I’m prejudice. You’re prejudice. If we’re human, we’re prejudice. Prejudice is short for pre-judging. Judging a current situation based on past experiences or knowledge. Prejudice has allowed us to survive. If someone or something looks or acts like something that hurt us in the past, we’d better pre-judge. For our own safety. Humans have survived this long. Pre-judging, an integral part of that survival. If we weren’t prejudice, if we didn’t react to these instincts, we wouldn’t be here, right now.
I’m not asking us to throw away our knowledge or to pretend past experiences didn’t happen. I’m not asking for us to disregard anything we hold dear, to give anything up, forget our heritage, or dismiss our prides or accomplishments. I’m not asking we go all wishy-washy and forget all that we know.
That person walking towards us? We’d better pre-judge. The red Camaro coming down the entrance ramp? We better pre-judge. It’s not fair. It’s not equitable. But this is something we have to do. All of us. For our very survival. We must be prejudice.
Instead, I’m asking us to add something to ourselves. To put more in our knowledge pool. To add more to our past, present, and future experiences. Don’t take away from our thinking. Just add to it. Add to it, in our truly American way. This is part of America’s Exceptionalism. Adding to ourselves. Not taking away. We’re not going to throw away our fears. We’re not going to let just anybody into this country. We’re going to keep our guard up. We will use all our senses to inform our decisions.
But as patriotic Americans, it is our duty to add to our thinking. To add one more sense. I know it could take a moment more. How long that moment, depends on the situation. We all know there are even times where we cannot hesitate, we must pre-judge, for our immediate survival. But most of the time, we have that moment to spare. To add just one more thought. A truly American thought. To add America’s Founding Principle. The Rights of the Individual, our forefathers deemed unalienable.
That person walking towards us, they’re probably more, than just what we see. That person in that Camaro just may be out for a leisurely Sunday drive. They might be unique. Add that one thought, that’s all. Nothing drastic. No huge transformation. Just add that one simple thought to all our vast pool of knowledge. That individual may be unique.
Who knows? Maybe we’ll catch a clear glimpse of a whole world full of people, once just a blur, we might have been missing out on. Who knows? Maybe we can achieve America’s goal.