P is for prejudice

To go with my O post yesterday, I want to take a minute to talk about prejudice.

prej·u·dice

  

noun, verb, -diced, -dic·ing.

–noun

1.

an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand orwithout knowledge, thought, or reason.

2.

any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable orunfavorable.

3.

unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of ahostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group.

4.

such attitudes considered collectively: The war againstprejudice is never-ending.

5.

damage or injury; detriment: a law that operated tothe prejudice of the majority.

–verb (used with object)

6.

to affect with a prejudice, either favorable or unfavorable:His honesty and sincerity prejudiced us in his favor.

—Idiom

7.

without prejudice, Law . without dismissing, damaging, orotherwise affecting a legal interest or demand.

I've talked about this before.  This is one of the facets of human nature that I find most distasteful.  In fact, this is one of the main themes behind a lot of my stories because of how deeply it's affected me.

I've spent my life dealing with prejudice on a personal level and through the stories of my friends.  I used to cower and try to hide when people attacked me verbally with their prejudicial thoughts.  I cried a lot as a child and teenager as I was bullied because of the differences between me and my peers.  Because of my dad's job, I was also treated badly since he worked for a company no one liked.  I've had friends from all over the world and many of them have come back with stories of being treated as second class citizens because of their nationality, their gender, their beliefs.

Prejudice is a main source of conflict.  I've only dealt with minor instances of it.  The ultimate prejudicial actions are taken by those who would wipe out an entire group of people simply because they're different.  Genocide is the ultimate expression of prejudice.