Do Children Learn Prejudice or Hate at Home? ( Archived) (29)

The lack of interest in all things cultured is itself a hallmark of the young generation. But I guess this is an historic thing, 12 year olds of 100 years ago were more sophisticated and deeper in thought than today's 50 year olds.

.....some from bad homes.....others from bullying from school/at your work place.....who knows where it stems from.....?????

Anger is a legitimate reaction of the soul to it's wounding and most of that wounding occurs in early childhood.
The child could have suffered the wounding of too-much-ness, overwhelmed by the outer world, or not-enough-ness, neglect or abandonment of the childs need by it's environment. As a result, a person can misread the nature of the world, adopt a set of reflexive responses to manage the level of anxiety created.
A child that was overwhelmed by the environment, such as the Fathers alcoholism or the Mothers depression tends to acquire a passive, co-dependent personality in order to survive. A child that suffers the insufficiency of it's environment tends to develop a diminished sense of self worth and will constantly seek affirmation and reassurance from others.
In both cases the person will be carrying a great deal of anger.

So, certainly in the case of anger, early wounding in the child can lead to deep seated anger, though quite often this 'hidden' anger may be unacknowledged.

I do believe this is more or less true. However, take the example of Kennedy. He was brought up in an ultra-affluent community, and went to private schools attended only by others of his ilk. His entire environment was conducive to all the trappings of racial and economic bigotry. Yet he soared to the top (and certainly extremely so, for the era) of championing all those causes: injustice to races, poverty, corruption, etc...So, it must also be attributed to individual personalities and motives.

They're also born with it.





Contrary to what most people believe, the tendency to be prejudiced is a form of common sense, hard-wired into the human brain through evolution as an adaptive response to protect our prehistoric ancestors from danger.

So suggests a new study published by Arizona State University researchers in the May issue of the "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology," which contends that, because human survival was based on group living, "outsiders" were viewed as -- and often were -- very real threats.

If prejudice is a form of common sense, this would explain why we're less prejudiced.