Carl Bell, MD, a psychiatrist who has written extensively in this area, rightly argued, "racism most likely has biological, psychological, and sociological origins." He added, however, that racism is "mainly a product of learned behavior" and that a "majority of explicitly racist persons do not have any psychopathology."8
Writetoknow-- In answer to your question, does that mean we are all bigots and only accept our own form of bigotry?
I would say yes and no to that question. I have no doubt that every human being on this earth has at some time been prejudiced in their lives to a degree. The word prejudice means to prejudge. People do this all the time. Kids do it at school. Example, kids will pick on the fat person at their school and call them names, they will pick on the kid with glasses or because of the color of their hair. People can prejudge people for a whole range of reasons. They dont like the way someone laughs; the way they dress; they may have a stutter, the way a person speaks. People can prejudge others for the smallest of reasons. So yes, i believe that we all have our own forms of prejudice to a degree, albeit that many of us try to work on these and shouldnt hold peoples differences against them. But does that make them a bigot?
As mentioned, we can to an extent prejudge others; but this is mainly due to what we have learned from the people we mix with. I believe it is very much a learned behaviour, which depends on the particular social group you happen to be born into. If you are brought up in a cultural society that often makes jokes or belittles another cultural society, then the likelihood is that a person to some degree will prejudge that society or culture. Yet, despite this, most people tend to suppress these thoughts and show tolerance and respect for these differences.
A bigot however is a person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles or identities differing from his or her own (Wikipedia). Bigotry, which is really racial prejudice tends to be people who hold views of others, whether as individuals or as a group of people, based on a lack of knowledge or understanding. It is based on ignorance ie knowing nothing whatsover of other cultures or their history. Bigotry is brought about by socialisation.
Sadly, bigotry / racism tends to begin during primary socailisation, children learn and pick up messages from their families. As a child grows into an adult, the tendency is for them to have similiar views to their family members. The people we mix with, friends, social groups can all have an influence on our thinking. During secondary socialisation, attitudes and ideas are again picked up that will affect the way people view others ouside of their own social and cultural group. The media can have a huge influence on the way people are viewed within society. Television comedies or programmes in the past that had a racist tone and viewed as acceptable within any given society.
Historical factors can also have an influence. For example, in a number of countries some centuries ago, ideologists were produced to make the slave trade look acceptable. These ideologists included religion, academic theories and capatilism. They all put forward the idea that the black man was inferior to the whiteman. All of these ideas and beliefs helped to serve the needs of capatilism, creating sterotypes that helped promote racism. These views were then passed on down throught the centuries, which sadly still have an effect on the way many people view black people today;despite great efforts to stamp out racism. Even up untill recently, children were subtley being inculcated with biased views toward black people through storybooks or the name of certain toys such as gollywogs. Even the word black in the english dictionary denotes something that is bad, words such as blackmail, blackmagic etc.
There is much more I could say about socialisation, but ultimately bigotry is a product of socialisation, which inturn influences individuals psychological thinking and views. Not everyone though, is a bigot, they may prejudge others to a lesser degree, yet show tolerance. But a bigot prejudges others without showing tolerance. So, in answer to your original question, I do not believe that we are all bigots and accept our own form of bigotry.
