Prejudiced or racist?

[UltraBudgie]

There are certain hardwired parts of the brain that immediately make us notice differences in each other; I don't think that's racist or prejudice? Racism and prejudice are things that aren't instinct, but something some people allow themselves to rationalize.

I really like the idea that we are all one race / species! It's true. Races are something we made up that happen to be easy to train our brains to be biased with.

For a scary thought exercise, try spending one day being internally prejudiced against everyone, for the most specific reason you can observe for each person. For example, people with detached earlobes, or long fingers. It can really illuminate hidden perceptions and put things in perspective! Obviously don't be mean or nasty, just see how it affects your thoughts.


Edit to add: there are probably fancy phd definitions of racism and prejudice and such that people spend years writing big papers with long words describing, but i don't care, you get what i'm saying i think -- it's about deciding to put up barriers to empathy and kindness, deliberately, not about just noticing differences