Pride and Prejudice

No matter who you are or where you’re located in the “social hierarchy”, we all have something(s) that we pride ourselves on and is prejudice towards.

As for me, I pride myself on the idea that I am an inclusive person and I act accordingly — I simply try as much as possible to include as many people in my life approach. In other words, I understand that I will always come across someone who is different than I am and on that basis, I try to understand them so that if we are to work together or if we are to occupy the same space (and perhaps at the same time), I know what I must do to make an effort to move forward without being particularly bothered by them — their thought processes and/or actions. If this presents itself as an impossibility, I take one of two approaches: I say something about it to the person(s) or I remove them or myself from the space if no adjustments are made.

Unfortunately, this is often a one sided, non-reciprocal approach. In a world that values a superiority complex or the desire to dominate — to “lead”, It is actually quite rare that I find someone who thinks and acts in a way that is not driven by “too much” of an ego. In other words, it is rare that I encounter someone without a toxic competitive streak. I really ought to question the spaces I navigate in my daily life.

I suppose this is where my prejudice manifests itself, revealing the inevitable paradox that characterize our lives. I find myself despising people who are not willing to “adjust” or who are not willing to consider others. The Inconsiderates or the Incompassionates — as I like to call them — (along with cooked pineapples) are a tremendous pet peeve of mine; I embrace it.

I will end by saying this, I pride myself on being not only inclusive (as much as possible) but also for being able to admit my prejudice as it is unproblematic and harms no one. As a matter of fact, the only possible thing that could be worse than having a prejudice, is denying the presence of it.