07.16.09
Are you educated?
I was a little disturbed to be a spectator of racial wrath. Coming from a girl who was born on a farm in rural Pennsylvania, I was even a little surprised.
I wonder what brings about the strong feelings. How does one small incident or exposure speak for a whole country or race of people?
Why are we so intolerant of people that are not like us? That girl being in nursing school is good education according to me. But you know what they say about college education being good enough.
I was wrong to think that generations are getting older and wiser. With adequate exposure and availability of information some prejudices can be done away with.
Apparently not. I wonder if it is human not to make an effort to learn, know and understand.
theanalogkid said,
July 17, 2009 at 1:17 am
i think civilized might be a better word than educated. i have found educated often makes no big difference in this context. sad.
Abaniko said,
July 18, 2009 at 12:19 am
Unfortunately, education doesn’t always equate to tolerance.
Sometimes Saintly Nick said,
July 20, 2009 at 3:37 am
I fear that education has little to do with prejudice. From my experiences, prejudice is learned from one’s parents, neighbors, peers, and institutions, including religious ones.
Civilized is perhaps a good word. Of course, there was the 19th Century French visitor to my own U.S.A. who observed, “The United States is the only nation in history to go from archaic to decadent without ever passing through a stage of being civilized.
nisha said,
July 20, 2009 at 6:23 am
i dont think education can completely help erase racism. sometimes i feel the more educated you are, the more you mock at other’s ignorance and thereby look down upon them.
With globalisation and the world becoming a smaller place to live in, we are somehow becoming more intolerant. We form our own groups, we look for people who are ‘like us’, and demean those who aren’t. It’s all racism. And sadly, its here to stay.
we should lead by example and make friends with ‘different’ people. thats the only way we will know that they are like us and thats how we will be able to tell the same to people around us.
det-res said,
July 20, 2009 at 10:33 am
TAK:
I agree, it is what I was pointing towards.
Abaniko:
That is so sad, isn’t it?
Nick:
Interesting to note. I would have hoped that in time and in today’s world things will change. I continue to pray.
Nisha:
I hope we find reason to be more optimistic than that.
Ash said,
July 22, 2009 at 2:41 am
Child rearing has a lot to do with cultivating and erasing prejudices…. Internalisation at a young age and it sticks till one is dust… education unfortunately cannot alter characters and mind sets… It brings changes but some things that has been edged so boldly in our minds is difficult to be erased.
Sad!!
det-res said,
July 22, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Ash:
I know what you are saying, but in a small way I also disagree. A friend once visited me for lunch. His tattoos and rings and everything I didn’t associate with did not go unnoticed by my parents. How ever after sharing a meal and listening to my friend talk about his work and his life my mother confessed that her prejudices would have colored her judgment of my friend. She was glad she let herself see what I see in my friend. I do think it is possible.
Ash said,
July 23, 2009 at 1:05 am
Exceptions always prove the rule, happy to hear your mother has not stuck to her first impressions
as an afterthought, it could neither be the education nor culture, it well could be the nature of a person, (inborn)… sticking or not sticking, change or no-change, seeing things in a different light….
still pondering… some things will remain unresolved..pondering still..
Ash
det-res said,
July 23, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Ash:
Or a combination of it all. I’m glad we are atleast thinking about it.