Humans, by nature, are prejudiced. To those who are shocked by this fact of life, perhaps I can explain it this way: We all have a preference for certain groups or people over others.
Some of us prefer to spend time with people of a certain religious or even denominational leaning; others feel most comfortable with people of a particular socio-economic class. The majority of us feel most comfortable around people who share our particular cultural context.
Living is a largely subjective experience. Our personal lives are full of histories, experiences, beliefs and subconscious workings that often make interpersonal objectivity a fleeting idea.
Most people say they are not prejudiced. However, social scientists would beg to differ — and have repeatedly. In the landmark book “Emotional Intelligence,” by Daniel Goleman, social psychologist Thomas Pettigrew says, “The emotions of prejudice are formed in childhood, while the beliefs that are used to justify it come later. … You may want to change your prejudice, but it is far easier to change your intellectual beliefs than your deep feelings. Many [white] Southerners have confessed to me, for instance, that even though in their minds they no longer feel prejudice against blacks, they feel squeamish when they shake hands with a black [person]. The feelings are left over from what they learned in their families as children.”
Studies recent and historic have outlined with dolls, pictures and mock scenarios how perceptions of people who look certain ways are developed in children as young as 4 and 5 years old. They are often acting out of unspoken emotional influences, subtle behavioral codes and, on some occasions, the overt modeling from the adults around them.