Prejudices ingrained in human psyche

Without the aid of prejudice and custom, I should not be able to find my way across the room.
William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt has stated a universal truth: Prejudices are an integral part of humanity. However much we try to get rid of various types of prejudices, they will remain with us until doom's day. People, it seems, are rather more prejudiced than they think they are.

According to American Heritage Cultural Dictionary, prejudice is "A hostile opinion about a person or class of persons. Prejudice is socially learned and is usually grounded in misconceptions, misunderstandings and flexible generalisations. In particular, African-Americans have been victims of prejudice on a variety of social, economic and political levels.

Antagonism between groups continues in almost all countries. With all their education and civilisation people find it difficult to get along with others who are different from them in some way. Ethnicity, religion and language are some of the factors that play an important role in segregation. All religious leaders and philosophers have addressed this problem from time immemorial but there seems to be no solution in sight.

Jane Austen's path-breaking novel Pride and Prejudice

Racism is a glaring example of prejudice. The case of James Byrd in the USA is cited very often to show the gravity of racism. Three white men offered a lift to Byrd, a black man. Shortly thereafter, Byrd's mutilated body was found in Texas. According to police, Byrd had been targeted simply because he was black. Such gruesome incidents may be rare in modern times. However, racism still exists in certain countries at least in a milder form. Thankfully, old-fashioned discrimination against minority groups has declined rapidly. That is good news. The bad news is that more subtle forms of prejudice have emerged over the years.

Symbolic racism

Modern discrimination or what is called "symbolic racism" is very much evident in European countries. The British attitude towards West Indians and Asians and French attitude towards North Africans and Asians are glaring examples of symbolic racism. Another novel way of discrimination is not to vote for candidates of a different race.

During World War II Jewish people in Germany and German-controlled lands were forced to wear yellow stars to identify themselves as Jews. Later the Nazis put them in concentration camps. Everybody knows what happened to the innocent Jews. They were tortured and sent to gas chambers to appease the blood thirst of Adolf Hitler. A similar situation existed in South Africa when apartheid was in force from 1948 to 1994.

The unfortunate incidents in Germany and South Africa show that racial prejudice is an insidious moral and social disease that affects people all over the world. The symptoms of the disease are fear, intolerance, separation, discrimination and hatred. To counteract the dreadful disease of racial prejudice, modern states have enacted legislation to ensure that people treat others with respect and dignity. Despite such lofty legislation and ideals human society continues to suffer from social prejudice.

Homo Sapiens

While all of us belong to the same species - Homo Sapiens - races are distinguished by their hair colour, complexion, facial features and size of the body. Although scientists say that the characteristics are common to all human beings, people try to find differences. The Bible provides enlightenment for those who wish to get out of the vicious circle of racial prejudices. It says, "Jesus replied: Love Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind." That is the first commandment. The second commandment says, "Love your neighbour as yourself."

Gender discrimination appears to be another offshoot of racism. In Western societies women are often discriminated against in the workplace. Women on average earn less pay than men for doing the same work. In some places, women are sexually harassed simply because they are different from men. Antagonism or prejudice is a negative attitude towards members of a group. This leads to discrimination in an unfair way. Although there is no relationship between antagonism and prejudice, they seem to be welded together.

Jane Austen was one of the leading novelists who saw the age-old relationship of prejudice and humanity. In her path-breaking novel Pride and Prejudice, one of her major characters - Darcy - is shown to be too proud of his own social standing. Darcy looks down on people especially the Bennets. Even Elizabeth's pride is hurt when she was slighted by Darcy. Lady Catherine too is incredibly proud. She expects others to praise and obey her. Collins' pride changes according to the person he deals with. At one stage Darcy offends Elizabeth. Then she allows everything to feed the prejudice she develops against him. Mrs Bennet too develops a glaring prejudice against Darcy on seeing his behaviour at the ball. However, when Darcy proposes to Elizabeth Mrs Bennet's prejudice begins to melt away.

With all the civilisation and culture, we have not been able to get rid of various types of prejudice. According to psychologists, prejudice is rooted in cognitive processes which triggers almost automatically. As a result, we tend to stereotype and find differences between us and others. In Essays of Elia, the whole problem of prejudice is summed up in a memorable way: "I am, in plain words, a bundle of prejudices - made up of likings and dislikings."