I do not see you as a colour.

I do not care where you were born.

I respect your religion but I will not think about you in terms of it.

I do not judge you based on the neighbourhood you live in.

I am sensitive of your disability but I will not exclude you because of it, nor will I allow you to use it as a permanent excuse.

I will not respect you any more or less solely because of your education level.

I will assume responsibility of exactly one half of all communication break downs that are a result of language differences.

I do not view you as a number.

I'm so damn sick of prejudice. Racism. Anti-religious and anti-cultural sentiments. Elitism. Ethnocentrism.

It's stupid, tedious, and frickin' pointless.

It's also completely ubiquitous. The nicest people will suddenly be ranting about Mexicans. An otherwise sane individual assumes all Jews, Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, or athiests are out to get them or whatever group they belong to. The list just goes on and on ad nauseum (and believe me I'm pretty "nauseous" about the whole thing).

Of course the sad thing is that after awhile a great many people of whatever scorned group we're discussing will in turn become distrustful and malevolent toward everyone else of that other group.

You think that black girl won't be racist, but then she'll say crap about another minority and expect that whites will treat her lousy.

You assume that poor man will respect your differences in background because perhaps you realize he had it tough...then you find out he thinks you are stupid and lazy.

You would guess that the senior citizen wouldn't exclude or ignore others because of age...but she does.

You hope that because someone was once a foreigner themselves they will be patient with those who are inexperienced in their ways; they aren't.

Then there's the people who seem impervious to prejudice. She completely respects other races. She doesn't care about economic statuses, she doesn't think life begins at 18, nor does she assume it ends at 65. ...then you find out she's anti ANY religion.

He has the utmost amount of respect for religion. Race just doesn't matter. Neither does age...but he's an elitist snob.

He doesn't think of less of someone based on their income. He respects and champions the rights of the disabled. ...but he's a racist.

Unfortunately these are real people I know/have known, and believe me I could go on.

It makes me sick and disappoints me to no end. And I try to be patient with it. I try to be as respectful as possible while asserting my own belief in equality. I remind myself that they come from different backgrounds, and that they grew up in a different atmosphere, that everyone is different, that no one is perfect. But there comes a point where I just want to thump them and say "LOOK, what you're doing! This is the same attitude you (rightly) despise in X situation"

It sucks even more that because I'm a young, educated, white, Christian, male from the south I have to go the extra mile to earn the respect of countless groups, groups I usually spend a great deal of time defending behind their back.

Well here's a newsflash: I'm not racist. I want to learn more about your language/culture. I like women, especially lesbians. You won't make me uncomfortable by being yourself. And I've probably heard or done it all before myself.

I'm not trying to say everyone is screwed up. I've known a couple of other people who didn't seem to hold any of these prejudices, but the fact is it's almost pointless to say "I won't associate with anyone who is prejudiced", because I can only think of about three people I've ever known who I can say with near certainty weren't at all prejudiced in any way. There are countless others who may not be prejudiced, but there's also a very good chance I just didn't find their area of prejudice and/or they had the social skills and sense to cover it up. Besides this small handful of truly accepting people to which I refer certainly had other issues in abundance.

Am I "perfect" with regards to prejudice? Well no. I confess I have a strong preference for...well women and minorities. I'll probably initially automatically trust you more if you're a woman or a male who is non-straight, a non-native born American, a member of a minority race/religion, a senior citizen/minor, or someone chronically ill/disabled/handicapped. It's stupid. I know there are a lot of very nice healthy, straight, white, American guys, between the ages of 18 and 64, but this is the demographic that has to "prove" themselves to me to some extent, whereas I'll generally operate under the assumption that other groups of people are going to be nifty until proven otherwise.

At least I know this about myself. I would never argue that this unconscious reaction is correct. I would never trash talk about/to these people, and if I focus and stay cognizant about this reaction I usually remind myself it's probably wrong and definitely unfair.