Where do instances of bigotry stem from in heated moments?

Personally (To get the ball rolling to show you what I mean).

My problem was never really racism or any kind of real bigotry… My personal problem is a mouth, a temper, and a defensive tick that goes off when I feel threatened or hurt.

Depending on who it is that the issue is with, over time being overly sensitive and easily wounded, I learned as a response to shock, and lash out using the worst thing I could say as a defense.

That however came from hypothetical “old-tapes” that were played over and over again in my home environment in regualr conversation, lack of interaction, and plain out ignorance.

I have learned over the course of my life that those things that I was… not even taught, but that were just a part of the daily language in my generation in the 1970’s and 1980’s and in my home as well… Were hurtful, wrong and really just not true depictions of race color creed or anything different from what we were.

So in my case, I have used instances of bigotry, as a defence, in frustration, as well as in ignoranc, but I believe very much that although these things can be learned responses, they can also be unlearned and a person can be shown the truth by evidence, by experience and by compassion.

Now that I am older, and wiser… It isn’t even there anymore, when I get angry, or upset the language isn’t there in a hostile manner. It just doesn’t exist.

Well, everyone is prejudice in some way, but what matters is knowing that judging on an individual basis is more important. So we curb our instincts of ignorant generalizing and stick with mature, intellectual debate, which has the best results. We’re not robots, full of logic, we’re imperfect animals with all kinds of emotions.

It comes out when we’re angry or frustrated, hindering our rational thinking. It helps to understand this process as it’s happening, to best alleviate it. For example, we all know when we’re starting to get angry, so when you realize this, back way, take a break etc.

@Blackberry *Yay… Supersquirrel!

Not to get off point on a personal rant… But it does relate somewhat. Did you know that some people can’t actually take that breath and stop their anger? Some people suffer brain injuries that although they are subtle, and not catastrophic, it creates in conjunction with habit and environment and upbringing instances where that moment of rational and clarity never arrives.

I dove into a pool when I was a child and slammed the top of my head on the bottom of the pool, as well as sustained another injury later on in life from being punched in the side of my head.

Most of my life has been filled with confusing and strange behavior that because no one else understood in perspective, neither had I. I was just labeled “Difficult, incendary, emotional, hateful, and a bitch.”

I suffered that most of my life because I couldn’t express it or explain it myself so nobody else understood either. They automatically believed that I somehow ENJOYED being this way. Realistically who ENJOYS being considered trouble and singled out as such?

It can be likened to learning not to cry… It’s possible, of course, but if it is a natural or ticked or triggered response within the brain, it will happen like it or not. THere are many more people in society like this than you might imagine.

I am one.

http://www.amenclinics.com/ This saved my life.

Bigotry is ingrained, and in most cases, its in the eye of the beholder. There are social bigots, nutritional bigots, ethnic bigots, religious bigots, sexuality bigots, and yes….even weight bigots, but everyone thinks its okay to criticize weight, and assumes the worst.

Animals tend to prefer their own kind, and we are no different.There are lots of groups I do not wish to associate with, and to be honest, they make me uncomfortable because of their habits.But there are always exceptions, so I try to accept people on an individual basis.

The laws now favor “ethnicity” and almost anyone can claim bigotry. Employers avoid ethnicity issues, but allow discrimination in the case of disabilities. As someone who is a White Anglo Saxon Protestant, I find it terribly lopsided, in terms of fairness.

Everyone is an ass when they are angry…chalk it up to ignorance and stuff your fingers in your ears and walk away, to avoid hearing the politically incorrect. Enough said.

@DreamTrees POINTS! Great answer… Thanks!

It’s akin to road rage, where people react first with their emotions and use the most convenient yet ugly tool to make their “feelings” known to the other party——vulgar language, obscene hand gesturing, honking the horn like crazy, tailgating, flashing the headlights, etc. The use of racist epithets to “make one’s point” is really one’s way of using the most feasible and convenient tactic to hurt and put down a person from a visible minority. It’s terrible, but a lazy and ignorant person’s way of dealing with conflict.

@MRSHINYSHOES You sound like you have been there… Your description is almost tactile. I am sorry if anyone has ever hurt you by this but you have to understand as well that it is a part of human nature to take the easiest hit. That being said, I don’t believe that many people MEAN to BE hurtful, but by this to express the magnitude of their own inner turmoil by projection. I’m absolutely NOT saying that it is right…

THe reason why I brought this up in the first place was as a result of the tyrade that Richard whats his face *I forget his last name… KRAMER from Seinfeld…. back when he went on that racist tyrade that he did.

I brought it up to show that people often only look at these things from the perspective of the victim, and not the offender. I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone noticed or even bothered to take note of the absolute pain in his voice while he went on that very embarassing rant…

It was wrong… absolutely, but the punishment for those moments I feel should be met in exchange with the tolerance that is being asked of the angered person who exhibits it as well and I feel that in these instances psychology fails humanity in a full spectrum understanding.

Don’t you see how these people who lash out do so because they are hurting and don’t know how to express themselves any other way but through the same hurt they too are experiencing?

I believe that to change intolerant people, incendary people, hateful people even one must first and foremost not do, exactly what they are doing, but instead from a place of the same compassion they require have to offer tolerance full spectrum in order to actually ever CHANGE anything at a root level as opposed to forcing everyone to be ingenuine and placative and really just phony.

See what Im trying to say? Sorry… I rant sometimes. LOL

@GabrielsLamb I think almost everyone of a visible minority living in America (or elsewhere where it’s predominantly white) has been a victim of racial insults sometime in their lives. It’s really unavoidable.

@MRSHINYSHOES Reading between your lines are you sayin black people drive like women then?

@woodcutter ROFLMAO!

Here we go.

@woodcutter Oh my, you are the jokester aren’t you? LOL.

No, black people drive very well, considering all the practice they’ve had from driving Miss Daisy.

@MRSHINYSHOES Miss Daisy? LOL! But who was always in the back seat?

@woodcutter The little misfit.

The old Jewish woman?