Understanding the World of Prejudice
We went out for drinks with our friend Zach, and he was talking about Prejudice. He was saying that he didn’t think it was prejudice if a white father didn’t want his daughter to marry a back man, because he would agree with the white father there. And he was saying that he wasn’t prejudice. He said he didn’t have a problem with white people dating or marrying black people, but it was just the he wouldn’t want his white daughter to marry a black man.
And we looked at each other after he said that, and we said no, sorry, that’s prejudice.
He refused to believe it, because he had black friends, and he had no problem with racial mixing for dating or marriage.
But we said, but you do have a problem with it for your own daughter.
He said that his feelings weren’t prejudice, they were just a preference.
And I thought: Prejudice is an unfounded preference, I think...
Let’s think about the actual definition of the word. You don’t want your white daughter to marry a man because he is black. You’re not judging them as a person, you a pre judging them based on the color of their skin. I checked it out in the dictionary:
from Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary:
Prej•u•dice \ n b a (1): preconceived judgement or opinion (2) an opinion or leaning adverse to anything without just grounds or without sufficient knowledge b: an instance of such judgement or opinion c: an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supported characteristics.
And yeah, I think someone who decides they didn’t want their daughter to marry a black man would be making that judgment without sufficient knowledge about that person (other than knowing the color of their skin). I don’t know if you’d consider it “hostility” against that individual, but you might consider it an irrational attitude.
Copyright Janet Kuypers.
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