The dynamics of Prejudice are extremely-subtle. I touched on the wellspring
of this extreme-subtleness in another thread (paraphrase: "Is Marijuana
Addictive"), by discussing how the votes for marijuana use and against
Affirmative Action derive in Prejudice toward the Familiar (PTOFA,
pronounced "too-fa"... like the sound one makes while expectorating).
Why the votes went the way they did is explained in AoK... as is what's
Disclosed, plain-as-day, about the stuff of folks "Hearts", by the way the
votes went.
Here, I'll give another example, using myself as the "experimental animal".
When I was a Child, my folks settled into the City where I now live... it's
an unfancy place that's filled with folks who just work-hard,
pay-their-bills, and treat one another with mostly-sufficient respect.
There are two main ethnic demographies in this City, one Polish and the
other French. Since my Grandparents all immigrated from Quebeck Province,
our family settled down in the "French part of town". We belonged to the
"French Church".
There was a subtle "tension" between the "French" folks and the "Polish"
folks... kind of a innoccuous-"competitiveness"... an extremely-mild
version of the "ethnic tensions" that exist all over the globe.
In my senior year of highschool, my girlfriend was of Polish descent...
looking backward, the Finest Woman I've ever known... it was a small-town
"Romeo and Juliet".
...which is why, just months-back, it =Startled= me to realize that I
=still= harbored my Childhood "French-"vs"-"Polish" Prejudice.
I Discovered this in a way that was just as subtle as are the dynamics of
Prejudice... you know us Catholics... a lot of us do stuff like, if you're
a male, tip tour hats to God as we go by a Church... I don't wear a
tip-able hat (wear a touque(sp), which is French for one of those knitted
hats in the Winter)... so I say a little Prayer for Family, Friends and
Everyone in the World... and of Thanks to The Lord... I say, "Good
Morning", "Good Afternoon", or "Good Evening" to the Saints, and "Good
Day" or "Good Night" to God... I know it must sound "hokey", but I Love
these little Prayers... I've been doing it since a Child, and the Prayer's
a bit-longer these days, but it's still Prayed in the same Spirit...
...well, I drive by the "Polish" Church everyday... and I say my Prayer...
and, one day I realized that, while I was always quite-ready to say, "Good
Morning, Holy Saint George" (the "French" Church's Saint), I caught myself
being "reluctant" to do the same in the case of the "Polish" Church's
Saint, Saint Stanislaus... I caught myself wanting to say, "Good Morning,
Saint Stanislaus"... my there-since-a-Child Prejudice had me excluding the
honorific, "Holy".
My jaw-dropped-down at this Realization... and I saw myself in its
"mirror"... Spirit Groaned with the realization of "just" how-subtle are
the dynamics of Prejudice... and of how much I've asked of others... and of
how much Work remains to be Accomplished...
...but I knew what to do, and began doing it immediately... now, when I
drive by the "Polish" Church, along with the rest of my little Prayer, I
say "Good Morning Holy Saint Stanislaus", "Good Morning Holy Saint
Stanislaus", "Good Morning Holy Saint Stanislaus" :-)
You see, the =Easy= part of overcoming Prejudice what's left after
Discovering the Prejudice, which is the enormously-harder part... be-cause
the way our nervous systems process information automatically Blinds us the
the Prejudice inherent in that which is merely-Familiar to us... we can
"live" a whole Life-Time, and not Discover our Prejudice be-cause our
brains are so-proficient in concealing it from us... in keeping it out of
our Awarenesses...
...but the remedy is flat-out =Easy=... all one has to do is adjust the
behavioral correlates of the Prejudice in the "direction" that's
Antagonistic to the Prejudice... instead of "moving away from", "move
toward"...
...and "it follows, as the night the day, thou canst not be False to any
man", to quote The Bard.
"Wait a minute! Where did "falseness" come into the picture?" "I thought
you were talking about your stinking prejudice against ethnic Poles?"
Yeah, =all= Prejudice is Real-Stinking-Stuff, and that's "just" it...
Prejudice =Stinks= to High Heaven Be-Cause it's =Always=
Inherently-False... and yet the way our nervous systems blindly process
information Dictates to us that we behave in the ways of our Prejudices...
can you see the Tragedy in this?
Good grief! I'd been given a hit-me-over-the-head-powerful "Clue" to the
Falseness inherent in my Prejudice in my senior year of highschool... but
it was only this year... 38 years later that I Recognized, and
Acknowledged, this old, Familiar, Prejudice that I'd been carrying-around,
within myself, since a Child.
But the Remedy is easy... Invert (Aok, Ap4, Ap8)... change "moving away
from" to "moving toward", and even though it's always "awkward" at first,
and even though it seems as if your "feet" are made of lead (quotes aroung
"feet" because "inversion" needn't be manifested as externally-observable
"movement"... the inverted-"directionality" can, and most-often is,
almost-entirely Cognitive)... even though it seems your "feet" are made of
lead, =do=, as best you can, the "moving toward" thing instead of the old,
Familiar, "moving away from" thing... and =keep on= doing it... and your
Prejucice "disappears" within the same time frame that's experienced with
respect to the affective correlates inherent in the inversion.
As the Nike commercial says, "Just Do It." ...and the Miracle Happens.
It's "funny"... I've been fighting this very Battle on behalf of all folks,
everywhere for 29 years... "Afirmative Action" is "just" the Same-Stuff as
the Stuff of my little Prayer to the "Polish" Church's Saint,
=Deliberately= reiterated... yet, it seems that, not only have I been
unable to get this simple point across to anyone, there's been this =Huge=
"backlash" that's had folks actually =Deliberately= Choosing to abolish
Affirmative Action... =Choosing= to "move away from" =more=.
So, if anyone is of a mind that my little Prayer to the "Polish" Church's
Saint is "silly", please take a moment to Reflect-a-bit upon the Nature of
one's "moving away from" Stuff like Affirmative Action... and all other
"sowing the seeds of one's own descruction" (paraphrase Lincoln). ken
collins