I’m Only Biased Towards Prejudice
The Lunatic Fringe in the Middle
§ 4: I’m Only Biased Towards Prejudice
How many times a day do you hear them? More importantly, just what do “bias” and “prejudice” really mean to you? Do they mean the same things they meant 50 years ago? 100 years? 200??
Back out on my familiar limb, I’m going to throw caution to the wind and say “no”. I can’t say that the usage of these words was even the same when I was a schoolkid. I’m not concerned with using a dictionary for reference here, because, well, a dictionary just lists all the definitions. It doesn’t bother to tell you which one came first. The different meanings are cataloged in order of common usage, not age. I believe this means the most general definition is most likely the first. Therefore, a major individual situation is necessary to add a particular definition to a word.
Now, because of the idiocy of slavery and racism towards blacks, the definition of the word of “prejudice” actually includes skin color as a factor, like the word “politics” includes government as the major factor. (And we all know how well that turned out!)
Regardless of what we may do to the recorded meanings of words, we are still acting out the basic usage in most cases. Nowhere in our vocabulary do we make this more obvious than with the evil twin cousins of the English language -‘bias’ and “prejudice”.
“Bias”, I feel, is a general term to indicate a preference for a person or a thing based on the belief that the preferred one is better. Like the old mom’s line “he’s a good boy, but then again, I’m biased”. You can have a bias for a sports team, a brand name – anything or anybody. Nowadays though, you can also have a bias against something. This is, I feel, an overly generous addition to the usage of the word.
Why would a word be forced to work overtime? Who tells a noun that it’s gotta put in double shifts all week? (for that matter, who pays unemployment for out of work adverbs??) Just like in real life, it’s because someone got a transfer.
“Prejudice” was the word that really stood for the negative preference. Prejudice is about not liking something. It’s about wanting that thing to lose or go away. We are prejudiced towards the visiting team because we want our team to win. Well, we used to be.
All that has changed. Now, if you are biased, you are against the other team (not for your own), and if you are prejudiced, you are a racist. Forget about the sports analogy, buddy, this word’s out of the game. Our nation’s own past misdeeds have reassigned this word to new duties for the forseeable future. The civil strife that never should have been had no choice but to leave it’s marks on society, and this is one of them.
The reflection of a great mistake, chiseled into the meaning of 9 letters.
In spite of all this, we still act by the old definitions every day. Some of us trumpet our biases and wail our prejudices. Some of us just quietly steer around our prejudices, mapping the course to our biases, where we find peace, or at least, a good lunch deal. We are biased towards everything from our kid’s ball team to the gang that works at our regular hangouts. We are biased for the sports that we had fun playing when we were kids, and we are prejudiced against the ones we sucked at. We carry this love/hate relationship with us throughout our lives, in our food, our music, theatre, movies, our clothes, and, most unfortunately, our associations with people.
We clean each others clocks everyday in our brains, sizing each other up and filling out our tedious little sub-conscious lists of who to like and who to dislike – and why! We come up with all kinds of reasons to include or exclude people from our lives. As with all things, we’re just organizing our individual worlds to suit each unique perspective and identity. (Gosh, that’s so, like, you know?)
We call it freedom of choice.
For the most part, it works darn well. But, the thing about it is, freedom of choice only applies to the biases in our lives. It’s like candy, rewarding us with a sweet, head-spinning rush of joy. We choose our biases the way we choose our candy. We grab what we like best, and we grin about having it. When we’re choosing our freedoms, life is our candystore.
We don’t, however, choose our prejudices. They are the result of our exposure to the biases of others that conflict with ours. They represent the things that make us uncomfortable beyond our control. Everybody has them, whether they admit it or not. The thing is, prejudices run the gamut from petty idiocy to global endangerment.
In addition to the current “skin color” definition, we harbour many other wonderful, “enriching” prejudices. We have them towards the people who dress differently, and those people have them towards us because we’re looking at them. We’re prejudiced against the store that treated us badly, the TV show that we thought wasn’t funny, that band so-and-so likes that sounds like trash, or the cranky old fart who says the music we’re listening to sounds like trash. Our prejudices bely both the petty annoyances and the major upheavals in our lives. It’s not uncommon for all the close relatives of, say, an alcoholic, to develop a prejudice towards drinking – sometimes against anyone who drinks at all. You could substitute ANY problem a person can have, and the equation will hold true – some kind of prejudice will be produced. It is part of the way our minds cope with unwanted influences.
The really big problem is the tendency to ignore or dismiss the subjects of our prejudices out of hand because of our particular discomfort. We do it all the time. We assume that, because “they” engage in behavior that we don’t like, that everything else “they” do is invalid as well. We stop listening to the words and start judging the content by our loathing for the individual. Had a drug problem? Can’t know what you’re talking about. Must be totally zoned, man. Were you a gambler? Better watch my wallet! You get the idea. Everyone from immigrants to senor citizens feels it everyday. Face it, if no one is prejudiced against you, you are probably dead, or living on the new side of Antarctica.
So what can we do? We could be more patient. We can try to be more educated so that we will recognize smart things when we hear them, instead of dismissing them because of the body-piercings on the speaker (or the lack of same).
Mostly, if we learn, we win. If we don’t, we all lose.
©2000 Pegwood Arts. All Rights Reserved.
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