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RCAlyra2004 · 03-01-2005, 08:09 PM

Personally I have made my share of mistakes too. I have offended people from differeing races and groups because of generalizations that I have made about them, in my attempts to act intelligent or politically astute. I have had prejudiced thoughts.

The reality of the situation for me is this:

I jump to a generalization about groups or situations often. Especially when I am viewing the media or following a news story etc. Apparently it is a normal trait in a healthy Human being to generalize like this. We do it in order to condense ideas so that we can see the larger more complex patterns and ignore the familiar ones. BUT... if I don't rethink after such a generalization I sometimes come to an overtly racist conclusion...

For instance I thought many terrible thoughts about Muslims in the days following september 11, 2001. I fretted over the fact that people from this religion hated americans so much, and how they treated others. I hated them!

It was hard NOT to generalize because of the strong emotional response that the situation seemed to stimulate. but....After a few Days of doing this I started to rethink.... "hey they were just human beings"... "how did they get to the place where they hated someone enough to fly a plane into a large building killing themselves and others?" Obviously these people had let someone 'Dupe' them into killing others and themselves. They were indeed responsible! They did a terrible thing, but they weren't alone, they had the help of a fundamentalist network.

If I had not generalized at first I would not have grown to a deepr understanding of the situation through experience.

I now see Muslims in a completely different way because the generalizations (prejudices?) that I had never tested before Sept 11 failed under my scrutiny of the situation. I now know and understand much more about the Muslim religion, how it has Liberals and Conservatives and even Fundamentalists just like Christianity. People are just people.There are very many Loving Muslims who hate what happened that day. They would never have wished such a tragedy on anyone.

But... I am sure that I will be forced to test other generalizations of mine sometime soon... hopefully I will grow! It's just a matter of time before i am made aware of another prejudice I may have...

I guess the difference is that I am willing to let my prejudices go as I am made aware of them. Sometimes it is very hard to do... but I am willing to try.

Thats why I beleive that although I am Prejudiced in nature, I am not a racist in action.

I would love to hear comments on my thoughts

RCALYRA

03-01-2005, 08:09 PM	#51 (permalink)
RCAlyra2004 Crazy Location: North of the 50th Parallel	Personally I have made my share of mistakes too. I have offended people from differeing races and groups because of generalizations that I have made about them, in my attempts to act intelligent or politically astute. I have had prejudiced thoughts. The reality of the situation for me is this: I jump to a generalization about groups or situations often. Especially when I am viewing the media or following a news story etc. Apparently it is a normal trait in a healthy Human being to generalize like this. We do it in order to condense ideas so that we can see the larger more complex patterns and ignore the familiar ones. BUT... if I don't rethink after such a generalization I sometimes come to an overtly racist conclusion... For instance I thought many terrible thoughts about Muslims in the days following september 11, 2001. I fretted over the fact that people from this religion hated americans so much, and how they treated others. I hated them! It was hard NOT to generalize because of the strong emotional response that the situation seemed to stimulate. but....After a few Days of doing this I started to rethink.... "hey they were just human beings"... "how did they get to the place where they hated someone enough to fly a plane into a large building killing themselves and others?" Obviously these people had let someone 'Dupe' them into killing others and themselves. They were indeed responsible! They did a terrible thing, but they weren't alone, they had the help of a fundamentalist network. If I had not generalized at first I would not have grown to a deepr understanding of the situation through experience. I now see Muslims in a completely different way because the generalizations (prejudices?) that I had never tested before Sept 11 failed under my scrutiny of the situation. I now know and understand much more about the Muslim religion, how it has Liberals and Conservatives and even Fundamentalists just like Christianity. People are just people.There are very many Loving Muslims who hate what happened that day. They would never have wished such a tragedy on anyone. But... I am sure that I will be forced to test other generalizations of mine sometime soon... hopefully I will grow! It's just a matter of time before i am made aware of another prejudice I may have... I guess the difference is that I am willing to let my prejudices go as I am made aware of them. Sometimes it is very hard to do... but I am willing to try. Thats why I beleive that although I am Prejudiced in nature, I am not a racist in action. I would love to hear comments on my thoughts RCALYRA __________________ Living on the edge of sanity Last edited by RCAlyra2004; 03-01-2005 at 08:19 PM..