The Oxford English Dictionary defines prejudice as: “Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or
actual experience.”[1]
Sounds pretty bad, eh? Who in their right mind would
undertake to defend such a thing? Well…
Let’s start with an example of prejudice, in this case,
racial prejudice. A lady is standing in an elevator, when a young black man
enters. The lady clutches her purse tighter, afraid that the newcomer will grab
it from her. We assume that if that man had been Caucasian or East Asian, the
lady would not have done the same.
The first question to ask is: is this indeed an example of
prejudice? Well, was her behavior based on reason? Not really; there is no
logical theorem that shows that young black man are all criminals. How about
actual experience? Again, not really; the lady has never met this particular
individual before, and hence has no experience to justify her actions. The lady
prejudges the individual, based
solely on his membership in a group (black men), rather than on his actual,
individual merits.
I should like to come to this lady’s defense though. For the
fact is that, statistically, black men as a group are more likely to act criminally than white men or Asian men. She
is aware of this fact in some way, and acts accordingly. Is it fair that this man, who may not be
criminally inclined in the least, be judged based on his membership in this
largely arbitrary grouping? Probably not. Is it their race that causes black men to be more
criminally-inclined as a group, or is it more due to cultural and
socio-economic factors? Probably mostly the latter. But the lady does not care about fairness or root causes; she
just wants to remain in possession of her purse! And for that; can we really
blame her?
Similar reasoning can be applied to other kinds of prejudice,
such as:
- - Assuming
that women are more caring and/or emotional than men.
- - Assuming
that gay men care more about fashion than straight men.
- - Assuming
that men are more sexually-aggressive and prone to violence than women.
- - Assuming
that Asians will excel more at academics, especially math and science, than
members of other races.
Will these assumptions hold true for every individual case?
Of course not; the scope of individual variation, even within such groupings,
is immense. Will they hold true in the majority of cases? Probably, and therein
lies their utility. While it would be ideal to judge each individual as a
stand-alone case, there is often not enough time for this. Thus we resort to
group-based prejudgments, based on stereotypes which have some truth to them,
as a kind of short-cut. In most cases, it is better to have this kind of information
about another person, flawed as it may be, then to eschew prejudgment entirely,
and go in to the interaction completely blind.
Therefore, no matter how much the social justice crusaders
may hate it, prejudice remains an advantageous strategy for individuals, and
hence is here to stay.
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