Samadhi Schoell

What is your definition of prejudice?

 

Samadhi -  Treating people differently subconsciously because of conditioning or belief systems you have, but on a subconscious level, not realising that you’re treating them differently.

I feel like it’s both subconscious and conscious; you’re aware of them but people who have really intense prejudices don’t think of them as prejudices, it’s just their belief.

 

 

Does ‘prejudice’ have a negative connotation?

 

Samadhi -  I think it does, because otherwise you would just call them judgements or expectations which also kind of have a negative connotation.

 

Me -  I think that on a base level it does have a negative connotation to it because it’s mostly a preconceived idea or something that you have taken from one experience of something, so it’s not really based in a lot of fact. It’s not necessarily going to be a positive outcome if you do act on that prejudice that you have, but if you are able to become aware of it then you can work with it and shift your prejudice in a way so that it’s not necessarily negative anymore.

 

 

How would you define racial prejudice?

 

Samadhi -  In a similar way, treating people differently based on assumptions and subconscious views on that group of people; treating a certain group of people differently.

 

 

Are there any prejudices that you have experienced? If so, what are they?

 

Samadhi -  Not that I’m super aware of, like I don’t think they’re enough to affect me. I not sure. I feel like it’s almost the opposite, because a lot of people are like “oh what’s your background?”; they don’t know unless I tell them what my background is. I feel like a lot of the time people are almost more careful around making certain jokes around me sometimes, or I’ve gotten that sense. So, I’d say sometimes it’s more the opposite, but maybe there might be some that’s not because of what I look like but more just because I’m a guy like possibly, like if I had long hair and a beard and you saw me walking behind you at night I feel like you might find me to be creepy or intense. So I feel they would more come from me being a guy than from my background I think. Which its totally understandable why someone might think that, but I’m not actually, you know? A lot of that stuff comes from good reason and from a place of being aware and wanting to be safe, and I understand that, but I’m not a scary guy but I can understand why I might be perceived like that if I’m walking around at night behind someone. it’s a bit complex, because sometimes you might be right to be intimidated or scared by someone, because if someone’s following you then you know

 

Me -  because a lot of prejudices do come from fear, so when people do feel a certain way about someone, in a racial sense even, like I was in a situation in the town that my grandparents live in, and it is so extremely multicultural there, and I had this weird thing, that somebody had once told me that I should be scared of a black male person, and I was in a situation where there are two people here and they fit that description, and my mind is automatically like be careful, don’t go near them, because of whatever, that’s the kind of person you’re supposed to be scared of or you’re supposed to keep a distance from because you want to be safe or you want to protect yourself. But I know that they’re harmless, I know they aren’t going to do anything, they’re minding their own business, and I feel like I have these mental battles with myself all the time, like I don’t want to feel this, but I’ve kind of been taught to feel this, but I shouldn’t feel this, so what do I do?

 

Samadhi -  it’s like you have t catch yourself and be like ok, no, think about it logically, if it’s a dodgy situation then judge it upon that, but you can’t just judge it because of those preconceptions of the type of person you think it is

 

 

Do you have any prejudices that you are aware of?

 

Samadhi -  Apart from being in a similar situation to what you were describing, like catching myself and saying no these people shouldn’t be any more intimidating to me just because of what they look like. But yeah it feels like a lot of the time we are trained to think that in a really weird way. Sometimes I find that I have this built in thing where for example a man says something; a fact about something, and ill automatically believe him, but I’ve caught myself where a woman is saying the same kind of fact and its almost like this thing where she needs to prove that she’s knowledgeable to me, and I catch myself and I go “what the fuck, why do I automatically believe the guy more than the girl” and I’ve noticed that a couple times, which is something that I really try to mitigate; that shouldn’t affect how credible they are as a person, but I think it’s a thing that a lot of especially guys think that women have to prove themselves like in a business environment or a business space that men are automatically respected, and women have to work to have that respect, which I think is really  stupid, and really bizarre . it can be really confronting when you catch yourself judging someone’s ability, someone’s knowledge, or someone’s anything, because of either what they look like or their gender etc., and that’s really intense.

 

Me -  I sometimes get this thing it’s like the opposite of not liking somebody, where for a certain type of person I feel sympathy for them, in terms of what they look like or whatever. I have this quick thing where “oh I feel sympathetic for you” but then I’m like, I can understand why I do, but I don’t think that person would want me to feel sympathetic for them, just because of what situation they’ve grown up in, or what they look like, so I also have to work on that as well. It’s a whole different level of prejudice and that’s why I don’t think it’s always just negative, because I’ve found myself feeling overly sympathetic for someone, and its bizarre.

 

Samadhi -  yeah totally, it’s that thing where yeah its good that we live in a world where there’s so much more awareness around being understanding and sympathetic towards people; and there’s so much more awareness around that, but there’s pros and cons to everything, and everything come with the “well you can’t judge someone for automatically being negative, OR automatically positive just based on your preconceptions, you know.

 

Me -  because then again, feeling sympathetic for somebody, could make them feel that you’re being condescending towards them or something like that. So its actually insanely complicated

 

Samadhi -  when you delve into it you can get lost in the complexity of it.

This is all really bizarre and complex stuff but I think it’s good to talk about it, because I feel that there’s a lot of awareness, like especially on social media there’s a lot of awareness, especially in our generation, but there’s not a lot of real, actual conversation; a lot of people think they are having conversations but they aren’t actually sitting with other people and actually having the conversations, and I think it’s really valuable to do that.

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