Dear Editor,

Prejudice is a kind of slavery.

It is a preset posture of the mind which is similar to a function which would readily define a person by assigning him/her to a group instead of seeing him/her as an individual.

Prejudice is, therefore, a mass decoding process that has no time for individual differences if there is enough general evidence to categorise a person. For example, in an area where the community already has an unfavourable view of black people, a black man walking in that neighbourhood would immediately present the picture of a criminal, since his ‘class’ has already been predetermined and preserved for future reference.

That is slavery. The inability to free oneself from associating negativity and danger with all black people despite facts that demonstrate otherwise. There is no openness to probe or verify, for the truth is not an objective reality but a partisan servant of bigotry.

Some black people are equally inflicted with the same self-condemning prejudice despite what scriptures like Acts 10: 34-35 has to say: “Now I truly understand that God is not partial, but in every nation, the man who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”

To be emancipated from prejudice is to discover truth in its pure, unvarnished state, since truth is not blinkered or restricted except by its own freedom. That is why it is easy for a child to know the freedom of playing a game to the end before attempting to judge the outcome.

When liberty supersedes prejudice, war and strife are mitigated while human relationships increase.

Homer Sylvester

h2sylvester@gmail.com