't wash because they are too lazy. Most working class individuals have little to nothing in common with lazy, irresponsible but able-bodied men and women no matter what color their skin is. It works both ways, as prejudice is more about the effort to be different in some way by one group or one individual. This is to set them apart from the rest of us.
With all the fashion choices, the attitude and opportunity choices it seems that if we all set our goal to be fair, ethical, honest, helpful, hardworking, civic and community minded and obey laws and rules things could change rapidly. We might find out that we are more alike than we ever realized before. Truly prejudice is in the setting apart rather than the color of a person's skin or the slant of ones eyes. We have a conscience that is our personal judge and this conscience tells us we are wrong to be so full of resentment, intolerance and hate. We are wrong to be full of prejudice ignoring our personal judge, our conscience.