Let's Understand Each Other: We Are Not Opponents

 

Have you ever avoided anyone just because they look different than you? Most people think that they don’t discriminate against anyone and that they treat everyone equally, however, the fact is that most people have taken actions based on their various biases. Most times, they discriminate against someone implicitly, while some people may have done it purposely. Discriminating behaviors against immigrants occur both implicitly and purposely as well as other types of discriminations, but in both cases, how you naturally perceive impressions when they encounter immigrants is often the cause of the bias and discrimination. According to Why We Instinctively Reject Immigrants (n.d.), it is human’s natural reaction to avoid people who look different and unfamiliar in order to protect ourselves. People naturally feel uncomfortable being with someone who they don’t think belongs to their own community, and they instinctively divide those “outsiders” into different groups from themselves (“Why We Instinctively Reject Immigrants”, n.d.). Therefore, it is not that you have a terrible personality if you think that immigrants are outsiders. It is a natural reaction of humans to think that immigrants belong to different groups than yours.

Now that you know that you naturally feel like protecting yourself from people who look different, speak different languages, and act differently. The important thing is to know that your brain does this instinctively but you can choose your own behaviors. Even though you feel a little uncomfortable when you first meet people from other countries, if you try to overcome this uncomfortableness and communicate with them, you will realize that your brain was giving you a false alert. Also, there are ways to stop your brain from making you uncomfortable when you see people from other countries. One of the ways is that you can learn and gain empathy for “outsiders” by mass media (“Why We Instinctively Reject Immigrants”, n.d.). For example, if you follow many people from other countries on social media and put yourself in an environment where you always see foreigners, your brain will get used to seeing those from other countries and allow you to empathize with them.

If many people learn empathy for people from other countries, it will promote social norms that encourage the acceptance of immigrants. However, it takes many people’s effort and cooperation to turn it into a social norm. I cannot accomplish this by myself, so I need your help with raising awareness and practicing empathy for others who you think are in different groups than you.

Don’t divide people into us and them. — People think that “they”, immigrants, are different from “us”, US-born citizens. Please stop dividing people by thinking if they belong to the same team as you or not based on where they come from, but please be inclusive, accepting, and understanding to everyone who seems different than you. They may look different, speak different languages, and act different, but you can understand them and they can understand you if you break the dividing wall.

Information Reference

Why we instinctively reject immigrants: And how we can overcome such bias. (n.d.). Harvard University. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/jenniferlerner/files/tan_wei_ming_-_why_we_instinctively_reject_immigrants_and_how_we_can_overcome_such_bias.pdf

Media Referece

Two groups people different teams holding a flag vector image. (n.d.). Victor Stock. https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/two-groups-people-different-teams-holding-a-flag-vector-26184785