We are all prejudiced. And we all have preconceived ideas. The only way neither of those two conditions wouldn’t exist is if we lived in a vacuum and had no contact with anyone else. It is inevitable to have both based on our own personal experiences and the influences of others we trust. Accepting that is the first step. The second step is to know and understand how they impact on our thinking, our actions, and decisions.
Just as you can have prejudices against someone or an idea, you can have prejudices toward someone or idea. Ideally we know the source, the origin of the prejudice – many times we don’t and we don’t ‘test’, examine the prejudice, we just act on them. Though many may disagree with me, I believe that the biggest issue with prejudice is the lack of our understanding, perhaps our recognition of prejudices that we hold.
Prejudice, like many other emotions, is an ‘is’. Much of prejudice is based on emotion rather than reason. This can result in a broad paintbrush approach to all things related, which is rarely accurate. We make assumptions based on the initial emotion and then apply that assumption to everything that appears similar. Example: let’s assume I don’t like almonds. If I let that control then it will be applied to cashews, peanuts, macadamia, etc. Simply because one nut is similar to other nuts, they are all ‘bad’. Silly example? Probably. But it does indicate the silliness of prejudice.
Can you not like something and not be prejudice? Good question. Your behavior really answers that question. Do you try and influence others to like/dislike the same thing(s)? There really is a world of difference between indicating your preferences and influencing others to agree. Second: do you apply your opinion on one thing to all related things regardless of their similarity? If so, then your prejudice is not healthy.
