Your Questions, My Answers ~ PREJUDICE
AND DISCRIMINATION
QUESTION:
"Why is there so much
prejudice in the world? Is there anything we can do
about it?"
ANSWER:
This is a good question, one that concerns
us all, and one that we can all benefit from thinking
about.
We have all been victims of prejudice at
one time or another, either of racial, religious,
or sexual prejudice, prejudice because of our accent,
the clothes we wear, and so on; it has so many forms,
and has gone on for as long as people have been people,
and since an end to it is hard to imagine, we had
better get used to it and try to understand it.
Before we can tackle the problems facing
us, we must identify their causes. Etymologically,
the word prejudice means ‘before judgment’
(pre = before, judice = judgment or judging), or ‘judging
before knowing all the facts involved’. It comes
from incomplete or biased understanding; in other
words, from our eternal foe: Ignorance. Due to our
conditioning and the preferences that arise therefrom,
we are all guilty of it at times; it is not just something
outside of ourselves, something we see and condemn
in others, but is present in us, too.
Prejudice is often confused with discrimination,
and we hear people speak of ‘racial discrimination’
as something negative or bad. But discrimination is
such a necessary and important part of our lives that
we would be unable to function without it, and would
die. Imagine being unable to distinguish —as
this is what discrimination is: the ability to discern
or distinguish things from each other, nothing else—between
a red light and a green: there would be pile-ups,
death and mutilation at every intersection! How would
food taste (and taste itself is discrimination, is
it not?), if we could not distinguish between salt
and sugar? To clarify the difference between prejudice
and discrimination is itself discrimination! It is
a very important intellectual aspect. It also enables
us to recognize the difference between good and bad,
right and wrong, and so is responsible for our concepts
of morality and immorality, which couldn’t exist
without it. Morality consists of our ability to choose,
and decide to refrain from doing certain things that
are regarded as harmful, antisocial, or ‘bad’,
and perform other deeds which are considered to be
helpful, useful, or ‘good’. Animals live
by instinct, instead of by choice, and so cannot be
regarded as moral or immoral (we don’t consider
dogs immoral because they don’t wear clothes,
but would think otherwise about people if they went
around naked). Humans, on a higher level, have the
capacity to choose, and constantly have to make decisions.
We all have the capacity to kill, steal, lie, cheat,
destroy, etc., but our sense of discrimination helps
us decide not to do such things, even when there might
be immediate gains from doing them. So, it is only
in the human realm that the concept of morality/immorality
arises; the rest of Nature is amoral. (It should not
be thought, however, that the mere not-doing of something
negative constitutes morality; morality consists both
of not-doing the negative, and of doing the positive.
The Buddhist code of the Five Precepts covers only
the negative aspect; other things cover the positive
side).
No-one likes to be the victim of prejudice,
and I say this from my own experience. Many years
ago, I was attacked on an Istanbul street by a man
who suddenly ran up to me and knocked me down. I’d
never seen him before and had not done anything to
antagonize him, so don’t know why he assaulted
me; maybe he just didn’t like Westerners. Another
time, in Basra, Iraq, I was surrounded on the road
by a mob, pointing at me and asking if I were American
or Jewish—and that was in 1970! It was rather
a dangerous situation, as I was alone, and the people
were unfriendly. Fortunately, some Italians who were
working in a nearby oil refinery came along and ‘rescued’
me. During my numerous trips in India, I was refused
accommodation in hotels several times, and I’m
convinced it was because of the color of my skin.
These are just some of the many times I have experienced
racial prejudice; I know what it’s like to be
on the receiving end of it, and didn’t enjoy
it, to say the least!
Not long ago, Apartheid (a Dutch word meaning
‘apart-hood’ or ‘separateness’)
in South Africa was finally dismantled. Under this
cruel system, the white, black and colored peoples
were segregated in the belief—which the descendants
of the Boers, or Dutch settlers of South Africa, claim
was supported by the Bible—that the white race
was chosen by God as naturally superior to the black
and colored races. This belief or conviction is known
as Racism, and is usually considered as something
we are taught, learn, or adopt; it is widely regarded
now as something undesirable, as something of the
past that we should feel ashamed of and outgrow. But
it is still very much alive in the world, and can
probably be found in most if not all of us in some
degree or other. Yes, we all have it, although we
might be urbane about it. This does not mean that
we would give way to it and express it outwardly,
however, and many of us would feel horrified at the
thought of doing so. It is just like being able to
kill: all of us have this ability, but most of us
restrain ourselves and do not kill. It might be likened
to a dog that has the tendency to bark and snap at
strangers; if it is kept on a leash, it can do no
harm.
Does the color of one’s skin really
make one better or worse than others whose skin is
a different color? What is skin for, after all? Is
it not to keep the outside out and the inside in,
and nothing more? Anything other than that is just
an idea. The Brahmins of India—even until today—consider
themselves the highest of the four main castes of
Hindu society merely because they were born into that
particular caste. So, they did not like to hear the
Buddha say that a person becomes high caste or low
by his actions, and not by his birth. High caste people
do not always behave in refined and cultured ways,
and conversely, people born into the lower classes
do not always behave coarsely. Life is not ready-made
and predetermined for us, but is what we make of it;
it is up to us.
We sometimes hear people say that all races
are the same and equal, but this is just too simplistic,
and contributes nothing to the resolution of problems
that arise from racial differences. If a white Australian
or American goes to Japan, for example, and needs
directions, he might say to someone: "Excuse
me, do you speak English?" Or if I get a letter
written in Chinese, and have no-one to translate it
for me, I must try to find someone who looks like
Chinese to help me; I would not go up to someone with
blonde hair and ask them if they could translate it
for me, would I? This means nothing less than racial
discrimination; I recognize differences, and there
is nothing at all wrong with it at this particular
time; it is neither good not bad, but natural. We
might, in the far-off future, reach a stage where
everyone speaks the same language, so there would
be no need to ask anyone to translate (this would
solve many problems, but not all; other problems would
remain, and new problems would probably arise because
of it).
Sometimes, people ask each other: "What
kind of food would you like to eat—Indian, Chinese,
Thai, Italian, Mexican, or maybe just MacDonald’s?"
Imagine life without a variety of foods to choose
from; it would be rather dull, would it not? We discriminate
between different kinds of food, and in the same way,
we discriminate between different races. Why? Because
there are differences! There are differences such
as skin color, language, customs, food, dress, beliefs,
politics, etc. People are not photo copies of some
primeval prototype! And is there anyone so perfect
that he would like everyone else to be exactly like
him? Yes, there are people who think like that, but
that’s only because they’ve never really
followed up their thoughts to picture what it would
be like if everyone really were like them. How would
you feel if everyone were an exact replica of yourself?
Of what would your individuality—that thing
we value so much—consist? You would be unable
to recognize your parents, your wife/husband, your
children, or your friends. You would soon grow to
hate the uniformity of it all, and wish we were all
different again. Be thankful, therefore, for the diversity
of life, and do not think of yourself as a model for
the whole world. Try to see that the differences of
others make you what you are: a unique and special
individual, unlike anyone else who has ever lived
or will live.
Much antagonism towards others who are different
arises because people feel threatened by things that
they know little or nothing about, and which therefore
might be dangerous; this can be traced back to our
primitive past, and there is a little Sufi story to
illustrate people’s fear of the unknown: A traveler
in the Land of Fools came to a village where he found
the people in a state of great consternation. When
he asked what had happened, they told him they had
discovered monsters in one of their fields. Curious,
the traveler asked the villagers to show him the monsters,
and they agreed to do so, but only after much trepidation.
Approaching the field very cautiously, the people
pointed to the ‘monsters’, and the traveler
laughed aloud, walked into the field, took out his
knife, cut a slice of the largest watermelon, and
ate it! The villagers watched in horror, and instead
of thanking the stranger for delivering them from
the ‘monsters’, they became more alarmed
than ever. "This man who kills monsters may be
a worse monster than they! He is dangerous, and if
we let him stay here he might destroy us, too!"
So, with sticks and stones, they attacked him, and
drove him away.
We cannot change the whole world; we cannot
banish the specter of prejudice in anyone but ourselves.
We cannot make anyone understand, but we can try to
understand, ourselves.
I recently read of a young Vietnamese in
Melbourne who had worked hard and saved enough to
buy an expensive sports car he’d long dreamed
of owning. Before long, however, his pride-and-joy,
parked outside the block of municipal flats where
he lived, had its windows smashed, tires slashed,
tape player and other things stolen, etc. This was
very sad, of course, and no-one would condone it,
but if he had been a bit more far-sighted and anticipated
the effect that his car might have had upon others,
standing in the parking lot beside their second- or
third-hand cheaper models, it might not have happened;
not surprisingly, they probably envied his car, but,
unable to afford one like it themselves, might have
felt the urge to damage or destroy it. In a way, the
owner was being ostentatious. Would not a cheaper
and less obvious car have served him just as well,
and caused him less trouble? Some people are antagonistic
enough already, without being taunted.
Prejudice will always exist in the world,
and though we should take a stand against it, we can
only do so by first confronting it in ourselves. This
requires honesty, and an acceptance of the fact that
our minds are not really our own, but have been built
up, since our birth—and maybe earlier, at least
nine months earlier—by our conditioning, without
which, in some ways, we would not have been able to
survive, but which has, in other ways, bent, twisted
and stunted us psychologically. If we can understand
our minds more, and see how prejudice has grown there—often
not of our own planting, but like weeds in a garden—then
we shall be better equipped to control it.
Having had the good fortune to travel widely,
I have lived with many different kinds of people,
and have seen things from different points of view.
While this does not mean that I have become free of
prejudice thereby, it has had the effect, I feel,
of broadening my mind. And because—as mentioned
earlier—I have experienced the unpleasantness
of prejudice myself, I have a good reason not to express
towards others any such prejudice that might be in
my own mind.
So, you see, there is something we can do
about it. |
