Social equality: how to overcome hidden prejudices

When prejudices play into our hands, they are not easy to notice and acknowledge. We like to consider ourselves good people. When this image is threatened, we try to find excuses for our inaction. For example, we tell ourselves that there was nothing we could do or that this was the wrong time to intervene. But if we want to defeat prejudices, it is important to move from the category of believers in social equality to the group of its builders.

Here are four principles to help you do just that.

1. Embrace a growth mindset

Remember that you are only at the beginning of the journey and do not have to be perfect. Thanks to this, you will become more open to the realization of your prejudices, it will be easier for you to defend your point of view in front of others more often. People with a growth mindset believe that you can learn anything if you put in the effort. As a result, they feel less need to assert themselves in their rightness, they more easily experience failures and are more willing to take responsibility for mistakes.

If other people meet your point of view with distrust or hostility, a growth mindset can help you stay calm and secure. Recognizing that you may have internal unconscious biases that need to be overcome will help build trust with social groups that are being discriminated against. It is much more effective to behave this way than to pretend that you do not suffer from prejudice and do not notice the differences between people.

2. Notice your privilege

Many people believe in meritocracy: successful people are more talented than others or have worked hard to be successful. We need to question this belief and recognize that in many cases success has been driven by luck and the better position of privilege.

It is not easy to change your point of view. We usually trust data that confirms our outlook on life. If we want to believe that our success is deserved, we will turn a blind eye to how society has helped us along the way. You need to learn to recognize that success is partly due to tailwinds and luck. Recognizing this fact will help push politicians to equalize the score for people who are struggling with headwinds.

3. Choose mindfulness

The more we love something, the more often we ignore negative information about it, and as a result, we miss alarming signals. Perhaps your favorite sneakers are made using child labor. Maybe the list of friends we invited to the party is suspiciously monotonous. The antidote to this is the practice of mindfulness. Ask people who are struggling with headwinds about the hardships in their lives, and don’t be so quick to get defensive. Thanks to this, you will better understand the situation and establish a trusting relationship with them.

If you find it difficult to conduct such dialogues or for some reason it is impossible, there are other ways. You can learn about people who face prejudice from others by reading books or listening to podcasts that talk about points of view that are different from yours.

4. Interact with people around

Often we try to teach children to ignore differences. It seems to us that ignoring differences helps them avoid prejudice. But research proves otherwise. Children still notice everything and create their own stories about race, gender, or disability if parents do not discuss these topics with them and tell them how to behave.

Each of us can stop colleagues or friends who make racist or sexist remarks, expand our social circle to be more diverse, and strive to create an equitable workplace environment. It must be remembered that the goal is not to feel like a good person or pat yourself on the back, but to learn how to demonstrate courage and help people reconsider an unfair system of judgments.

Of course, some of the tasks may seem too complicated, but they bring with them great benefits. For example, working groups that encourage inclusion and diversity achieve better results. People who have friends from different social strata feel better in situations related to interaction with representatives of different groups. Fighting for the rights of others helps us live up to true values.

Source: greatergood.berkeley.edu