October 21, 2020
We Used to call it Prejudice
Being prejudiced meant you disliked others based on some perceived characteristic, usually race. Foreigners, people from other parts of the country, people who lived differently could also be the targets of prejudice, but usually it was racial, and it was interpersonal and behavioral. Prejudice was those repugnant “whites only” signs over doors and drinking fountains, abusive language, and denials of services. Prejudice was overt and attitudinal. It was anathema to who we thought we were. My father admitted to me that he had prejudices, although I never observed him to show them, and that he was committed to not transmitting them to us, his children. I realized that some of my older relatives were prejudiced. My father’s uncle made some crude remarks that shocked me, and my grandmother got scared if she saw a black person outside on the street. These things were puzzling to me and I thought they were wrong. We were not prejudiced; that was not acceptable. We were good people. I began to understand that my Italian grandparents faced prejudice for being immigrants from a faraway country where they were poor. They came to the United States in the early 20th century in hopes of a better life, which they built together through hard work and sacrifice, slowly overcoming prejudice as their children were educated and assimilated into American society. When my mother expressed interest in attending college, my grandmother squashed her dreams, saying, “What do you think you are, American?” Actually, she was, having been born in the country in 1925, but the shadow of foreignness and sexism still hung over the girls. My uncles became very successful, rising into the upper class, despite their unusual surname. The prejudice they faced was never the pernicious scourge of racism. Racism is pervasive in American culture, history,... View Article