Wheatley Dialogue LO10871

Dr. Ivan Blanco (BLANCO@BU4090.BARRY.EDU)
Tue, 5 Nov 1996 15:29:15 -0500 (EST)

Replying to LO10756 --

> From: Rol Fessenden <76234.3636@CompuServe.COM>

<<< Some stuff delete here >>>

> How does one not make a judgement on behaviors like racism or
> anti-semitism? I think we must. At the same time we may be able to see
> the roots of such behavior in ignorance, habit, fear, anxiety, and so
> forth. In this case, we may wish to condemn the behavior, but not the
> individual, especially if understanding will help alleviate the root
> causes of the behavior. Therefore, even within ourselves, we may wish to
> play different roles even simultaneously.
>
> Does this make sense?

It is difficult to not make a judgement in these situations. But this is
when the problem never ends. When one makes the judgement, then one acts
on it. Our bevahior will be based in that judgement. For instance if I
found someone who hates me because I am hispanic and I make a negative
judgement about it, then I jsut hate the person back. If I tried (easy to
say) to hold this jugement and make an effort to learn why the person
feels that way, I may even find a way to change that person's notion about
hispanics. MOst discrimination is the result of misinformation and/or
ignorance, without ignoring a few other factors.

In a conversation with Robert Bacal, he was saying that this is similar to
the advocacy that people are not responsible for their acts. I don't
think that I am advocating that. I think that not analyzing situations
from both sides of the judgement coin will leave you with incomplete
information about the event. For instance, many people think that the
prsecution in the O.J.Simpson case did a poor job. I think that they did
an incomplete job. They were so sure that O.J. Simpson was guilty that
they did not consider all the possible alternatives explanations to the
evidence in their hands. The defense team on the other hand approached
the case from the prosecution's point of view. What they did was to
figure out all the possible ways the prosecusion could use in linking O.J.
Simpson to the murders, and find the explanations to diminish the value
and/or weight of each piece of evidence. I think that, if the prosecution
had taken the defense team's position, the results could have been
different. Of course, this is just second guessing today and after the
fact!

Back to the racism and other forms of discrimination. A story of what
happened to me while I lived and worked in Oklahoma. After having
finished with my Summer teaching, I was sitting at a cafeteria when a
student from that same Summer class approached me and asked if he could
sit and tell me something. I said yes! He told me how he would drop a
class everytime he saw that there was a foreign instructor. He could not
do that in my class because, due to class arrangement and other things I
do during the first class meeting, he had to stay for the whole 2:00 hour
period (this is what he said). After attending the first full class, he
decided to stay and he said that it was a very good experience. After
that class, he changed his notion about foreign instructors. He left, and
I sat there for more time than what I had planned and my coffee tasted
better than ever before.

Thanks,

-- Ivan,

--

*************************************************************** R. IVAN BLANCO, Ph.D. Voice 305 899-3515 Assoc. Prof. & Director Fax 305 892-6412 International Business Programs Andreas School of Business _________E-Mail Addresses________ Barry University Bitnet: Blanco%bu4090@Barryu Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695 Internet: Blanco@bu4090.barry.edu <<<<< ---------------- >>>>> "Si un hombre fuera necesario para sostener el Estado, este Estado no deberia existir." "If one man were necessary to sustain a Nation, this Nation should not exist." Simon Bolivar ===============================================================

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