I attended a very interesting dinner conversation with Dr. Ariela Keysar to speak about generalizations and their toxic reach, enabling prejudice and maintaining its livelihood. To converse about this issue that we all go through one way or another, truly did “stir up the pot” so to speak, and brought to the surface so many inquisitions and concerns that I myself have housed throughout the years.
We started off by going around the room and sharing a moment in our lives in which we feel that others have said or done prejudiced things to us, through generalizations. To see almost everyone share a story pertaining to their background, race, or gender, was eye-opening. It is incredible how unaware we are of the universality of prejudice. A lot of times we feel alone in this struggle, we feel like we are the only ones going through this. A great contributor to this sentiment is the fact that we tend to internalize these feelings of being prejudiced against, these microaggressions. It was, in a way, therapeutic to come out into the open and express the pain and discrimination that we had felt because of someone else’s comments.
I also began to think, ok, so we’ve discussed it, we know how it makes us feel. So what? What now? What do we do about this? What are the steps that we can take in order to eliminate prejudice? We discussed this, and we came to the conclusion that the majority of people who commit microaggression are not aware that they are doing so. The most effective and strategic way to combat prejudice, we decided, was through education and interaction with different groups. We did however talk about the difficulty of opening people’s minds when they are part of that slim portion of people who actively, consciously harbor prejudice against specific groups.
This got me to think, there will always be those people whom we cannot convince. No matter how much time and effort we invest in educating these types of people, they are set in their ways. And these types of people will always exist. I wondered (and still do), will there ever be a world without prejudice? Or is it human nature to harbor prejudice? Is prejudice just a natural, yet toxic byproduct of our categorizing and organizing information in the world to make sense of things? I am sure that we can all attest to having been prejudiced, whether consciously or not, about another group, whether it be out of sheer ignorance, out of lack of understanding, emotions against a certain individual, etc. If we ourselves have fallen victims to prejudice, then is it eradicable?
I really enjoyed your reflection on the dinner conversation. I never really thought about how much I internalize so many prejudice comments. It is sad to say that at this point it’s like second nature to me. I think it is great that everyone felt that they were in such a safe place, that they voiced out their universal struggles. It’s great that you are seeking an action plan. It’s great to talk about these things, but its even better to take action and see changes come to fruition.
While we can change laws to eliminate the systemic racism in our country, I’m not sure how we could go about changing people’s personal prejudices. I don’t know that we will ever be able to eradicate prejudice but an important step would be to acknowledge the struggles that people go through and by listening to their stories, hopefully we will be able to empathize and try to better ourselves and the world around us. If we all tried to have more of an open mind and if we were all willing to work on changing our view of the world then we could make progress.
I feel that it is therapeutic to discuss microaggressions as well, and to dissect where they come from, why they are microaggressions, and so forth. That is precisely one of the steps of eradicating prejudice — outright discussion. While it is true that some people will not change their minds currently, I do have hope for the future. I think it is also true that prejudice is inherent in human beings. It is easier for the mind to categorize people quickly even if it means imposing something untrue and negative on them. However, I think sometime in the future, after a lot of work, a lot of activism, and a whole lot of progress, humanity can make remarkable strides against eradicating prejudice and its harmful effects.