What kind of biases/prejudices do you have and how do you deal with them....

[HardWorkingDem]

I can't put it all on the subject line, but what I'm getting at is this - I believe through all of our life experiences, all of us have some sort of prejudice or bias within us and that even if they are not accurate or even realistic, often times we must force our intellectual sides to come forward and defeat these biases and prejudices, while battling our ignorant side.

To further illustrate my point: I am a true blue, liberal police officer in a medium sized Midwestern, working class city with a majority white and 25 percent black population. We also have a four or five percent Hispanic population.

One telling observation I've discovered is that the things those in my occupation see on a daily basis reinforce what conservatives all ready believe, while a liberals beliefs are challenged on a daily basis.

Because so many of the people we deal with are the poor, the working class, the minorities, the uneducated and the (society perceived and taught) undesirables, many cops learn to think all of these people are the problems in society. It is so easy to think the few of the few are the representative of the many.

My own view is that it is much more complex than assigning simple designators like race, education, gender, economic status to define the negatives in society. My belief is that nutrition, family, environment, opportunity, race, bias, prejudice, status and other factors play a role in how things end up the way they are and life is much more complex.

Still, biases and prejudices do emerge. So my question is, what biases and prejudices do others have and how do you fight the damn things?

[Droopy]

1. I think listening to those who you are biased against is the key

If you have a preconceived, negative notion about some group of people, open your mind and listen to what they have to say. Take them seriously. But half the battle is realizing that you have such a bias in the first place. It takes courage and honesty to admit that to yourself and is a big step in the direction of positive personal development.

[Hatchling]

2. I have a bias/prejudice against "other".

People who are "other" than me.

I don't like that in myself, so I work very hard at identifying those issues in myself and discovering why and working against them. I don't want to have an un-based bias.

Some things I cannot change. I have a bias against evangelicals that I see no need to change as it seems they want to destroy everything that I am: gay/non-christian/feminist.

My biggest bias is against bigots, I guess.

I find my largest bias is toward those who seem to be hating me. I find myself in the unenviable position of lately being startled and upset with the younger generation, especially when so many of them seem to be lumping me into a subset of "Boomer" and decrying that I am the cause of all their problems. One can begin to generalize that into a distaste for all young people, and I don't want to do that.

I don't know. It's a really sad and difficult topic. Hard not to hate the people who hate you. But I work at it every day. Hating doesn't change anything. Understanding does.

[2rth2pwr]

3. I don't like stupid people. I'm not sure I want to change.nt

[Evoman]

4. Definitely religious people.

When I was younger, I also found it very hard to trust white people....I thought of them as backstabbers who were nice to you when you were looking, but when you turned your back they would sell you out for money, or popularity or to impress their white friends.

I've gotten over the white people bias completely....I have a lot of white friends, and we often eat mayo sandwiches and do taxes together (KIDDING...no really, my gf and all of my best buds are white). I am still distrustful of overtly, strongly religious people and I wouldn't trust them around kids if I had them (liberal christians are okay).

I also have certain biases against policemen like yourself. Nothing personal. I'm getting better though.

[sandnsea]

5. Exotic outward appearances

My son's girlfriend has several large tattoos and a couple piercings. She is the sweetest thing in the world, but it's still hard for me to mentally get around what I consider weird. I don't get it. My daughter pierced her tongue when she was 17, and it was like a kid thing and she got over it. I don't get adults doing that stuff. It would be really hard if one of them brought home somebody that was completely tattooed or something just very unusual.