Student Emile Donovan contemplates the nature of prejudice.
In fourth form I had this South African maths teacher, Nico Prinsloo. He didn't like me because I am left-handed (probably a few other reasons too, but that was the one he chose to use). He called me a left-handed devil and tried to force me to write on the whiteboard with my right hand, even though the resulting equation looked like a flamboyant toddler's artistic interpretation of the Olympic opening ceremony.
It was embarrassing - sometimes for me, but more often for him. It was hard to take him seriously, because people who are genuinely discriminatory these days - radical religious groups, white supremacists, anti-gay zealots - are pretty difficult to take seriously. Listening to them, you can't help but think, really? Hating gay people - all gay people - just because they're gay? Whether you know them or not? That's just some good old-fashioned limited-edition 100% stupidity.
But now, pause. Let's a think about some of my prejudices.
Well, I don't like Tottenham Hotspur (I support Arsenal). Really don't like Christchurch Boys' High School (good Christ's College boy that I am). Not too keen on Australia; they're a bit loud, brag too much when they win at sport. Plus, they're close to us. England, well, they whinge, don't they, and there's all the fuss of the Second Coming when they've got a half-decent rugby team up their sleeve. I always avoid buying Nestle products - apparently they're a bit nasty to their staff - and, well, Air New Zealand made me wait six hours for a flight once.
The ratbags.
Now. These ''prejudices'' that I hold - do they now make me hypocritical when I claim, as I do, to be anti-discriminatory? Is me yelling at Tottenham Hotspur on television for being a bunch of jumped-up bum-faced pillocks who beat us 2-1, damn them, any different, really, to somebody yelling the same thing, adjectives and nouns sinisterly changed, from the picketing section at a Gay Pride parade?
Of course it's different. And here's why.
Everybody has prejudices, and that's because everybody is impressionable - it's one of the fun things about being, er, people. We like some things; we don't like some things. It's brilliant.
Most people, however, are sensible enough to separate impressions from people - that's why, even if you were robbed in France, you probably wouldn't set off on a murderous rampage to exterminate all Frenchmen from the face of the earth.
It's why I wouldn't mindlessly attack Tottenham player Gareth Bale if I happened to come across him strolling casually through the Meridian Mall. It's why I don't yell profanities whenever I happen to see someone in an Air New Zealand uniform. It's why I don't launch into an anti-Australian rant every time an Aussie comes into the bar I work at.
Because the thing is, it's not that boy walking down the street in a black and blue blazer that I don't like; rather, it's my own concept of Christchurch Boys' High. It's not Gareth Bale that I don't like, it's my own idea of Tottenham Hotspur. The reason I don't like Tottenham is silly (because I support Arsenal, and Tottenham are our biggest rivals) and it's the recognition of this silliness - the acknowledged superfluity of my dislike - that, in my mind, stops this prejudice from becoming dangerous.
See, like it or not, we are all prejudiced in some way or another. The test of character, and of intellect, I suppose, is in how this prejudice is developed and acted upon. Disliking the idea of Tottenham Hotspur for being Arsenal's historical and geographical rivals might seem a bit silly, but it's not as silly as hating every single Islamic person because they have a different religion to me. Manifesting it by yelling at Tottenham on the television might seem a bit dumb, but it's not as dumb as driving a car full of explosives into a crowded marketplace.
It is a human prerogative to dislike. But if there's something or someone that you don't like, keep it to yourself, and for the love of God, don't act on it.
Bad things happen when people are deluded into thinking everybody should share their own personal beliefs. Forcibly imposing your own beliefs on to other people is, surely, madness. And I don't want to go among mad people.
- Emile Donovan is an English student at the University of Otago.
