In seventh grade World Geography class, we were being molded into non-discriminating souls (as impossible as that truly is). As our teacher pulled out flashcards with a profession written on one end, we were supposed to throw connecting word. “Scientist” was followed by crazy, old man, and white coat, “Homemaker” by mother, frumpy, and messy hair, and “Professor” was followed by tweed coat, briefcase, and nerdy man.
As you can imagine, our teacher, in an effort to prove our biases were simply that – biases, flipped over the cards to show us a young woman holding beakers in a lab, a middle-aged man setting the dinner table, and an old woman lecturing in a hall. The simple exercise was to demonstrate to us middle school-ers that the world may not be as movies and mass media portray various foreign people groups to be.
I wish I could tell you I learned my lesson but psychology class later on in 11th grade taught me something perhaps more useful. In considering how mob mentality worked, the conversation steered toward what kind of people make mobs. Because the class was too charged in attempting to pinpoint “who” makes mobs, our teacher set aside her lesson plan for the day and facilitated one of my school days’ most enlightening discussions.
Unfortunately, I cannot remember who said what but I do vividly recall the lesson from that day: That we gauge another being based on our prejudices and then choose to act (or as the case may be, react) based on such prejudice of what we see and what we are presented with – this more than not is determined by peoples’ sex, age, gender, affluence, profession and so on and so forth. Furthermore, we agreed that prejudices helps us assume and presume (sometimes very wrongly) what the other person we are to engage with may value, understand, have experienced or may do. Our action is determined by our impression of what the other may be.
For instance, when we exchange Rs 17 or small talk with the khalashi bhai, we hardly expect them to have been raised in a non-lower socio-economic setting, to have attended school or to have many other opportunities.
All of that, of course, is just our prejudice. Prejudice on its own could then perhaps be considered harmless. It is, according to the Oxford Dictionary, only “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience”. Where this becomes dangerous is when such a preconceived opinion is acted upon and then refused to be challenged.
Discrimination, which is our action based on our idea, can be innocent and honest, but we must always be willing to change our opinion of peoples once we are more learned of them.
Discrimination is “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things”. The difference is subtle, but it is weighty. While prejudice is simply a notion, discrimination is when that notion rightly or wrongly shapes our (re)action.
I would even go so far as to say the action itself is not always wrong. You don’t pick a conversation about the US troops pulling out of Iraq or about Quantum Physics with your khalashi bhai. Usually, the conversation we get pulled into is about bandas, rising bus fares or traffic. I admit I have a prejudice about the bhais being uneducated and perhaps even uninterested in current affairs and I chose to act on them by steering conversation clear of such topics.
I’ll defend my act of discrimination as it’s an honest attempt to have a civil conversation about mundane topics because I am cramped in a small micro with them for a good 30 minutes and the silence is otherwise deafening.
Where I would have to retract is to box them in as uneducated and uninterested in global affairs. If they asked me about the recent referendum in Greece or about Pythogeroan theorem, I admit I would be surprised but I would not dare claim such topic was beyond them. I have good reason to as well, as life has taught all of us willing to learn that people will surprise you.
After all, what is this shift in women heading states and men becoming homemakers proving to us? That a woman may lead and a man may have a nurturing side to him too. You know the man in the suit may be unemployed and the woman flapping about in chappals may be a lecturer, but our prejudice would have us fooled.
When discrimination cannot be defended though is when the action, based on our opinion of them alone, is frozen. To deny a human being more than what is stereotypical of whatever group they have been slotted into is simply moronic. Furthermore, ill-treatment (so, discriminating against a certain group) based on physical characteristics that are God-given rather than man-made is simply idiotic.
To think a woman is less than a man, that a certain caste is lower than another, that one age is worthier than another or that one skin tone is better than another and, hence, deserves to be treated worse cannot be defended. Discrimination, which is our action based on our idea, can be innocent and honest, but we must always be willing to change our opinion of peoples once we are more learned of them.
As a recent little debacle on a micro ride illustrated, it is worth our time to refrain from boxing people in: The khalashi bhai asked to see the student passengers’ ID cards. He rejected one claiming it did not have dates and so could not be valid as the student could use the same card years after graduation. The student took offense and retorted in English, “You stupid! I am a student in campus. Give me back my ID”. The khalashi bhai coolly ignored him saying he would after another five rupees was handed over. The student, further angered, pulled out a second ID card, “Look, I have other ID”.
The khalashi snatched that one too and in perfect English responded, “You can’t have two student ID cards. Now give me the Rs. 5” and then with a smile added, “I have completed my BA. You are studying your BA. Be polite.”
sradda.thapa@gmail.com
Related story
Even local representatives not spared of caste-based discrimina...
