Exposing prejudice for ingnorance

Exposing prejudice for ingnorance

By John Phillips

This is the second of two articles on cultural diversity and how it relates to conflict and unity in a country.

YOGYAKARTA (JP): In the previous article I tenuously referred to ignorance as the root of hatred and prejudice and, by implication, that knowledge is the seed of unity in diversity.

History illustrates that it is possible to maintain a separateness between diverse peoples even when they are living close to one another. But history also shows that such segregation ultimately leads to prejudice, hatred and conflict -- particularly when social inequality exists.

This is not to say that closely identifying and living within specific groups is bad. This is, after all, a description of families, clans and ethnic groups. It is a part of the natural social order we choose to live in. But, as suggested in the yesterday's article, nature balances itself in ways that humanity has lost.

Many creatures far more diverse than two ethnic groups harmoniously occupy ecosystems. So, how is it that humanity has so much difficulty doing so?

We have no genetic predisposition to reject or even kill members of our own species. What we do have, however, are complex social, political and educational conditions that teach us hatred, fear and intolerance towards others. We learn to be the way we are from our social environment.

This is not a new idea. It has been written about many times as in the excellent V. S. Naipul book, India: A Million Mutinies which chronicles the extreme difficulty of bringing India's diverse society together into a harmonious nation in the face of countless conflicts.

While the United States and Indonesia have not experienced the same degree of fragmentation, the potential is real. In fairness, despite conflict, India is still a viable, democratic nation, because it has struggled painfully to live with its diversity and conflict.

In both Indonesia and the U.S., a significant part of the educational system instructs children that cultural diversity is a strength. Both societies, however, segregate students based on social or cultural differences, giving children a far different message about diversity.

Society teaches children that diversity is negative by isolating groups or by cultivating conflicts with them. School curriculum about diversity is therefore often at odds with social realities.

The media often focus on a group's extremists and stereotypes minority groups. Some unethical public figures demonize minority groups to curry public favor, often by ascribing specific characteristics to an individual based on group membership or to a group based on an individual's behavior.

This is a short step away from fear, hatred, prejudice and perhaps, violence. And yet, public figures and the media are much less guilty of these unjust acts than is the public.

How often have you heard people referred to derogatorily with the all-encompassing term "them"?

"Those people...they...isn't that just like them...what can you expect from those...they are all alike...it's no wonder they."

These are all typical English phrases people use to speak negatively about people who belong to another group. Our friends, our relatives and, most of all, our children learn from our words.

So, when I say that we "learn" how not to get along with each other, I am really talking about us and how we act towards and speak about each other. We often create conflicts unthinkingly through generalizing about behavioral and personal characteristics because we are angry at an individual's behavior or affronted by the actions of a small group.

Thus, I have heard references in this society and the U.S. suggesting that all...are lazy, all...are fanatical, all...are aggressive, all...are cheaters, all...are liars. When you hear a person referred to as "them" or some characteristic of "all" members of a group, you are learning to be ignorant and prejudiced. It is easy to pass it along to others.

In the U.S., sensitivity to this kind of behavior is so acute that a kind of social censorship known as the PC (political correctness) movement has evolved. But, this often results in absurd public pillorying of people for relatively minor offenses, while reinforcing far more serious ones committed semi-privately.

Understandably governments prune public actions likely to lead to violence. But this suppression often fails to treat real root diseases, leaving them to rot society.

I don't advocate legal censorship or media hypersensitivity. Instead, I suggest exposing prejudice and discrimination publicly in the society for what it is: ignorance and stupidity.

Like trees, the truth only grows when there is light and when dead branches are cut away. So let's begin to clear our tangled undergrowth of cultural conflict so we can all see the forest of social harmony for all the individual trees.

The writer is an independent education consultant living in Yogyakarta.