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.