Aug 01 2008
Archive for August 1st, 2008
Aug 01 2008
the bigot in my brain
NPR had a great segment yesterday on the hidden (racial) prejudices we all carry. The author of an article called the bigot in my brain and the developer of a test of hidden prejudices suggested that all of us carry a lifetime worth of messages that shape our prejudices towards others. We are not always conscious of these prejudices which my go against our stated values. I took the test on gay prejudice since I jsut preached a message on faith and the GLBT community
Really correlates with my diversity training from Steve Robbins who teaches about unintentional intolerance and how much of the time we aren’t conscious of how our intolerant attitudes towards other are formed unconsciously through exposure to prejudicial messages of many years or even a short period of time.
This perspective has totally changed how I approach the question of racial justice. I helped me realize that while racism is the systemic use of power to discriminate and oppress racist behavior can come from anyone. This is an important issue to explore in today’s political climate
I shared this perspective recently in a message I preached at Mosaic Life and demonstrated how easy it is to use messages to shape our behavior. it opened many eyes to self awareness of our prejudices.
So is there a bigot in your brain? Do you know? Do you want to know?
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