Study: You may be more racist than you think

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

There's a perception issue here in the sentence I deleted (because I'm barely going to address that) - that's because people who have advanced knowledge on a topic can come across as condescending when, in fact, they're not intending to be, and because people hate to feel inferior, abased or subjugated so they react harshly.

Here's the thing, though - when your doctor gives a diagnosis, you don't expect your opinion of illness to be taken as on par with the doctor's. When your attorney gives you legal advice, you'd assume a lay opinion would not be on equal footing or be taken with equal consideration.

So, along the same lines, when people with advanced knowledge of this subject drop some knowledge, don't think that it is meant to 'negate' your opinion, but rather to inform you of places where your opinion may be misguided, or to inform you of biases, beliefs or experiences that may color your opinion in ways you don't expect.

Nothing can "negate" an opinion. That doesn't mean all opinions are correct or well-founded, or that there is no way for knowledge to be interjected. It also doesn't mean your opinion isn't valuable - it's just not equally valuable as facts and knowledge.

Exactly.

People think that social phenomena are so subjective and socially constructed that there can't be any objectivity, concreteness, and therefore no understanding of these phenomena. That isn't the case. These concepts are about more than individual perception and opinion based on conjecture and emotions.

There are millions of people in this world and, yet, the more things change the more things stay the same. There are trends and patterns in all of this that surpass personal experiences (and opinions) that people think are so unique. Everyone wants to believe that they are different and that they are thinking/saying/experiencing something brand new.