8 ways people can be prejudiced with no regards to race

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Everyone talks about racism, sexism and homophobia, but what about all the other things that we tend to judge people on? Let’s take a look…

8 Fat People

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Example: “How can they let themselves go like that?” (This really means “How come I have to work so hard while they eat whatever they want?”)

Reality: Sometimes fit people look at fat people and are disgusted by them. Yes, we all know that fat people can be a burden on the health care system and their own wellness, but like snowflakes, no two fat people are the same, and we can’t pretend we know why they’re fat.

7 Drivers From Other States

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Example: “Oh, he’s just a Jersey road-douche, no wonder.”

Reality: The road is a place where human beings essentially see each other as car-shaped obstacles whose sole purpose is to aggravate us and keep us from getting where we want to go. It puts the ultimate squeeze on our free will, precious time, limited patience and energy, and that’s precisely why traffic pisses us off. So what do we do when we get cut off, boxed in or tailgated? Well, people often need to justify exactly why someone would be such a dick, so they classify them as “different” in order to differentiate themselves from said dickery.

6 Music

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Example: “Isn’t death metal listened to exclusively by devil-worshippers who do their grocery shopping at Hot Topic?”

Reality: Nope, in fact here are some metal/rock/punk rock musicians who are just like “normal” people:

Serj Tankian from System of a Down – Owned a software company
Tom Araya from Slayer – Was a respiratory therapist
Greg Graffin from Bad Religion – Is currently an author and UCLA professor
Dexter Holland from The Offspring – Was a PhD student of microbiology and is a pilot
Niilo Sevanen from Insomnium – Is currently an event planner at a cultural center
Gene Simmons from Kiss – Was an elementary teacher
Maynard Keenan from Tool – Currently owns vineyards and makes his own wine
Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden – Currently is a pilot and has an aircraft maintenance business

5 Automobile brands

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Example: “That BMW-driving motherfucker…he thinks he can cut me off just because he’s filthy rich.”

Reality: You’ve just put that driver in a category that aligns with the story you’ve created in your head. Maybe in actuality his grandma passed away recently, but left him the car in her will and he was just was just thinking about her memory and made a turn at the last minute. Then you found a reason to blame him because you’re actually just jealous of his BMW and needed to justify why someone would do that. Take a breath.

6 Clothing

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Example: “Why don’t you go suck Ed Hardy’s dick, you tool.”

Reality: If they’re wearing something from Hot Topic, they must be an unemployed, nu-metal loving pothead. If they like popped collars, they’re douche bags. If they like tight jeans, scarves and thick glasses, they’re hipsters. Maybe in the halls of middle school these assumptions would be accurate, but not anymore. Except for the hipster one, that’s actually a pretty good bet.

3 Technology

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Example: “You don’t have a smart phone? Are you from the 90s?”

Reality: Maybe having the latest technology is important for some, but not others. Seriously there are some pretty great things about owning crappy possessions.

2 Job

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Example: “Oh, he’s a manager at a grocery store? What an overachiever…”

Reality: A respectable living doesn’t always have to do with prestige. Stability, benefits, low stress and decent pay are just some of the attributes that make many professions that seem meager to some actually pretty appealing to many.

1 Smokers

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Example: There was never any reason to begin smoking cigarettes, so it was either peer-pressure (indicative of a weak, impressionable will) or stress (acceptance to mitigating pain from life’s problems rather than trying to fix them) that would cause a person to start and then continue to smoke those death sticks, right? Right!?!

Reality: “Back off man, I just like the taste.”