Prejudice (Much More Than Just Race)

Prejudice (Much More Than Just Race)

I think I've written on this before; perhaps ever recently. But, a few things came to mind today and thought I would write them down incase someone else might benefit from them.

In the basic definition, prejudice is simply pre-judging someone. This can be good or bad. I remember as a child desperate for some sweets found my mom's baking chocolate. It looked like a Hershey Bar. It smelled like a Hershey Bar. I took a huge bite and quickly realized it didn't taste like a Hershey Bar. I pre-judged, wrongly, that it would meet my expectations of something sweet.

The few anecdotes that came to mind today may be too technical to communicate in a few sentences, but try not to let some of the jargon get in the way of the deeper message. A few years ago I worked for a software vendor in Atlanta. One of my first projects was to help a carpet company in Dalton, Georgia, install our software on their computer. Our code was written using IBM COBOL. They had a Stratus computer. The original intent of COBOL was to make it a portable language; your code should run on any machine that uses COBOL. However, not all computers were created equal.

They had tried for months to get this up and running and patience was wearing thin. When the Stratus engineers developed their version of COBOL they made one simple change, that in their world, made perfect sense. However, the IBM version of COBOL took exception (for you coders out there, that is a pun) to this seemingly minor change causing every program to terminate with errors. Once discovered, it took just a few short weeks and everything was up and running. The culprit in this case was slack-bytes.

The second incident I remembered was my first “paying” job programming a computer. It was Radio Shack Model II. Only of few of you know what Radio Shack is/was and even fewer know what a Model II is/was. That's not the point here. We had completed the program for a property manager to help manage all of their data. It worked like a charm and we were very proud of our efforts. The key operator sat down at the console and was, herself, quite excited about the prospects.

The trainer said, “Enter your option from the menu.” She proceeded to make her select, but before typing the number, she pressed the ENTER button. The program immediately blew up! The first keystroke and we were toast. When asked, “Why did you press ENTER before typing your menu selection?” Her answer revealed a prejudice she had learned from typing class. You always make sure the carriage is in position one before typing. A seemingly simple issue, but this one problem caused us many hours of adding edits to every keystroke made by the operator.

Here's one that I think everyone can identify with. I heard a story from my former pastor about a newlywed couple cooking a ham for the first time. The wife was about to place it in the oven when the husband stopped her and exclaimed, “You have to cut the butt end of the ham off before you cook it!” The wife simply responded with, “Why?” The husband had no clue. He then called his mother to find out the reason. She had no idea other than, “that's the way my mom did it,” so the husband called his grandmother to seek her wisdom on this puzzling turn of events.

The grandmother's sage counsel was simple, “I don't know why you cut it off, but I did it because the ham wouldn't fit in my pan.” This was a prejudice passed down through generations. It started out of need, but continued out of tradition. No one was really harmed by this, but a lot of ham was wasted by two generations of cooks.

Even while I was writing this article I took a phone call from a client that has been battling fires with her major customer for several days. The customer reported a problem with a file that we send them each month that consists of our invoice. This month they reported a problem. “Nothing changed on our end!” they proclaimed. I just as adamantly insist, “Nothing change on our end!” We were at an impasse. My colleague reached out to a recently retired employee of the customer's company that they still bring in occasionally for consulting. This person described the problem. “This is not a new issue,” she begins, “I corrected that file every month since 2015.” What?!?!? Yes, instead of reporting the issue it was such simple correction she made it each month because she deemed it easier than actually addressing the root cause.

However, she is no longer there and no mention was made to her successor about this minor change she made each month. Instead, the new folks dug in their heels and made a major issue out of a simple problem. This is prejudice. When we make choices before gaining the facts we act out of prejudice.

It happens every day. Most of the time we are not even aware it has happened. Choosing a seat in the self-serve eating establishment, deciding which checkout line to go through, selecting the shop we patronize, making vacation plans, determining which church you attend: all of these are driven by prejudice. Most do not cause direct harm to an individual or people group. However, many do.

Deciding who to hire to fill the new vacancy, processing loan applications at the bank, showing courtesy in public spaces, and the list goes on: these can cause irreparable harm. I tend to have a positive approach to things and, therefore, do not believe that most people make intentional decisions to harm based on prejudice, but it does happen. I believe most make these prejudicial decisions out of ignorance of their own prejudice. It's a heart issue, and the only way these can be rooted out is by Word of God.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)

Division of the soul and spirit. Thoughts and intentions of the heart. That is where prejudice is rooted, and until we are open to deal with it we will continue to struggle in many areas of our lives, wasting ham and hurting people. I pray you take time today to examine your own heart and get real with what you find there. Change is possible. Change is required!