Prejudice = any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.
I spent most of my time alone growing up, but when not immersed in a book, horseback riding off somewhere or whatever, I was surrounded by a very diverse, multicultural based part of society.
I have a prejudice, a learned preconceived opinion.
What is it?
That life, people, should always strive to be fair, and seeing unfairness should bother them.
I was raised to believe that no matter where someone is from, what they look like, where they pray (or even IF they pray), or basically ANYthing else you use to distinguish individual human beings, you should always treat them as you would wish to be treated.
Magnify that 1000% if your in the workplace.
A friend from India once tried to explain the caste system to me, because I did not understand how I was seeing people from certain cultures treat each other, or in fact, me.
Someone had said something based on my being female and Caucasian, very nasty and quite unfounded.
Never once in our conversation did either of us mutter the words reverse discrimination.
Discrimination is discrimination, it is not the province of any group to discriminate, because discrimination like prejudice, comes from individuals from any background on the planet.
Fairness.
Equality.
Take the pigeon as an example.
My mom liked them, she had 1 particular pet pigeon that followed her everywhere she went on the farm. If I was looking for her I would look for that pigeon or the dogs.
Since then I have heard all kinds of bad things about pigeons. I see people treat them poorly, talk nasty about them with an undertone of hatred that surprises me.
Pigeons being one example of where this is the case.
I was never told I could not do anything I wanted because I was female.
My mother and grandmother were pioneers (their names are included on the plaque of an area to prove it). Mom did things that women just did not do, before people realized that you could step into the world believing yourself equal.
It was not to push a boundary, to make herself be accepted, to flout anything, it was simply survival and the understanding she gained growing up doing all the same chores as the men, that if she wanted something she could do it.
Watching the pigeons today, going about their business, it occurred to me that they were a good example of prejudice, discrimination, and unfairness.
I am not a proponent of pigeons, and there are some valid reasons why they are a problem.
However, I have heard people espouse similar comments that I hear about pigeons, aimed in the direction of homeless, poor, elderly and well pick your particular point of vehemence.
It is not my place to tell anyone how to live, think, feel or survive.
Each one of us has our own journey and discoveries.
I admire people who do things to keep society, in all its flaws and dis-functions flowing away from the pits of lava and the dark tunnels that lead to some barely thought of abyss.
As I said, I have a prejudice, it is that things should be fair. If your giving out chores, everyone in the house should do some, if your buying treats or giving out assignments at work, it should be fairly distributed.
I blame my mother.
In her job, which I did when I entered the workforce, she stressed that everything you do affects someone because you are giving them work, for which they will be paid and no matter what you think of someone, be fair – it IS their survival.
However, fairness is not the easiest path to walk.
People love to say that life is not fair.
Cop out.
Nature, the environment, our health, and war zones…things beyond individual human control may not be fair.
Too many excuse treating someone bad, or another better, by saying “life is not fair.”
Sorry, but unless your a tornado, flood, or other “act of god”, you have the choice to be fair or not.
Life is as fair, as the people you encounter, allow it to be.
It should not be so easy to see, hear of or tolerate, unfairness.
It should matter to us.
Okay, but that is just my prejudice speaking.
Complexity of Thought 