by Adam Mcculley

Created on: October 21, 2010

      Prejudice is an oft adressed issue. It can be more than simple dislike, it can trickle into every aspect of modern life; social,economic,cultural,personal,professional, etc.,etc.,ad infinitum. hidden prejudices are another sort of beast altogether. A hidden prejudice can be unspoken, it can be dressed up as righteous indignation (a favorite disguise of many bad ideas), or it can exist right there in plain view of a populace to uptight or oversensitive to adress it (this breed being hidden, but only by consensus, making it less hidden than just plain denied.) So overcoming such a thing is a multi-step process; the first step being identifying, and owning up to its existance, sans justifications and excuses. next one must asess the extent of said prejudices influnce, and finally find a reasonable way to overcome the very human urge to generalize,stereotype,tribalize,and trivialize people/things/beliefs that don't directly jive with our own worldview.

       If I were to launch into a study of minority relations, i think i would be remiss, as that sort of prejudice existed as a matter of course, in open society, and was even legislated by our own government. so much for being hidden right? But prejudice exists in some pretty weird places. Religious intolerance is pretty obvious right? I mean, so many are so vocal about America accepting and co-existing with unfamiliar faiths. Islam springs immediately to mind, as it is in the news, every day, without fail. The media sends us many a mixed signal, with stories permiating the web and the TV about peaceful Muslims trying oh-so-hard to co-exist with mainstream America, and for every one of those uplifting stories, there is one about Islamic protest and riots, deaths, shootings,bombings,assassinations, even a popular and outrageous bit about the Iranian courts decision to sentence a woman to death by stoning....because she cheated on her husband......a few years after he died. It is a reasonable assumption, that this would generate at least a little bit of fear, anger, and suspicion. but is this hidden? No, i think not. It is a hot button issue but not relavent here....so I move on. Belive me folks, i do have a point here. Religion. It is a thing that has driven men to kill, to conquer, to go just plum loco because of a system of worship. This may sound like a prejudiced statement, but i call it fact, and have over a thousand years of statistics

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