[nabs-l] prejudice vs ignorance

[sarah.jevnikar at utoronto.ca]

Jim,
You raise some interesting points. I'll state here that I for one am  
not "pissed at you", as you have articulated your points clearly and  
passively.
I too think that prejudice stems from ignorance, but that an ignorant  
person is not neceesarily prejudiced. Moving to a new city for school  
meant meeting a qhole new group of people, and as Jim has mentioned, I  
was that first blind person that any one of them had met. Naturally,  
everyone responded differently; some ignored me as they would others  
they didn't know, some talked to me but wouldn't invite me places, and  
some true friends enjoyed spending time with me on many occasions.  
They were all ignorant at first, but they either chose to increase  
their knowledge or not to. I think this was directly related to their  
willingness to learn new things and meet different people, and not a  
specific prejudice against me as a blind person.
I think there's more but I can't put it into words at the moment.
TTYS,
Sarah


Quoting Jim Reed <jim275_2 at yahoo.com>:

> Arielle,
> It seems to me that ignorance is the willingness or desire to be   
> uninformed, and prejudice is a fearful reaction to the unknown, thus  
>  ignorance and prejudice are related and somewhat self-perpetuating.  
>  The reason I consider ignorance to be a condition of the willing is  
>  because the Internet makes it so that anyone can learn anything   
> about any topic they choose to learn about. But at the same time,   
> why should someone learn about something that is irrelevant to them?  
>  For example, in my case, prior to affiliating myself with the NFB   
> and MAB,  I have never in my life known or interacted with a blind   
> person, therefore I had no reason to learn about them.    
> Additionally, sometimes ignorance is fueled by the fact that people   
> simply don't know what they don't know. For example, before I went   
> blind, I did not know that there were different types and degrees of  
>  blindness.  I did not know that not all blind people are totally   
> blind.
>
>  I know for me, my ignorance of blindness was definitely a conscious  
>  choice that was based on fear. I knew I was going blind, but I felt  
>  that somehow denial and ignorance were better than truth and   
> knowledge. If a blind individual is afraid and unwilling to learn   
> about a condition that affects his daily life, how can we expect   
> sighted individuals to care about, or to understand blindness?
>
> Perhaps another relevant question here would be, "If blindness is   
> irrelevant to an individual, should we care if that individual is   
> ignorant about blindness?" Personally, I see no reason why every   
> person in the U.S. needs to know about blindness. Before you all get  
>  pissed at me (again), let me explain. If a sighted person lives in  
> a  community where there are no blind people, who cares what that   
> sighted person or the community as a whole thinks or knows? If there  
>  are no blind people in the community, it doesn't matter what the   
> community knows, or thinks about blindness. Once a blind person   
> moves into the community, then there is a reason for the community   
> to learn about blindness, and it is the job of the blind individual   
> to actively educate people, but it is also the job of the blind   
> person to act in a way that demonstrates confidence and ability.
>
> While I would not consider myself prejudice against blind people or   
> any other group, I have held anti-blind positions in the past   
> (related to hybrid cars and Kindle DX lawsuits). Those anti-blind   
> positions stemmed from my ignorance of,  and apathy towards   
> blindness issues that were not related to, or applicable to me. The   
> problem was, I considered myself a sighted person, and as such,  I   
> had no reason to care about or to consider the needs of blind   
> individuals or the blind community.  For me, at that point, I did   
> not view NFB actions as serving my needs or the interests of the   
> blind community, instead, I saw NFB actions as a  threat to the   
> interest of the sighted community, thus, by extension, NFB actions   
> were a threat to my interest.
>
>  How do issues that pit the needs and interests of the blind   
> community against the needs and interest of the sighted community   
> lead to prejudice against blind people? Things that threaten the   
> status quo create fear, both fear of change, and fear of the   
> unknown. Naturally, that fear extends not only to the issue that   
> threatens the status quo, but that fear also extends to the   
> individuals who are, or are perceived to be causing the change.  In   
> this case prejudice and fear are not aimed at the person as an   
> individual, but rather that prejudice stems from what that person   
> represents.
>
> I got to go, my O/M instructor should be here any minute.
>
> Jim
>
> "From compromise and things half done,
> Keep me with stern and stubborn pride,
> And when at last the fight is won,
> ... Keep me still unsatisfied." --Louis Untermeyer
>
>
>
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