I reckon what I will write in this post may be controversial to some readers.
As I begin to write here, I assume it may make people ascribe political opinions and perspectives to me that I do not hold.
Nevertheless, I will use this as an opportunity to challenge myself to be as clear and coherent as possible, minimizing reasonable misinterpretation.
That is, in fact, one of the main benefits I get out of My Sporadic Thoughts.
Anyway, I’ll stop preempting and just get to it.
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I’ve been thinking about how I used to perceive the world in the past. How I used to make judgments about people when I was a young child.
Back in elementary school, I was willing to be friends with any other kid (provided they weren’t mean to me, I guess).
And I was lucky enough to be taught in a school that was relatively diverse.
I learned and played alongside boys and girls from different backgrounds. Middle Eastern, Caribbean, North African, South Asian, Sub-Saharan African, Southeast Asian.
Admittedly, they weren’t really any European or white people at my school itself, but they were some at the sports activities I used to do outside of school.
During this childhood period, I didn’t really have preconceived notions of people based on attributes like race or gender.
I spoke and played with boys and girls in the same space as me, regardless of their background.
All I needed was their interests, personality, and sense of humour to match well with mine.
And I was fortunate enough to have a mother who didn’t really pass down ethnic-based prejudices to me at a young age.
Who taught me to be nice, friendly, and respectful to everyone as long as they do the same to me, irrespective of what they look like.
When I internalized this lesson as a young child, I came to assume that this is how most people in the world also operate. That people in the world have treated people as individuals and equals regardless of things like their race or gender.
But then unfortunately, you get older. You begin to learn more about how the world actually is.
You come to learn about the history of the countries you’ve lived. The brutal and overt ways people have been dehumanized and constrained due to an aspect of their identity, like race or gender.
The way in which people of a similar complexion to me have been perceived and treated.
You learn not all adults treat others as individuals. That people hold negative beliefs and stereotypes about people who look different from them. That people will use aspects of identity like race and gender to choose who to associate with.
That people live their lives with explicit prejudices based on identity (and those people are seemingly okay with it).
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But of course, not everyone clearly has these kinds of prejudices.
Some do not appear to hold negative beliefs and stereotypes based on identity (at least not in obvious ways). So even as they get older and become adults, they are able to be genuine friends with people of a different race/ethnicity or gender, and treat them with equal respect and consideration.
And then there are others who do not do the same. Those who have negative views on different groups and choose who to be friends with and associate with based on one’s social identity/immutable characteristics.
It would largely depend on the social environment in which the person was raised. Again, no one is just born as a child with these prejudices.
Maybe their parents socialized them with these negative views of other people.
There might have been prejudicial ideas they were exposed to within their social environments.
They may have had limited exposure to groups who look different from them. It may even be that the few times they have had interactions with individuals from other groups, they have been negative experiences.
Whether a child grows up with prejudices is largely a matter of circumstance.
One Asian family may raise their daughter with negative stereotypes and prejudices about Black people in general, while another Asian family does not.
A Black family may raise their son with gender norms that restrict girls and women and view them as secondary, while another Black family does not.
If someone does happen to have these types of stereotypes and prejudices, then we tend to view this person as less moral than someone who does not.
A child/person can then be more morally lucky than another. Their social environment acting as a determinant for whether they’ll hold morally improper views of other groups or not.
It does not mean it is deterministic in the sense that all children in prejudiced environments will grow up to be very prejudiced themselves. But it does make it more likely.
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Now, there are prejudices that we deem to be especially problematic in our contemporary society. Prejudices toward minorities and toward groups that are considered to be socially disadvantaged.
Negative attitudes toward women. Toward black and brown folks. Queer people. Those living with disabilities.
We typically don’t like it when someone makes dehumanizing jokes about these groups and uses unfavourable stereotypes to judge people from said groups.
In a North American context, we see these attitudes more in those who identify as conservative or right-wing.
But again, whether or not someone holds these prejudices is largely a matter of moral luck. People from certain environments and backgrounds are more likely to develop these prejudices than other people.
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And whether or not you’re morally lucky in this regard can also depend on the social identity you have.
A White American may be more likely to develop negative prejudices against Black people than a Black person themself. A straight person is more likely to be openly homophobic than a gay person. And a rich person may be more likely to be fearful and judgmental of the poor than a poor person.
Those who are from socially disadvantaged groups would be less likely to hold negative attitudes toward said groups.
It’s harder to believe that women should be regarded as secondary and should have less opportunity than men when you are a woman yourself. And it’s more difficult for a black person than a white person to accept the idea that black people are barbaric and inferior to others.
Of course, it is still possible. There have been women who agree with patriarchal values. And there have been black people who endorse ideas associated with white supremacy. Nevertheless, seeing that is less likely in today’s more diverse world than in the past.
Ultimately, the point is this: the social identity you happen to have can influence whether or not you hold the prejudices that people find morally objectionable. Prejudices that are typically associated with the thinking of conservatives and right-wingers.
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Nevertheless, those who are left-wing may very well still hold prejudices towards other groups of people. The only thing is that we generally perceive these prejudices as less morally problematic in the North American context.
A black person expressing prejudice towards white people. A woman expressing prejudice towards men. A queer person expressing prejudice towards straight and/or cisgender people.
I can think of two reasons why a person can deem these kinds of prejudices as less problematic or even not problematic at all.
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The first reason is that these prejudices can be seen as more understandable for a particular individual to hold.
The prejudices can be due to experiences linked to living in a patriarchal, racist, and heteronormative society.
A woman may hold a general prejudice towards men because some men have been harmful and predatory towards her in particular.
A black person may hold prejudice towards white people in general because some white people have been racist and insulting towards them.
Hence, you can come up with a seemingly understandable story for why someone holds a prejudice.
I don’t think this is a reason one can truly rely on.
This logic can be used to explain the less socially acceptable prejudices as well.
A white person can develop prejudices towards black people because of their negative experiences with them, where they had been harmed, wronged, or humiliated.
Same thing for a man developing prejudices towards women. Or a native holding prejudices against immigrants.
Mind you, I am not speaking of negative attitudes towards specific individuals. I’m not criticizing a person who dislikes a particular rich person, for example, because of their specific actions and the effects they are having on the world in their position. Or someone resenting a particular white person for their behaviour and personal advocacy for racist ideology.
I am critiquing the tendency to develop negative attitudes towards people one does not really know as individuals based on their social identity.
And just because the origin of a negative attitude or prejudice can be explained, it does not negate the negative effects it can have or make it completely unproblematic.
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The second reason, and I find this one more defensible, is that the ‘right-wing prejudices’ are more harmful to people than the ‘left-wing prejudices’ given the social context in which they exist.
Classism or prejudice toward the poor on the part of a rich person not only offends a poor person, but it works to reinforce an ideology that is associated with their material exploitation and the structural harm they face. On the other hand, a person expressing prejudice toward the rich does not do much to harm them in a society that already privileges them and in which they are often the ones exploiting others (except in the very rare event of a major revolution).
A White American expressing racial bias toward Black Americans perpetuates a view of Black people that people use to justify the real structural and state violence they disproportionately experience. This perpetuation is essentially absent when a person expresses prejudice toward White Americans, for they are the ones on top of the racial social hierarchy.
A man making crude sexual comments about women feeds into a culture where women, in many areas of our society, are being treated as sexual objects in rather dehumanizing and harmful ways. A woman making crude sexual comments about men does not carry as much weight, for the sexual objectification of men is a lot less prevalent.
Hence, a form of prejudice can be more harmful to an individual if they live in a society that already disadvantages or dehumanizes them on the basis of their social identity.
I think this can work as a good reason to see ‘left-wing prejudices’ as less of a problem than ‘right-wing prejudices.’
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Nevertheless, just because the right-wing prejudices are more harmful, it does not follow that the left-wing prejudices are not harmful at all.
Holding prejudices based on social identity, even if it’s towards a black person, a straight person, or a man, can still be irrational and demeaning.
It still involves not respecting individuals for their individual qualities and making unfounded conclusions about individual people.
And there are cases where expressing prejudice can be harmful to the individual and negatively affect their well-being or the view they have of themselves. This is especially true in the context of interpersonal relationships, where a person says or makes clear to a stranger, co-worker, friend, or partner they hold a prejudice concerning them because of their identity.
And saying to a person that at least they are not of a social identity that is considered more socially disadvantaged on average (like black as opposed to white, or female as opposed to male) does not necessarily erase the negative effects a prejudice can have on them personally in a given context.
Acknowledging the existence of systemic injustice based on identity does not negate the negative effects a prejudice can have on an individual, regardless of their identity.
Not treating people as individuals can create misunderstanding and resentment between people, is not conducive to building healthy relationships with others, and can prevent someone from creating social connections they would have otherwise benefitted from.
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Progressiveness or leftism should of course be about addressing systemic inequality and improving people’s material conditions.
And it should also be about treating people as individuals with equal concern. Trying to uplift everyone and understanding that everyone is a victim of their circumstances. Making sure that all people are able to live in the collective, build healthy connection, and be treated with equal dignity.
Social justice should be about deconstructing prejudice based on identity, not actively perpetuating it.
With that in mind, there are ostensibly left-leaning people who don’t actually internalize or abide by norms around social justice. They simply appear to because that’s what’s fashionable or “makes sense” given their social identity or position.
A person may not have right-wing prejudices because they were not raised in environments where that would have been likely, and/or are in environments where that would not be socially acceptable.
A queer person won’t have anti-queer attitudes because they happened to be queer themselves as opposed to straight. A woman won’t be openly misogynistic because she is a woman herself and her close friends are likely women, but she may be exceedingly prejudicial towards men as a group. A black person won’t have anti-black biases, but they may be comfortable having anti-white ones.
For these kinds of people, it becomes clear that they would have been prejudiced towards minorities if they just happened to have a different social identity.
That they don’t actually have a problem with judging and resenting individuals based on identity before even meeting them or really knowing them. Or judging someone more harshly because of their social identity.
Due to their background or identity that they had no real control over, they just happen to have some prejudices and not others.
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I will also add that left-wing people expressing extreme forms of prejudices can be counterproductive, serving to make the targets of their prejudices more prejudicial themselves.
When individual people feel demonized because of their social identity and not really because of their own individual actions, they can feel alienated from a political movement and feel like they won’t be totally respected within it. This can lead them to be more appealed by more reactionary politics instead. A politics which expresses resentment towards those they feel are demonizing them, perpetuating a cycle of prejudice and divisiveness.
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I’ll try to bring these thoughts to a close now.
At the end of the day, an individual’s social identity, an identity that is outside of their control, should not determine the level of respect, concern, and empathy you extend to that person.
People should be treated as individuals and should not be judged solely due to an aspect of their identity like their race or gender, especially in an interpersonal context.
Living with explicit prejudices based on identity goes against that important value.
And the argument that prejudices can be in some sense rationalized and/or that some prejudices are more harmful than others does not negate the fact.
Expressing such prejudices can have a detrimental effect on an individual’s self-concept, fuel animosity between groups of people, and can be counterproductive to what progressive politics and social justice should be about.
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To end with what I started with, many of us, including myself, were taught as a child to treat people with kindness and respect regardless of what they look like.
Of course, as we grow up, we learn that the world is complex in a way where many people do not do that, but that does not mean we shouldn’t try our best to follow that rule in our personal lives. And thankfully, a lot of people do in various contexts.
It’s just that for some people, the political ideology they hold gets in the way of that.
But it is considerably better for one to have their interpersonal morality guide their political views and prescriptions, as opposed to having a political framework decide which groups of people they’ll personally be more moral to.
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