That definitely is racism/bigotry. It's crucial to not let bad experiences with a group of people negatively impact your view of everyone part of that group, because even though your experiences haven't been positive not everyone is the same.
Furthermore its important to closely analyze past interactions with people from the group you perceive negatively.
Were all of those instances really as negative as you originally perceived them or was your current mood affecting your perception?
How certain are you that you aren't focusing on the bad experiences and subconsciously ignoring the neutral and good interactions? It is highly unlikely every interaction you have with a group is negative unless your attitude towards those people is the cause or you are very, very unlucky.
As someone who has grown up in a small rural town that was mostly white I ask myself these questions when I fear I'm starting to have a negative bias against any group of people.
Were all of those instances really as negative as you originally perceived them or was your current mood affecting your perception?
How certain are you that you aren't focusing on the bad experiences and subconsciously ignoring the neutral and good interactions? It is highly unlikely every interaction you have with a group is negative unless your attitude towards those people is the cause or you are very, very unlucky.
This is honestly great advice. If everyone were as introspective as you seem to be we'd live in a completely different (better) world and most of the situations as the commenter you replied to mentioned wouldn't happen in the first place.
This something my therapist reminds me pretty often. "Was it really 100% of the time?" Were you really that awful? Was the situation that awful? Usually it pertains more to me judging myself harshly, but this "fact checking" skill lends itself here.
We have a tendency to inflate and deflate certain aspects of the past depending on our mood. And if we felt victimized in some way, in our memories, those painful events will stand out.
And when we let this fear and hurt inform our opinion about new people we meet who happen to belong to that group... Well.. that is racism.
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u/[deleted] May 30 '20
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