No flow, Joe. Hi, James from engVid. I've got a special lesson today. It says "Prejudice
in English" and this is the "No prejudice zone, zone, zone, zone, zone." I actually
have a bias against math because I'm not very good at it. That's why I chose English. It's
not very good to hold such a silly prejudice, you know what I mean? I'm kind of ignorant
about the subject, so I don't study it. Now, I've used three words and I'm going to try
and help you learn what these words mean and there's a reason for it, so I'm going to be
serious for a second. I've been very fortunate that I get to teach people from all over the
world and it's one of the greatest privileges you can have, really, helping people learn
and introducing the world to them because once you learn a language, not just English
but any language, you open up the world to yourself. But I have to be honest, once you
open up to the world, the world sometimes is a little different than what you think
because when you live in your area, you have what's called a bubble and you live in that
bubble like a fish swimming in water and every once in a while when you go into the bigger
ocean, you notice there are some other things and some are good and some are bad. So this
particular lesson I hope will be useful to you because even if you stay in your own village
or city and you never leave the country, by learning English, you're going to be talking
to people who also speak English and they may not look like you or may not be from the
same place as you and if you travel and you speak English, well, definitely, you'll find
people of different cultures and that who speak English. So I'm going to speak maybe
a bit slower in this one because I want you to clearly get this one, okay? So in prejudice,
we're going to learn about it means because it's in the lesson, there'll be five words,
okay? Now, all of these deal with what's called generalization, to make general. When you
make something general, you take the highest and the lowest and you just say, "You know
what? The middle ground covers everybody." Now, you already know if something's high
and something's low, there's a difference. They're not the same. So to put them in the
middle and say they're the same, right? Move them to the middle, isn't always going to
be true. Now, in life, we generalize, that's what we say, to say, "Look, I can't look at
every situation and know exactly what it's going to be. So I'm just going to make a rule
and I'm going to live by that rule." That's 100% okay as long as you know when you get
to a specific situation, you put aside the rule and you look at the situation. In this
case or these cases, people don't put away the rule. They live by the rule no matter
what evidence or what proof is in front of them. So let's start off with the first one
because this usually starts it, okay? Now, usually people have likes and dislikes. "I
like you." "You like me." You come back and you see Mr. Wormy, Mr. E, right? He goes here,
"Mr. E." Okay? He thinks it's a Mr. E why people don't get along. We're going to explain
it. But usually people start off with something called a bias. A bias is a preference. "I
like chocolate ice cream." "You like vanilla ice cream." "You are biased for vanilla. I
am biased for chocolate." In this case, we're usually actually number three in the definitions.
It means a preference for something or against something. It's not bad. It's just a preference.
Sometimes you hear men talk about women and say, "I'm biased for blondes." All it means
is they like women with yellow hair. They don't hate other women. They just like those
-- that's their preference. But sometimes what happens when people have preferences,
they get really, really strong on the preference and they won't change. So imagine holding
a marker and you won't let it go no matter -- even if I need a red marker, I hold on
to the black marker. That doesn't help you, right? Because you need red, but you only
got black. And that's what happens here. It's when you show prejudice for or against something.
Unfairly. I mean, it's not even fair. It's like, "You like this because you like this
and you don't care what other evidence -- even if this thing is bad, you don't care." It's
unfair. So if you're a blonde woman and I say, "I have a preference for blondes." A
woman with dark hair we call brunette if it's brown. She'll go, "That's not fair. You didn't
even talk to me. She's not even a nice woman. She doesn't like cats, and you like cats.
There you go." Right? So it's a silly bias.
Now, from there, people who are biased, if they're biased unfairly -- as you can see,
we got the word "unfairly" here -- we're going to go down here and you're going to find that
they do something else. They try and influence other people's judgment unfairly. So you see
there's a correlation. Correlation means when two things go together or they seem to match
up. They start off with a preference, which is okay. Nothing wrong with that. Then, they
keep the preference and make it a hard rule, which they will not change. And when they
finish with that, then they go out and try and get other people to believe the same as
they do unfairly. That's the problem with bias.
Sometimes you hear North Americans talk about bias, and if you listen for context, you'll
notice that it's nothing bad. It's just like, "I'm biased against Porsches. I like Mercedes.
That's it. Nothing bad." Other times, you listen carefully, you're going, "Hold on.
That seems to be a judgment that's not fair." Or, "You're trying to influence me, and it's
not fair." Bias. These will be long, and I'm sorry, but you have to understand them to
use them correctly.
The next one comes down to prejudice. If you notice up here, we talk about prejudice, and
some of you, I'm sure, are going, "What does prejudice mean?" Well, "prejudice" is from
Latin, and it means "pre," which means "before." "Judas" means "judge." To judge before. So
if you look down here, we have, "Prejudice is a person who has judged a situation or
a person without or before" -- see? "Before" -- key here -- "before having an experience
with it." So they don't know what the thing is, but they know they don't like it.
A good example is somebody who doesn't like science books. I was teaching a class one
day, and we were looking at Scientific American, and I was talking to them about Schrodinger's
Cat, and one of my students right away said, "Teacher, we don't understand. We don't like
it. It's bad. It's bad." I went, "Okay." So then I changed it to make it a story, and
the same student was like, "That's so cool. Can it really be a cat would be alive and
dead in a box at the same time?" I went, "Ah!" See, because you were prejudiced against science,
you wouldn't listen to what I had to say, but when I made a story, you liked it, and
they're like, "Oh." You judged before you knew. You were prejudiced.
So "prejudiced" -- and you notice how "prejudiced" plays a part in being biased, because you're
judging before the situation. Now, "prejudiced" -- a prejudiced man or woman -- it's an adjective
to be prejudiced. "Biased" is also an adjective. We have "-ed" endings. Now, there's a lesson
on "-ed" and "-ing" adjective endings. Go check it out. Okay, now, I'm going to come
by -- this is the final one, I think is the root, the reason for the rest, okay? But we're
going to go over here. Now, once you become -- you know, we said "biased" starts it, leads
to "prejudiced." There are two very specific types of "prejudiced," and we list them as
separate because they are very strong in the world. We either have "racist" or "sexist."
Okay, well, "prejudiced" is to judge. That's all I said. It means to prejudge, yes? But
when you are -- well, let's do the biggest number, which is "men" and "women." Female,
gender. Well, some people, if they're men, they think women are down here and men are
up here. Or some women actually believe women are up here and men are down here. When you
believe that your sex is superior -- and look at the word "super," which means "above,"
and another one is "inferior," "below" -- then you are "sexist." Another word for "sexist,"
or "sex," is "gender." So, "gender" means "man" or "female." "Sex," also in North America,
means "man" or "woman." And "mf" means "male," which is "man." Say "m," "man," and "female,"
right, which is "woman." So, believes their gender, sex, or if they're male or female,
you're superior to the other. The world is a big place and people have different beliefs
and cultures. I understand this. Where I am in Canada, we believe that men and women are
equal. Not the same, but they're equal in rights. So, if you believe that women are
underneath men, we would say you are "sexist." Or if you believe that men are underneath
women, you are "sexist." And believe me, sexism can come from both sides, right? A lot of
women believe men are stupid, lazy, and other words I won't use, because women are so much
better. These women are "sexist." So, some men think that only men should have jobs and
women should stay at home because they're not smart enough to work. These men are "sexist."
Right? Cool? Next, here's my favorite one. Well, it's not my favorite. It's my least
favorite, but it's one you should look at. Do you remember we said prejudice leads to
sexism because you judge before you know. You don't look at the individual situations.
You make a judgment and you just go with it. In this case, you think sex. Man good, woman
bad. Woman good, man bad. In racism, you actually look at skin color. You look at the skin color
and you give attributes, which are another word for traits or characteristics, to a person
depending on their skin color. You don't get to know them because you've already judged
them from what you've learned in the media or what have you, and you don't actually try
and get to know them to see if the rules follow. In this case, a "racist" is someone who believes
skin color gives benefits to a group, whether that be intelligence or moral character, or
it takes away from another group intelligence or moral character or physical abilities.
Right? And here's something interesting because Mr. E, "He spoke about this." Get out of here.
Beat it. We're not paying you. Pay you in peanuts anyway. Okay. Mr. E had mentioned
something interesting. He was saying some people are actually racist, and in a way that's
quite funny. He said, "You can be racist and not really be racist." I went, "What do you
mean?" He went, "Well, some people actually believe that another group is better than
their group because of their skin color." And I thought it was weird, and then I thought
about it. Weird means strange, by the way. And I thought about it. It's true. Some people
actually believe that another group is superior, and they are actually racist because they're
separating the races by saying, "This group is superior because of their color, while
my group is inferior because of its color." Now, that's scary. Okay? I usually like to
have fun, but I hope that's not your view in the world, right? Okay? Because when it
comes down to it, we're all equal. I like to say we're all fallible, which is fallible
human beings. We all make mistakes, and it makes us all even. Whether you're the richest
man or the poorest man, the smartest woman or not the smartest woman, we all make mistakes,
and that brings us all to the same place, right? But anyway, that's just me.
So when we look at sexism and racism, or a sexist person, a racist person, right? You
notice "sexist" is an adjective, but a "racist" can be a noun or an adjective. It's hard to
say, "You are a sexist." Usually, "You are a sexist man" or "a sexist woman." I'm going
to say sometimes you go, "You are..." You can say, "You are sexist," but it's still
adjective use, yeah? Okay? But a "racist" can be a noun or an adjective.
So, the last one I'm going to do is, "Why does this happen?" Well, as Freud would say,
this happens because the subconscious has no concept of, "I don't know, Freud." What
I want to say is, "I don't know peep, but Freud is good." It would come from being ignorant.
Ignorance is an adjective. What does "ignorant" mean? Well, "ignorant" means a person who
does not have knowledge of something or somebody. We live in a great big world, and we know
that one place is not the same as another, but a lot of people -- this is where the generalization
comes in -- they know just something. They don't stop and think it could be different
other places, or worse, they don't know something. So, they make judgments or guesses on information
they don't have. Once you do that, you're going to be biased.
"Well, what I know is this. I don't know that, so I like what I know. I don't like what I
don't know or understand." Then you start prejudging things. "Well, I don't know it,
but I'm going to guess that it's bad or it's good because it's similar to what I do know."
Then we lead into the sexist and the racist thing. "Well, I'm going to start separating
things into these nice categories or groups of things I know and I don't know, and I'm
going to be biased, and I'm going to be prejudiced, and I'm going to blah, blah, blah." You can
see how it grows. So, one of the most wonderful things you've
done for yourself is opening yourself up to learning. Learning English is a first step
because in doing that, you're starting to learn that the grammar's not the same, the
vocabulary's not the same, people don't look the same when they speak. If you go back to
www.engvid.com, I'll write it up, you'll notice that all the teachers look different. You're
like, "What? But they all speak the same language. How can this be?"
Well, when you open your mind and you stop being ignorant, you allow yourself the opportunity
to get rid of your biases, release your prejudices, stop being sexist and not being racist. And
here's the deal. You can still not like people. No one's taking that from you. That's the
privilege of being human. "I don't like you!" Right? But at least you will do it from a
position of being knowledgeable. Now, I think it's nicer to say, "I don't like you because
I know this," than, "I don't like you because I don't know you, so you must be bad," or,
"It must be bad." Right? Kind of cool? Anyway, to get some more knowledge, because I don't
want you to be ignorant. I want you to learn. I appreciate the fact you put in your 10 or
15 minutes now. Go to www.eng as in English. Now, watch. I'm going to do something different.
I'm going to add another color. Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo. vid@engvid.com, okay, where you can learn
this and other subjects. Keep an open mind. The world's a big place. You just might like it.