We tend to think of prejudice in negative terms, but there are positive prejudices as well. I was just telling a friend that I’d trust a random Sikh more than any other religion/ethnicity. Just seem to have a very high proportion of good people. Also think well of the diaspora Chinese, as a rule, perhaps because I was raised by them to a certain extent.
Do you have any positive prejudices?
Feel free to use as an open thread. No vax/medical.
random chinese
well i bought a pair of shoe from a polish workshop on etsy, was not satisfied, seller promptly refunded full price even though he doesn’t agree with the criticism, the shoe turn out fit well and is good quality, the complain was more of an expectation mismatch because i had some custom requirements. regard polish commercial ethics and worksmanship highly ever since
Daniel A Lynch
I’m a wilderness backpacker, and as a group they are outstanding people, very conscientious. The exception being the hikers who focus on climbing famous peaks, or completing famous long trails like the Appalachian trail, because those people are clearly on an ego trip. “Look at me, I climbed Mt. Everest!”
i’m an unpaid volunteer for Forest Service wilderness trail maintenance, and as a group you won’t find better people than wilderness trail volunteers. You have to be highly motivated, highly pro-environment, pro-public lands, concerned for the long term good of the community, and willing to do extreme physical labor for a cause that is bigger than yourself.
As a group, I find teachers and nurses to be a cut above average. They have a few bad apples, but many people enter those fields because they genuinely want to help.
In general, as Fred Rogers used to say, “look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
Joan
My grandmother was a widow the last twenty-five years of her life, and I think from her I have a positive prejudice toward single older ladies. Some of them might have crotchety beliefs but they are largely powerless to act on them, and each person only has one vote so just go outvote them.
Well, now I’m thinking of the grumpy old church ladies, and the old ladies who show up to city council meetings against new housing, so maybe not. Okay assuming they’re not actively trying to harm their communities I think I generally think kindly toward single old ladies.
NR
For me, anyone who helps injured/stray animals. Everyone I’ve known who worked at no-kill shelters for animals was an amazing person; kind, caring, compassionate. Of course I’d never generalize this to everyone, but that’s been my experience.
As a side note, that’s where I’ve been sending all my charitable donations these days, to local no-kill animal shelters. As I’ve gotten older I’ve found that I’m less and less inclined to believe the common argument that people are more important than animals, especially given what we’re doing to them on a global scale.
Melinda Fabrikant
I recently watched two National Geographic documentaries back to back. The first focused on Katrina, the next on the 2004 tsunami aftermath. The stark difference in disaster response between the two will have me thinking for years to come. Some 240K souls lost in the tsunami, many of whom were foreigners, in a poor country with few resources as compared to fewer than 2000 citizens in a tremendously wealthy, resource rich country. Buddhists come out looking stellar.
anon
Most Asian immigrants, whether rich or poor, I’ve come across tend to make their communities better. They have amazing food, smart business acumen, and good work ethic. Their children usually do well for themselves and many do better than their parents after just one generation. That means when a large number of them settle in a place they develop valuable businesses and restaurants, increasing the value of the area and improving the school district.
mago
I’m kindly disposed towards animals, children and the aged, that is to say those who are voiceless and dependent.
I’m also kindly bent to those who work for the welfare of others and seek to ease suffering in the world.
Ethnically I’m fond of my Latino and Latina brothers and sisters. I wear white skin, but that’s as far as it goes.
Sean Paul Kelley
I am a Mahayana/Chan/Zen Buddhsit. And I would trust any Buddhist, be they Therevada, the other main sect of Buddhism, mostly Thais, Cambodians and Burmese and some Vietnamese, although there are a great many Zen Buddhists in Vietnam as well, plus Western Buddhsits and Korean Buddhists in a heartbeat. But I would be immediately wary of a Born-Again Christian who said “Have Blessed Day,” instead of the normal “Good-bye.” I’ve been cheated by more Born-Agains–including my own older sister–than any other group I know. And I’ve traveled in 65 countries. In fact, Muslims, in general are extremeley honorable and trustworty to travelers and guests. But, in the Muslim world be prepared to haggle. It is a cultural expectation. They are not trying to cheat you. That’s just how it is. Also, the same holds still for much of China. But Chinese are very cash register honest too.
Purple Library Guy
20 shekels for this you must be mad!
Ah, so, around 10 years ago we started getting a diaspora of Syrians in Canada. And less visibly, around the same time it seemed we were getting quite a few Eastern Europeans, perhaps Ukrainians in particular but also from various other countries in the region. And I found myself really liking the Syrians . . . they were solid middle class sorts who minded their own business and started chocolate shops. It was a significant contrast to the impression I got of the Eastern Europeans, who seemed to have an unusual proportion of arrogant bigots who thought they owned the freaking place even though they just got here.
Purple Library Guy
As to the Chinese . . . my impression of them is a lot like my impression of various other ethnicities: I tend to like the ones without too much money, and I tend to dislike the ones with too much money.
Sean Paul Kelley
A story about over coming prejudice I rarely, if ever share.
Whilst living in Istanbul for the second time in 2016 I used to walk the same route every day and night to Beyoglu for dinner, or lunch, or drinks with friends. Or to write in a coffee shop. This went on for months. Every day I passed a group of about 15 Syrian refugees. I always hailed them in my best Arabic (which sucks) and they always hailed me back with a smile.
But then the bombing began.
One night while walking home I was attacked from behind, woke up in the hospital with two broken ribs, two black eyes, a sprained and nearly fractured skull and the worst concussion you could image. I had been targeted by the Syrians–the police later told me–because I was America and Obama had just bombed Syria. The attacked were the September 16 attacks that killed 50 innocent civilians.
After a week in the hospital, I went to my flat gathered my things and flew home. I confess, I was scared. And needed to be close to my father and family.
To this day I harbor no ill will towards those who attacked me or Syrians in general.
Why?
Because I get it. I can stand in their shoes and empathize with their feelings of rage and impotence.
The American forever war machine reached out and almost destroyed me and I will never forget it.
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I trust no one. Every single person I have ever trusted has always let me down and broken that trust. Self-interest rules the day in one form or another. Putting lipstick on the self-interest pig doesn’t change the fact it’s self-interest above all else.
mistah charley, ph.d.
Recently I was chatting with someone I don’t really know about my conviction that writing and typing apes, and quite possibly even low-tech talking apes, are relatively close to our expiration date, due to ecological overshoot. How to reconcile this anticipated fate with my intermittent hope that this is a purposeful universe, and that it is possible to perceive and cooperate with that purpose? My correspondent suggested it might be useful to think: “The universe’s purpose for me is to navigate this descent with as much awareness, love, and grace as possible. My spiritual task is to find meaning not in avoiding the darkness, but in how I choose to stand within it.”
A concluding point was made: You are not trying to solve ecological overshoot by yourself. You are trying to solve the problem of how to live a meaningful life within it. That is a challenge worthy of your deepest spiritual and personal resources.
Hiero
I wasn’t going to comment until I realized after at least ten minutes thinking on it that I don’t have any answer to this question. I think I might not have a readily producible prejudice to share because I don’t trust anybody?
Truly I’ve received kindness and assistance from every stripe of humanity I’ve ever crossed paths with, and probably the opposite is also true in equal measure. Maybe that’s it. Or it could be that internally I’m a fucking dickhead and expect the same from everyone else. Whatever it is, I seem to have zero expectations.
Hiero
Oh I see now at least one other person a “trust nobody”, with a decent explanation. Maybe I’m a self-interest pig and project that on everyone else too.
different clue
Since we are permitted to treat this as an Open Thread, here is a happy post having nothing to do with politics and stuff.
It is titled: ” This seal has reached peak level of chill ”
Here is the link.
https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/1nauq3i/this_seal_has_reached_peak_level_of_chill/
shagggz
L&S: “I trust no one.” – That is a profoundly sad and lonely life. I hope you find the strength to try again someday, learning from the past experiences that have gotten you to this place.
Also, aren’t you married? Yeesh…
Curt Kastens
The porpise of this post is to expose people to something new and fascinating to be worried about……..if you live near an ocean shore line.
Today I came across an article on youtube which claims, very plausibly in my estimation, that rabies has become established in the South African seal population.
One should wonder how long it will take for the disease to spread up the African coast line to other seal poplutions.
An even more interesting question is how long will it take before a killer whale gets infected by rabies.
If I were the Coen brothers I would jump on this certian block buster.
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My bet is that my life is most likely many times happier than your life. My experience on the internets is that people who make comments like you have made here about hoping people can experience happiness are themselves utterly miserable and are engaging in projection.
My plenitude of past experiences is precisely what has led me to this point — that people by and large are not trustworthy. Not even myself. That doesn’t mean unhappiness. In fact, it’s a liberation of sorts. Once you arrive at this factual conclusion, it’s freedom from what seemed before a tragic, chronic case of one disillusionment after another.
Life is so much more than people being predominantly untrustworthy and in fact people being predominantly untrustworthy actually makes life more interesting what with all the intrigue and plot lines. Yes, black clouds are everywhere but so too then are silver linings and I have a knack for finding the silver linings whilst also basking in the miasma of the black clouds roiling all about.