Discrimination, let's check underneath the rug.

Yesterday I had a lecture about cultural differences that can lead to adverse developmental outcomes for children in minority groups and today I came across an article on discrimination that is going on in this country at this very moment. What a coincidence. 

At the beginning of the lecture the professor explained some definitions that get mixed up sometimes but that are very different like race, ethnicity and culture. Race entails the physical aspects of people in different groups and I learned that from a scientific point of view it is not valid to use the term race when talking about humans. It should only be used to describe different species.

Etnicity refers to the state of belong to a social group of people with whom national and cultural traditions are shared and culture means sharing ideas, customs and social behavior within a particular group of people or within a society.

 We talked about several aspects related to cultural differences and minority groups.The professor gave an explanation about enculturation, which means feeling connected to your original culture and acculturation, which means feeling connected to the culture in the country in which you live, after you've immigrated.

It might be that the lecture had this impact on me but it felt like the biggest part of the lecture contained information about discrimination. We discussed the theory and watched some small fragments, a bit similar to this one: 

I think showing us these clips was meant to make the the theory come alive a little bit. I felt, it might have just been a feeling I got, that the theory was discussed very objectively. But for me and a few others in my class it had every thing to do with feelings. I don't think discrimination is something that can be viewed objectively at all.

But we did not talk about feelings. Maybe it wasn't necessary to talk about how it felt to be discriminated. Most people in class have probably never been discriminated. Maybe it was not necessary to, whether we had ever been discriminated ourselves or not, talk about how we as individuals were affected by watching these little clips? 

I tend to pretend that I have not experienced discrimination often. Maybe it's because I try to ignore it whenever it happens. Maybe it's because I'm repressing these feelings and maybe I'm trying to forget.

 But throughout the lecture in which I was literally confronted with it again, I could not ignore these feelings and I apparently had not forgotten and while I can live with the fact that I belong to a minority group that is often discriminated I can apparently still not accept the acts of discrimination that I've encountered myself. According to the theory being discriminated as a group has less of an impact on someone than being discriminated as an individual (As long as it doesn't happen to you, who cares? Right?). 

But this lecture made every thing bubble up, too many feelings and too many memories of situations in which I myself had been exposed to discrimination and the other situations that did not involve me but which I have seen or have been told of. This story will become way too long if I start mentioning examples.

How I felt after watching those clips? At first I felt irritated, then I became angry and at the end of the lecture I felt furious, not about people but about the existence of discrimination itself,  and I hardly ever get annoyed and become angry, let alone furious. I felt a pain that was almost too much to bare. I felt tears burning behind my eyes. I felt my heartbeat going up and I even started sweating. It wasn't something I had ever experienced before. I felt extremely uncomfortable and it was if my stomach had started turning. But we did not talk about how it felt.

We simply discussed the theory behind cultural differences and the things that people and families in minority groups encounter that are associated with adverse developmental outcomes. What it really feels like for someone from a minority group to be treated differently from the majority group did not seem to need any attention. It was simply swept under the rug.

Perhaps there was no time to make this personal. It had to remain scientific. Perhaps the professor did not want to talk about feelings. It's way more simple to discuss these theoretical models, to keep it at a distance.

 Apparently we're ought to learn the theory but we are not expected, as is too often the case if you ask me, to comprehend and relate to the harsh reality these theories are based on: In this case the horrifying, sickening hard and very painful reality which is known as discrimination. Comprehending and relating to these harsh matters is perhaps too much to ask for even if it's something that children in minority groups are confronted with from an early age on and throughout their whole lives.

The worst thing about discrimination is that even when others threat you equally you might still fear that you are not accepted and you might still fear that perhaps you're considered to be inferior and these negative thoughts will always be somewhere in the back of your mind. It only takes 1, 2 or 3 times and perhaps it was something small but the experience of being discriminated penetrates so deeply that you will probably never be able to forget. I remember every thing I have ever been through. I remember the pain and I remember the relief and how wonderful it felt when I no longer had to walk around, so overly aware of the fact that I was so different from the rest, when I moved to an island where I no longer was considered a minority. 

Perhaps it was not considered important to talk about how discrimination really affects someone throughout their life, apart from all the theories, how much it hurts and how badly it damages your confidence and how discrimination induces all sorts of strong and negative feelings like fear, disgust, anger, rage, hate. 

I find it hard to talk about it, but let's talk about. Let's stop sweeping it under the rug. It's something that needs to be discussed. Let's share with each other how much it hurts and let us realize that it can be different and that it should be different and let's pass it on to our children that there is absolutely no valid reason to hurt each other, that there is absolutely no valid reason for discrimination.