Advanced English Vocabulary - racist, sexist, biased, ignorant, prejudice

No flow, Joe. Hi, James from engVid. I've got a special lesson today. It says "Prejudice

in English" and this is the "No prejudice zone, zone, zone, zone, zone." I actually

have a bias against math because I'm not very good at it. That's why I chose English. It's

not very good to hold such a silly prejudice, you know what I mean? I'm kind of ignorant

about the subject, so I don't study it. Now, I've used three words and I'm going to try

and help you learn what these words mean and there's a reason for it, so I'm going to be

serious for a second. I've been very fortunate that I get to teach people from all over the

world and it's one of the greatest privileges you can have, really, helping people learn

and introducing the world to them because once you learn a language, not just English

but any language, you open up the world to yourself. But I have to be honest, once you

open up to the world, the world sometimes is a little different than what you think

because when you live in your area, you have what's called a bubble and you live in that

bubble like a fish swimming in water and every once in a while when you go into the bigger

ocean, you notice there are some other things and some are good and some are bad. So this

particular lesson I hope will be useful to you because even if you stay in your own village

or city and you never leave the country, by learning English, you're going to be talking

to people who also speak English and they may not look like you or may not be from the

same place as you and if you travel and you speak English, well, definitely, you'll find

people of different cultures and that who speak English. So I'm going to speak maybe

a bit slower in this one because I want you to clearly get this one, okay? So in prejudice,

we're going to learn about it means because it's in the lesson, there'll be five words,

okay? Now, all of these deal with what's called generalization, to make general. When you

make something general, you take the highest and the lowest and you just say, "You know

what? The middle ground covers everybody." Now, you already know if something's high

and something's low, there's a difference. They're not the same. So to put them in the

middle and say they're the same, right? Move them to the middle, isn't always going to

be true. Now, in life, we generalize, that's what we say, to say, "Look, I can't look at

every situation and know exactly what it's going to be. So I'm just going to make a rule

and I'm going to live by that rule." That's 100% okay as long as you know when you get

to a specific situation, you put aside the rule and you look at the situation. In this

case or these cases, people don't put away the rule. They live by the rule no matter

what evidence or what proof is in front of them. So let's start off with the first one

because this usually starts it, okay? Now, usually people have likes and dislikes. "I

like you." "You like me." You come back and you see Mr. Wormy, Mr. E, right? He goes here,

"Mr. E." Okay? He thinks it's a Mr. E why people don't get along. We're going to explain

it. But usually people start off with something called a bias. A bias is a preference. "I

like chocolate ice cream." "You like vanilla ice cream." "You are biased for vanilla. I

am biased for chocolate." In this case, we're usually actually number three in the definitions.

It means a preference for something or against something. It's not bad. It's just a preference.

Sometimes you hear men talk about women and say, "I'm biased for blondes." All it means

is they like women with yellow hair. They don't hate other women. They just like those

-- that's their preference. But sometimes what happens when people have preferences,

they get really, really strong on the preference and they won't change. So imagine holding

a marker and you won't let it go no matter -- even if I need a red marker, I hold on

to the black marker. That doesn't help you, right? Because you need red, but you only

got black. And that's what happens here. It's when you show prejudice for or against something.

Unfairly. I mean, it's not even fair. It's like, "You like this because you like this

and you don't care what other evidence -- even if this thing is bad, you don't care." It's

unfair. So if you're a blonde woman and I say, "I have a preference for blondes." A

woman with dark hair we call brunette if it's brown. She'll go, "That's not fair. You didn't

even talk to me. She's not even a nice woman. She doesn't like cats, and you like cats.

There you go." Right? So it's a silly bias.

Now, from there, people who are biased, if they're biased unfairly -- as you can see,

we got the word "unfairly" here -- we're going to go down here and you're going to find that

they do something else. They try and influence other people's judgment unfairly. So you see

there's a correlation. Correlation means when two things go together or they seem to match

up. They start off with a preference, which is okay. Nothing wrong with that. Then, they

keep the preference and make it a hard rule, which they will not change. And when they

finish with that, then they go out and try and get other people to believe the same as

they do unfairly. That's the problem with bias.

Sometimes you hear North Americans talk about bias, and if you listen for context, you'll

notice that it's nothing bad. It's just like, "I'm biased against Porsches. I like Mercedes.

That's it. Nothing bad." Other times, you listen carefully, you're going, "Hold on.

That seems to be a judgment that's not fair." Or, "You're trying to influence me, and it's

not fair." Bias. These will be long, and I'm sorry, but you have to understand them to

use them correctly.

The next one comes down to prejudice. If you notice up here, we talk about prejudice, and

some of you, I'm sure, are going, "What does prejudice mean?" Well, "prejudice" is from

Latin, and it means "pre," which means "before." "Judas" means "judge." To judge before. So

if you look down here, we have, "Prejudice is a person who has judged a situation or

a person without or before" -- see? "Before" -- key here -- "before having an experience

with it." So they don't know what the thing is, but they know they don't like it.

A good example is somebody who doesn't like science books. I was teaching a class one

day, and we were looking at Scientific American, and I was talking to them about Schrodinger's

Cat, and one of my students right away said, "Teacher, we don't understand. We don't like

it. It's bad. It's bad." I went, "Okay." So then I changed it to make it a story, and

the same student was like, "That's so cool. Can it really be a cat would be alive and

dead in a box at the same time?" I went, "Ah!" See, because you were prejudiced against science,

you wouldn't listen to what I had to say, but when I made a story, you liked it, and

they're like, "Oh." You judged before you knew. You were prejudiced.

So "prejudiced" -- and you notice how "prejudiced" plays a part in being biased, because you're

judging before the situation. Now, "prejudiced" -- a prejudiced man or woman -- it's an adjective

to be prejudiced. "Biased" is also an adjective. We have "-ed" endings. Now, there's a lesson

on "-ed" and "-ing" adjective endings. Go check it out. Okay, now, I'm going to come

by -- this is the final one, I think is the root, the reason for the rest, okay? But we're

going to go over here. Now, once you become -- you know, we said "biased" starts it, leads

to "prejudiced." There are two very specific types of "prejudiced," and we list them as

separate because they are very strong in the world. We either have "racist" or "sexist."

Okay, well, "prejudiced" is to judge. That's all I said. It means to prejudge, yes? But

when you are -- well, let's do the biggest number, which is "men" and "women." Female,

gender. Well, some people, if they're men, they think women are down here and men are

up here. Or some women actually believe women are up here and men are down here. When you

believe that your sex is superior -- and look at the word "super," which means "above,"

and another one is "inferior," "below" -- then you are "sexist." Another word for "sexist,"

or "sex," is "gender." So, "gender" means "man" or "female." "Sex," also in North America,

means "man" or "woman." And "mf" means "male," which is "man." Say "m," "man," and "female,"

right, which is "woman." So, believes their gender, sex, or if they're male or female,

you're superior to the other. The world is a big place and people have different beliefs

and cultures. I understand this. Where I am in Canada, we believe that men and women are

equal. Not the same, but they're equal in rights. So, if you believe that women are

underneath men, we would say you are "sexist." Or if you believe that men are underneath

women, you are "sexist." And believe me, sexism can come from both sides, right? A lot of

women believe men are stupid, lazy, and other words I won't use, because women are so much

better. These women are "sexist." So, some men think that only men should have jobs and

women should stay at home because they're not smart enough to work. These men are "sexist."

Right? Cool? Next, here's my favorite one. Well, it's not my favorite. It's my least

favorite, but it's one you should look at. Do you remember we said prejudice leads to

sexism because you judge before you know. You don't look at the individual situations.

You make a judgment and you just go with it. In this case, you think sex. Man good, woman

bad. Woman good, man bad. In racism, you actually look at skin color. You look at the skin color

and you give attributes, which are another word for traits or characteristics, to a person

depending on their skin color. You don't get to know them because you've already judged

them from what you've learned in the media or what have you, and you don't actually try

and get to know them to see if the rules follow. In this case, a "racist" is someone who believes

skin color gives benefits to a group, whether that be intelligence or moral character, or

it takes away from another group intelligence or moral character or physical abilities.

Right? And here's something interesting because Mr. E, "He spoke about this." Get out of here.

Beat it. We're not paying you. Pay you in peanuts anyway. Okay. Mr. E had mentioned

something interesting. He was saying some people are actually racist, and in a way that's

quite funny. He said, "You can be racist and not really be racist." I went, "What do you

mean?" He went, "Well, some people actually believe that another group is better than

their group because of their skin color." And I thought it was weird, and then I thought

about it. Weird means strange, by the way. And I thought about it. It's true. Some people

actually believe that another group is superior, and they are actually racist because they're

separating the races by saying, "This group is superior because of their color, while

my group is inferior because of its color." Now, that's scary. Okay? I usually like to

have fun, but I hope that's not your view in the world, right? Okay? Because when it

comes down to it, we're all equal. I like to say we're all fallible, which is fallible

human beings. We all make mistakes, and it makes us all even. Whether you're the richest

man or the poorest man, the smartest woman or not the smartest woman, we all make mistakes,

and that brings us all to the same place, right? But anyway, that's just me.

So when we look at sexism and racism, or a sexist person, a racist person, right? You

notice "sexist" is an adjective, but a "racist" can be a noun or an adjective. It's hard to

say, "You are a sexist." Usually, "You are a sexist man" or "a sexist woman." I'm going

to say sometimes you go, "You are..." You can say, "You are sexist," but it's still

adjective use, yeah? Okay? But a "racist" can be a noun or an adjective.

So, the last one I'm going to do is, "Why does this happen?" Well, as Freud would say,

this happens because the subconscious has no concept of, "I don't know, Freud." What

I want to say is, "I don't know peep, but Freud is good." It would come from being ignorant.

Ignorance is an adjective. What does "ignorant" mean? Well, "ignorant" means a person who

does not have knowledge of something or somebody. We live in a great big world, and we know

that one place is not the same as another, but a lot of people -- this is where the generalization

comes in -- they know just something. They don't stop and think it could be different

other places, or worse, they don't know something. So, they make judgments or guesses on information

they don't have. Once you do that, you're going to be biased.

"Well, what I know is this. I don't know that, so I like what I know. I don't like what I

don't know or understand." Then you start prejudging things. "Well, I don't know it,

but I'm going to guess that it's bad or it's good because it's similar to what I do know."

Then we lead into the sexist and the racist thing. "Well, I'm going to start separating

things into these nice categories or groups of things I know and I don't know, and I'm

going to be biased, and I'm going to be prejudiced, and I'm going to blah, blah, blah." You can

see how it grows. So, one of the most wonderful things you've

done for yourself is opening yourself up to learning. Learning English is a first step

because in doing that, you're starting to learn that the grammar's not the same, the

vocabulary's not the same, people don't look the same when they speak. If you go back to

www.engvid.com, I'll write it up, you'll notice that all the teachers look different. You're

like, "What? But they all speak the same language. How can this be?"

Well, when you open your mind and you stop being ignorant, you allow yourself the opportunity

to get rid of your biases, release your prejudices, stop being sexist and not being racist. And

here's the deal. You can still not like people. No one's taking that from you. That's the

privilege of being human. "I don't like you!" Right? But at least you will do it from a

position of being knowledgeable. Now, I think it's nicer to say, "I don't like you because

I know this," than, "I don't like you because I don't know you, so you must be bad," or,

"It must be bad." Right? Kind of cool? Anyway, to get some more knowledge, because I don't

want you to be ignorant. I want you to learn. I appreciate the fact you put in your 10 or

15 minutes now. Go to www.eng as in English. Now, watch. I'm going to do something different.

I'm going to add another color. Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo. [email protected], okay, where you can learn

this and other subjects. Keep an open mind. The world's a big place. You just might like it.