The following is a speech I made for a class I took entitled “The Psychology of Prejudice, Hate, and Violence.” The speech covers what I learned about prejudice in the course and what I feel we can do to eliminate prejudice.
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At the start of this class I wasn’t sure what to expect. My initial attitude was just to sit through the class and get through it as quickly as possible and hopefully as painlessly as possible. But as the class progressed and we began to address the issues of prejudice, hate, and violence my attitude and feelings began to change. I was suddenly shocked with the realization that prejudice is a problem that still exists in our society today. Before this class I had always thought of myself as someone who is open-minded towards others and ideas. But as we began to discuss the issue of prejudice I began to realize that, while I myself may not be prejudicial against a group of people, I have certainly, albeit indirectly, contributed to the continuation of prejudice by either ignoring it or not acting when a witness to it. This is something I am sure all of us have been guilty of at one point or another. This is something that has to stop. Ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away; in fact often times it just makes the problem worse. So I have made a pledge to myself to stop prejudice when I am a witness to it and to promote the understanding and acknowledgement of the differences between people. On the inside we are all the same. We all have hopes, dreams, fears, emotions, and desires regardless of what we look like on the outside, regardless of who we give our love to, regardless of what we believe in, and regardless of what gender we are.
We often think of prejudice as one group attacking another group for reasons that when critically analyzed are absurd, ridiculous, or idiotic. While this may be true, prejudice is more than just the actions of one group against another group it is the inaction between groups. This inaction is the lack of tolerance and understanding of the differences between groups. It is also the lack of action against acts of prejudice. It is this inaction that has allowed prejudice to continue to this day. Prejudice is something that infiltrates our minds and causes us to make assumptions and prejudgments about people who we think belong to a certain group or more precisely people who do not belong to our group. To help illustrate my point I read you the poem entitled ‘Prejudice’ by Philip St. Cyr:
If there was a way
to combine every ethnicity into one mixed race
there would still be prejudice
With no racism left in the world,
human beings would simply continue with other types of prejudice
They would simply hate people for being too short or too tall…
too tan or too pale, too skinny or too fat, too rich or too poor
Prejudice exists because people cannot learn to coexist
Most people hold each other to certain standards
that even they themselves at times don’t even meet
What is [it] that makes one person better than another?
The answer is nothing
We have both good and evil inside of us
and who we are is [a] reflection of which one we feed
So the world could never be different,
unless people were to have different mind frames
Then everyone would begin to finally realize that…
Humanity all originated from the same place,
from the same ancestors, from the same race…
The human race… and we would all live on one accord.
Phillip St. Cyr is correct when he says that if all the races were to be combined into one race that while racism would cease to exist there would still be prejudice in the world. As he said people would exhibit prejudice towards others because of their height, wealth, size, or any number of other silly reasons. People would still seek out those who are similar to them and stay away from those who are different from them. Thus prejudice is not something that is on the outside but rather on the inside. Hence to rid ourselves of prejudice we must change ourselves on the inside. We must begin to embrace the differences that exist in our world. As a fan of Star Trek I invite you to consider these Vulcan words of wisdom: “Infinite diversity in infinite combinations.” This phrase illustrates the point I am trying to make; that we should all seek out the differences between ourselves because that is what makes us unique. In fact, it is this uniqueness that makes our world such a fascinating place. Think of how boring it would be if we all were the same. We all looked the same. We all dressed the same. We all drove the same car. We all ate the same foods. We all listened to the same music, watched the same movies, and enjoyed the same television shows. Part of being human is being unique and we have to remember that each and every one of us is unique. We often times forget that this is true and while it is quite easy to lump people into categories we have to remember that in the end those people in those categories are people. They have hopes, dreams, fears, emotions, and desires. Finally I would like you to consider this quote by Sir Isaac Newton, “We build too many walls and not enough bridges.” With that quote in mind I encourage you to tear down the walls of prejudice and start building the bridges of tolerance and understanding.
