07-07-2009, 04:25 PM | #31 |
Still Easily Confused
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I have to confess when I had a muslim from Pakistan working for me it made for some really interesting conversations in the office. I actually learnt a lot and found it was very rewarding.
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07-07-2009, 04:25 PM | #32 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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That's why we need laws, to level the playing field until the day we all become "perfect" and no longer harbor any prejudices that influence our actions... however long that may take. (I know I'm not holding my breath...) |
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07-07-2009, 04:30 PM | #33 |
Beepbeep n beebeep, yeah!
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In my residency class, there were four of us. Me - a whitebread, midwestern, naive sumbitch who had never been off the farm. Rob - an African American from Arkansas who had gone to Meharry. AJ - an East Coast gay man who lived under the radar with his partner (we were in the Air Force). And Carl - a Guatemalan who was in his second career, having been a GP in the back areas of Guatemala. I learned so much about other cultures, both US and Central American in those years that I continue to treasure to this day.
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07-07-2009, 04:34 PM | #34 | |
Wizard
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They're part of our decision making process; e.g. I am prejudiced against particular types of music. It helps keep things manageable and saves time - otherwise we could end up like Buridan's ass. |
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07-07-2009, 04:34 PM | #35 | |
Not scared!
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It seems like a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" type scenario to me and I really don't kow that any answer is better than the other. |
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07-07-2009, 04:45 PM | #36 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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What laws can address is institutionalized prejudice--where individual biases have become so common, and so strong, that people who don't have the prejudice, still follow the bias because they've come to consider it "normal." For example, the idea that women should wear makeup in public. Or the idea that a group of black teens is more likely to be criminal than a group of white teens, and should be watched more carefully by police. The people who follow and reinforce these biases may not think that natural-looking women are wrong or unappealing, nor that black people are inherently more greedy, violent or stupid than white people. They may just think that "it's normal for women to wear makeup" or "there's certainly a lot of crime in the mostly-black neighborhoods"--and so allow the prejudice of others, who do believe those things, to influence their actions. And as mentioned, one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is the tendency to hire "people like me;" without any prejudice at all, an employer, or a university department, will chose people similar to itself, because there's a resonance that doesn't exist in other cases. What they think of as "similar to me" is based strongly on society's ideas of groups of people... in some cases, it splits along racial lines, in others, gender lines, in others, by religion or class or education level. |
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07-07-2009, 04:50 PM | #37 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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In a lot of cases, there's no option for leveling the field by bringing everyone up to the top-of-the-hill level. There are only so many high-paying jobs; if men have 75% of them now, and we fix the gender imbalance, that means a third of the men currently employed in those spots are going to lose their jobs... and they're likely to perceive it as "discrimination," not equality. |
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07-07-2009, 04:52 PM | #38 | |
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People often attribute personal intent to impersonal results... like saying God hates you because you got rained on, or the butcher favored someone else because he ran out of roast beef before you got there. The process seems to be hard-wired into us, so we will probably always seek something to blame for events which are, in fact, blameless, and labeling those we blame as a class (stupid kids, cheap Republicans, bleeding-heart Democrats, senile old people, etc). |
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07-07-2009, 04:55 PM | #39 | |
Not scared!
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07-07-2009, 06:24 PM | #40 |
Wizard
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as a female in a non trad job I gotta tell ya' that the biggest ball is in Equal Rights. I'm sitting here right now with our director raising holy hell over getting frick or frack out to fix a number TODAY!!! I tell her they are working offsite, but I can fix it. you know, lil' ol' me with a measly 30 years experience. no, she writes back, have frick or frack fix it nlt close of business tomorrow.
*tears hair out beats head on desk* |
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