Patriotism / Prejudice

So we ended up going last and were cut way short on time and our presentation was wholly inadequate.

(In my Honors seminar we did group presentations about "cultural events". My group attended a performance dealing primarily with the question "What is patriotism?")

So we got up there and the projector was halfway-functional and we got through maybe half of what we spent several hours planning. It was the last ten minutes before Thanksgiving break, so you can imagine how engaged the rest of the class was at this point.

It's ok, though. At least it sparked some good thought and discussion, even if only within our group.

After class the three of us talked about racism and prejudice and how manifestations of these show up in so many places (for example, the presentations that preceded ours).

I'm sure that anything of the sort was completely unintentional and due to ignorance. And I think this is the case with the vast majority of people - racialized ideas and attitudes are present on an other than conscious level and are not usually malicious or intended, but rather inherited from society.

Everyone has prejudices. Overt racists aside, there are basically two groups of people: those who claim to be unprejudiced and pretend there is no real problem, and those who recognize that they are a product of society and do have these prejudices, and who make a conscious and concerted effort to overcome them. We must strive to belong to the latter.