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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Religious racism

What might be the religious equivalent of racism?  About the best I can think of is "sectarian," although "cultist" is possible but would not incorporate non-believers.

Many years ago when I was in the States I took a teenage Vietnamese girl to a place where they test one's English for English-class placement purposes, and in the room were also some large extremely black refugees from Ethiopia.  She screamed in terror -- demons, demons -- and would not stay in the room.  Was she a racist or just confused about what constitutes a demon (often in Vietnamese demons are often pictured as large and black much as in the States they are often pictured as red).

No -- I don't think she was a racist.  She was ignorant and superstitious, but this was overcome readily enough and now she gets along with black classmates just fine.

Some people are different -- they are closed minded and tend to judge others (they are hypocrites if they also believe the Bible) and want to look down in some way (convince themselves they are superior) to pretty much anyone who is different from what they happen to be -- it can be race, nationality, accent, religion, politics, sex, sexuality, life style, economic status, even musical taste.

rThis goes by the generic label "prejudice," although I think this too weak a word and we need something that conveys the wrongness and bad karma such thinking and attitudes involves.

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