Unlearning prejudice

Prejudice is learned behaviour. We acquire the attitudes and behaviours toward others through the process of socialisation in our homes, at the schools and churches we attend, and from the company we keep. Stereotypes of other groups help to sustain the solidarity of our own tribe or group.

By definition, stereotypes apply to all persons of the other group. So we form the view that, say, “All homosexuals are...” or All Jews are...”or “All Catholics are...” and we supply the adjective that we have learned to associate with the particular group. We use epithets to describe the people we despise, such as the “n-word” for people of African descent or the “c-word” for people of Indian descent.

As learned behaviour, prejudice can be unlearned. Young persons who attend university abroad and encounter people from all over the world, or those lucky enough to travel widely and are exposed to different societies and cultures, may come to a different understanding of themselves and of other groups.

Stereotypes break down when we come to know and interact with, even marry individuals from other groups. Prejudice dissipates and we become less particularistic and more universalistic in our thinking, more accepting of other groups, less superior and haughty. But it is not easy. The centripetal forces driving in-group favouritism are extremely powerful, especially if there has been a history of group conflict or competition and real or perceived discrimination. Not all of us will have the magnanimity of a Nelson Mandela who was ale to rise above decades of brutal discrimination and apartheid in South Africa and preach and practice truth and reconciliation with the white minority!

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 15: 21-28), Jesus is asked for help by a Canaanite woman who is not from his “tribe” and whose tribe is scorned by the Jews. Urged to “send her away” by his disciples, Jesus initially suggests to the pleading woman that his work is only for his n-group, “the house of Israel”. But her faith and trust in him overcomes putative prejudice and he grants her plea for help.

The tendency to favour our in-group is a response learned from our socialisation.

Its expression in the form of prejudice and discrimination against other groups is hurtful at the individual level and ultimately very harmful, especially in plural societies like ours here in Trinidad and Tobago. We have to continually check ourselves and test our dealings with persons from other groups or who are different from us, asking: Am I being fair and just? How would I feel if I were treated like this? Does my behaviour display the values of the Kingdom?

Beyond this, we have to dig even deeper when we have been discriminated against, and we now have to find it within ourselves to forgive and seek reconciliation with those who have wronged us. It is far easier to retaliate and to discriminate in reverse, but that is not the call we have as Christians, or indeed as members of the human family.