Understanding hatred and intolerance
Transcription
The podcast discusses racial, ethnic, and religious hatred worldwide. It highlights the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream of a society where people are not judged by their skin color. Hate crimes are fueled by fear, ignorance, and anger, leading to the dehumanization of unfamiliar groups. The speaker shares personal experiences of racial segregation in his high school. Psychological research shows a link between self-hatred and racial hatred. It emphasizes the importance of accepting diversity and living in peace. The episode concludes with an invitation to share opinions on the topic. Welcome to DocTalk, Explorations in Psychotherapy. This is your host, Dr. Alan Schwartz. Today's podcast is focused on all forms of racial, ethnic, and religious hatred around the world. We recently celebrated the birth and life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was a black civil rights leader and was murdered at age 39 for no other reason than he was a black man fighting for justice for black people and for all of us. Hatred of others must end. Here's the quote from the very inspiring speech he delivered the day before his death, and I quote, I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. What causes people to commit hate crimes? According to the American Psychological Association, hate crimes are an extreme form of prejudice, and they're made more likely by social and political change. Public and political discourse devalue members of unfamiliar groups, and offenders may feel that demographic changes threaten their livelihood and their way of life. Hate may not motivate offenders, but rather fear, ignorance, and anger. These can lead to the dehumanization of unfamiliar groups and target them for aggression, as the American Psychological Association. Racial hatred motivated the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King. I grew up in the Bronx, a borough in New York City, during the 1940s and 50s. The population of the borough was primarily Jewish, Irish, and Italian. Gradually, as America grew more affluent, families moved away to the suburbs, where they owned their own homes and left the urban environment behind. Black and Hispanic families replaced those who moved away. Now, there was still a large remaining white population in the Bronx, but they gradually moved away as well. Their reasons for moving may have been mixed, but by and large, they were frightened of these new people moving in. During my high school years, where I attended DeWood Clinton High School, and that was in the North Bronx, a very large school with 3,000 students, what always amazed me was that during the lunch period, black kids sat together in one section of the cafeteria, white kids in another section, and there was a small area in between where black and white kids, clearly friends, sat together. Now, none of this was enforced by any school regulations. This is the way the kids organized themselves. Psychological research shows a strong relationship between self-hatred and anxiety, and it results in racial and ethnic hatred against anyone perceived as different. Psychologically speaking, people project their self-hating feelings about themselves, self-hating, onto others. Of course, it's unconscious. It's not consciously deliberate. So, for example, a person who is depressed, and this is not true of all depressed people, but a person who is depressed may hate many aspects of themselves, and so they cast off these self-hated characteristics and then, again unconsciously, project them onto or into others. So, when such a person looks at someone of a different race or religion or ethnicity, they see what they hate about themselves and then hate this other person. In psychoanalytic terms, the way of putting this is that the split-off aspects of ourselves that we hate, we project onto others. It's important to understand that people in other countries also express racial, ethnic, and religious hatred. There are warring groups all over the world. What's alarming is not just that there are wars, but that in a world, a technologically advanced world, where there are no great distances, everything is nearby. We get news from the most distant places around the world. In reality, those are not distant places. Consequently, it's essential that we learn how to accept one another, accept our worldwide diversity, and live in peace. Dr. King represents tolerance, tolerance, acceptance, diversity, and understanding amongst all groups. What are your opinions? You can send them in to me at email aol.com. This brings to a close this episode of Doctalk Explorations. In psychotherapy, I will see you next time.
