Day 94 - Prejudice?

My dad sent me an email yesterday of some thoughts he has had lately. I thought I would share it with all of you as it is very powerful and an important element of love.

"Why is there prejudice in the world? I was talking to Marzia, one of my assistants whose family escaped the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan when she was just 5 years old, about an article in the most recent National Geographic about one of the several traditional tribes of people in Afghanistan that is considered inferior by all the other tribes and has been for centuries. They are descended from the horde of Genghis Khan who intermixed with the locals. Because she shares features with these people although none of her siblings do, she was teased a lot as a little girl. The words to the song from the musical South Pacific came to mind:

You have to be taught to hate and fear!
You have to be taught from year to year
It has to be drummed in your sweet little ear.
You have to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade.
You have to be carefully taught.

You have to be taught before it’s too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You have to be carefully taught.

TIL: Prejudice is a silly, irrational behavior that serves only to make one’s group feel elite only to itself. It is divisive, and along with religion, causes much hate and alienation in the world. Anti-love.

To do: Make a list of my prejudices and analyze them. Examine how they get in the way of love.

I am fortunate to have friends from many different backgrounds so I can expand my ability to love all."