• Question: Why do ethnic pre-suppositions and prejudices still exist? We known that there are no genetic links to it, so how can we keep this prejudices at bay within people’s houses so they doin develop these prejudices?

    Asked by anon-269714 on 16 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: Parise Carmichael-Murphy

      Parise Carmichael-Murphy answered on 16 Nov 2020: last edited 16 Nov 2020 12:11 pm

      I think a lot of discriminations are socially learned behaviour and sometimes (not all the time) people are not aware that they are making decisions built upon prejudices.

      I think it is difficult if people encounter prejudices in their homes because they likely spend a lot of time there. Sometimes you can challenge people’s thoughts and let them know they are built upon prejudices but sometimes this is not possible or someone does not feel comfortable doing so.

      Individuals can also look for information and work to develop a better understanding of different prejudices themselves so that they are less likely to perpetuate (continue producing) them.

    • Photo: Simona Skripkauskaite

      Simona Skripkauskaite answered on 16 Nov 2020:

      Important question. As you say, a lot of prejudices seem to be passed down through socialisation rather than grounded in any evidence. I do not think we can or should, however, control people’s believes and prejudices held at home as that is hard to do without restricting individual freedom. Also, that might leave to defensiveness. I’m afraid an attempt to do so is partially responsible for a lot of discriminatory believes (e.g. xenophobia and racism) coming out in the open in recent years. It seems that many people felt that they would be judged for those thoughts in public and thus retreated into small groups where those ideas were encouraged and anger was festered. I think an approach of open conversation where, when possible, we listen to one another and try to respectfully discuss ideas we disagree on, may make people question their believes better.

    • Photo: Madeleine Steeds

      Madeleine Steeds answered on 16 Nov 2020:

      When things aren’t going well people like to blame others and recently in the media it’s immigrants who are blamed or people of colour and so that leads to people being prejudiced as they can blame others for their problems. A lot of society gives messages that promote prejudice so to stop it we need to change the message by challenging our own views and other people’s views, and trying to change wider society and the media to not racially profile.

    • Photo: Maggi Laurie

      Maggi Laurie answered on 18 Nov 2020:

      As others have noted, many of our prejudices and biases are taught through our parents and caregivers’ beliefs, or through media representation. I think improving our media presentation and diversity will help, but that this will take a long time. I think changes are already happening – there are huge political and social differences between generations of people on a whole range of topics (at least in Western society). On the whole, I don’t think we can rid humanity of our biases and quick judgements, but I do think that social attitudes are more likely to change.

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