Prejudice: biolocial, or cultural?

I had a conversation with one of my professors today regarding prejudice and if such a thing has a biological or cultural basis. I would like to take my stance and put it on canna.com hopefully for beneficial and lively discussion.


I took the path of most resistance with this one and sided with prejudice having more of a biological basis, my logic resting on the fact that every human and most of the higher mammals display prejudice selection when the opportunity arises.

I attribute this to the way that a lot of the 'thinking animals' categorize information. Our brain organizes everything we see that has comparable value and stores it for survival in later situations where a decision needs to be made quickly. Most often these things are arbitrarily seen as either good or bad, but rarely equal.

a very lose but relate able example.

Quote:

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You go to your favorite diner, and your order the steak and eggs, The waiter politely asks if you would like to try an omelet, they are the special for today and would only cost you a dollar.
Although you are not in a rush, not very hungry, and have tired of steak, its been a long time since you last had an omelet (and never one at this location).
The situation you were in when you last had one, was not the best (since childhood, and maybe mom wasn't the best cook) so you tell him no, i do not like omelets.

He goes on to tell you that they are very good, no one ever complains about them, the reason why they have a special for them today is because they are so widely popular and if you don't like it, you can have it for free, and he'll get your steak ready just in case.

You think for a second, and then state once again, that you don't like omelets.

is this to be considered an example of prejudice?

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The cultural part of prejudice, is disliking others that 'are the same as us' . We are a complex animal, and have taken every smaller biological issue and made it more complex.

Every animal has sex, we have the karma sultra

they have shelters we have sky rises

the need for dominance, inferior racial groups. (now everyone who looks like me can be on top too :) )

we compound already complex issues.


to me, prejudice is biological, it starts very deep. it starts at the basics of how we view our world and the funny part is: we need it. Without the categorization of information, without prejudice there would be no preferences, no likes or dislikes, no 'culture'.

I strongly believe prejudice is something that comes with the ability to think freely.

What do you think?

Sorry if i didn't express my ideas clearly, I have a habit of doing that.


prej·u·dice (prĕj'ə-dĭs) pronunciation
n.

1.
1. An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts.
2. A preconceived preference or idea.
2. The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions.

May i ask that anyone who reply's to this post please read it?
billionfold, is it respectful to take someones thread (thoughts, time and effort) and put your thoughts into it without reading it?
If you do not know what i am talking about, how can you properly reply?

Funny enough, you just practiced the second definition of prejudice.

A preconceived preference or idea.

Its not a serious subject for me,
I would just prefer a thread to die out with one proper reply then someone letting me know that they did not read it.

I don't need to know that you didn't read it, nor does anyone else. Its the internet equilivent of butting into a conversation, and then saying something completely off topic, and uninformed.

Also, to reply completely to your defense, i think you are the one practicing impatience, as you had to reply now instead of taking the time to write when you are less tired.

No offense taken, or dished out.

"racism isnt born folks, its taught. i have a two year-old son, you know what he hates? naps. "
-dennis leary

The only real confusing bit about stuff like this is it all comes down to the definition. What meaning is right? I dunno but if it's this one:
2. A preconceived preference or idea.

Then it's gonna be biologial. Everything that uses logic is gonne have a prejuditial (sp??) opinion on a situion that seems familliar. Obviously we don't know the future, but we can get a good idea of what is most probable to happen based on what we allready know.

Then again, I have no idea. So don't listen to anything I say ;)

I'm confused, so is this about ommlettes?

Nah, I'm kidding.

I think prejudice is something someone has to be taught. If it was natural, then wouldn't all of us have some sort of hate against a race? I know I don't, and if I did, it would be for a reason. Someone is either taught to hate a certain race or all races, or they go through something dramtic and traumatizing that was done by a certain race of people.

For example, my cousin almost got beat to death by some Native folks in the city he lives in, with bats and such. He was in the hospital for months and now suffers hearing loss in his left ear. Now, whenever he comes across someone of that nationality, his eyes fill with hatred for them. I know he maybe shallow minded and should think that not all Native's are like that, but it was something he went through that forever changed him.

In the beginning he was never like that.

If we're talking racial predjudice, then I'd agree that it's a cultural thing. I'm sure the 1st time a white guy met a black guy, they were thrown off and maybe a little confused about it, but I don't see one hating the other unless they were allready told that they were supposed to.

Wow. That go me thinking. How odd would it be to meet someone from another race, if you'd never seen or heard of one. That's gotta be an odd encounter.

I would have to say more cultural than biological. Biological would imply that this is something we are born with like knowing a natural preditor. If you put small children into a room all they know is who they like to play with....the color isn't an issue until the ignorance of hate is taught/learned from outside influences.

Have a good one!:jointsmile:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skrappie

The cultural part of prejudice, is disliking others that 'are the same as us' . We are a complex animal, and have taken every smaller biological issue and made it more complex.

prej·u·dice (prĕj'ə-dĭs) pronunciation
n.

1.
1. An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts.
2. A preconceived preference or idea.
2. The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions.

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I don't understand why you think prejudice involves disliking others that are the same as us? I would have thought it was more of just the opposite.

But I have to side firmly on cultural and social origins for prejudices. I guess you could make a very weak case for genetics playing a role, but even then its always a mixture of genetics and environment that constitute behavior.

Even with regard to your own example concerning omlettes, the subject remembers back to his own traumatic encounters with omlettes in his childhood. I don't see the biological bias, I see a learned bias because his mom was a bad cook. Could you flesh that out?