People have the tendency to chase away a fly from a table with food, although the fly does not eat and does not bite. Why? Does the fly suffer from discrimination? For instance, people hear stories that (all) flies may transmit diseases without verifying this scientifically. Would people have the same reaction if they would know the fly better, for instance when they see the fly expresses cleaning behaviour? Why should flies have less efficient cleaning behaviour compared to domesticated animals, like domesticated dogs or cats? What do we really know about the efficiency of so-called cleaning behaviour in wildlife, and consequences for interactions among so-called species? How often do living beings suffer from an unfounded reputation? In what conditions do people generalise when they hear one story or see one event? Is the human discrimination reaction towards insects or other living beings an innate response inherited from ancestors, or is the human reaction towards insects or other living beings based on individual experience? Is discrimination a safety response towards the 'unknown', for in the case that knowing the 'unknown' takes time? Do discrimination reactions results from a lack of individual perception abilities? For instance, all flies look the same, so there should be no substantial difference across individual flies in how they behave and live, and therefore all fly phenotypes are treated all in the same way. However, if flies would always be dangerous why do birds, like flycatchers, consume them? What fraction of the time flies are sitting on food in a kitchen (e.g. fruits) to be consumed later in the day? How many bananas contain fruit flies?
Interesting question Marcel, I am not sure am knowledgeable enough to answer. But I will nevertheless try:
It seems to me that people descriminate for a number of reasons:
(1) For the fear of being disturbed in their comfort zone,
(2) because it is much easier to descriminate than to understand, since understanding requires investing time and effort, therefore learning,
(3) because of the uncertainties in their lives, people prefer to descriminate because it give them the psychological assurance of controlling uncertainty around them.
Discrimination comes from my point of view from what is "unknown" and prejudice.
Mostly people think immediately of Black and White, but within "Black" and within "White" discrimination also occur. Regarding the flies, it has to do with the information gathered through the years on those insects and what we really do not know about them, better be safe than sorry, I think. I really think that discrimination comes at every age, race and culture, and is often done unconsciously. My reaction towards discrimination is the following: why should we people discriminate, how rich, white, beautiful and mighty we think we are, we when no longer alive, will have to share the same habitat (soil) in case we do not get a cremation. If we all try not to kill and live in harmony and be honest and kind to each other and our environment, the world will even forget that discrimination is a issue!
Kind regards,
Shirley Mahabali (Suriname)
People discriminate based on their Knowledge, beliefs, values and their life experiences.
I shoo away house flies, because I believe that they carry microorganisms that could transmit diarrhoea perhaps. Being next to an oil palm plantation where chickens are also bred for McD use, we have 10000s of house flies. Our ICC project to shoo off house flies is to place plastic bottles containing colored water on the tables of the cafetaria. Seemed to work :)
I shoo off mosquitoes because I have had 1 experience of dengue fever. So I'm back to 'Knowledge, beliefs, values and their life experiences.'
Hi Miranda,
So you only 'discriminate' when there is no alternative or will it depend on the living beings weighing each time costs against benefits??
Actually Marcel, I admire the BEAUTY of the construction of the BODIES of mosquitoes, house flies, worms etc etc. Otherwise, I wouldn't be a biology teacher :))
“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.”
― Bertrand Russell
Interesting question Marcel, I am not sure am knowledgeable enough to answer. But I will nevertheless try:
It seems to me that people descriminate for a number of reasons:
(1) For the fear of being disturbed in their comfort zone,
(2) because it is much easier to descriminate than to understand, since understanding requires investing time and effort, therefore learning,
(3) because of the uncertainties in their lives, people prefer to descriminate because it give them the psychological assurance of controlling uncertainty around them.
Dear friends, this is a message against discrimination. Discrimination doesn't just apply to little insects or disease causing creatures. Just read the link, thanks. Today is Deepavali or Diwali, celebrated by our Indian friends.
'Vatican wants end to discrimination, violence
October 21, 2014'
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/10/21/vatican-wants-end-to-discrimination-violence/
Well, the most basic reason is that people discriminate because that have been taught to.
Indoctrination, mass media policies, repetition, excess of prejudices, lack of information, closure in one' own culture, and the like, are openly or tacitly teachings that people receive day after day, one generation after the other.
It is, i.o.w., sort of Machiavelli: Spllt and rule!
Does increased visibility to belong to a social group, e.g. as reflected in culture-based cloths/biology-based phenotype, influence the probability of discrimination? Why is religion linked to obvious signs of external clothing style?
Dear Cecilia, here it's very different from US. It has led to 1 million people emigrating away, and my own large extended family has shrunk. I'm not able to talk too much either.
Dear Marcel, your last question is interesting: 'Why is religion linked to obvious signs of external clothing style?' Religion should be spiritual and internal, not over conforming to or concerned about clothing styles. Perhaps clothing is an easy way to distinguish people, so clothes become a 'uniform'.
Discrimination arises from ignorance and rests on power relations. It also depends on positionality; someone belonging to a dominant group in a certain setting may become part of the minority in another setting, so the same person can be a perpetrator or victim, depending on his positionality in a given context.
The roots of discrimination, bias, and oppression are generated in the cycle of socialization that we are all normalized into since our early years, where anyone who does not confirm to our prescribed views of them is then deemed 'deficient' and thus prone to discrimination. It takes courage, conviction, awareness, reasoning, and empathy to break free from this cycle. It may not be easy, but isn't impossible either. In fact, I strongly feel that mainstream education is too one-sided and needs to emphasize just as much on mindfulness and heartfulness, as it does on intellectual development.
As for the fly, and our general disapproval of it, the underlying reasons are probably hardwired in our need for self-preservation since flies are viewed as carriers of disease-causing pathogens. The fact that they are very fast and almost impossible to trap, makes them seem all the more annoying. The universal displeasure with cockroaches also lies in very similar reasons, the threat of contamination accompanied by their own physical resistance. Insects like moths and ants are viewed with far less animosity for the same reason, and aesthetically pleasing ones like butterflies, fireflies and ladybugs are even photographed with much admiration.
Discrimination comes instinctively and can be enhanced due to Education.
What is the difference between discrimination versus the neutral observation that biology-based variation exists?
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