Others – who are you?!

by Joanna Socha, HIA Fellow

Gypsy! Jews! Gays! What did you think about when you just read these? If you could add some adjectives to each group,, what would it be? Is it easy for you to define them? Do you have to see them to have prejudice against their competences or personality?

Why did I ask about those particular groups? The adjectives here are probably more specific than if I were to ask you to describe white men or heterosexuals. The definition of the “normal” is broader as we tend to accept that there are various people among the whites for example, and not necessarily among the homosexuals. “Maybe if our son’s favorite teacher turned out to be gay after we had been biased against them, we would change our mind?” – Dr. Michal Bilewicz asked at the HiA Poland session devoted to the construction of prejudices and stereotypes. He presented the results of the research of The Center for Research on Prejudice, an interdisciplinary research unit at the Faculty of Psychology of University of Warsaw. He also explained the universal mechanisms which lead to discrimination, violence and hate speech and how they are constructed. The goal of the session was to present the key paradigms of social psychology regarding the “human nature”.

So who are the “others”? Prof. Zdzislaw Mach from the Center for European Studies of Jagiellonian University explained how it depends on the country’s history and changing identity throughout the years. The case was Poland and its very long struggle and fight for independence and freedom. The very engaging lecture turned into a lively discussion on who are the marginalized “others” and why some countries (including Poland) developed so strong emotions and prejudices towards some of the states. We tried to understand the context of the Polish attitude and the impact it has on how other countries perceive Polish people in exchange.

The last session was a lecture by Eugeniusz Smolar, HiA Poland Board Member about the history of the Solidarity Movement in Poland and its influence on today’s political situation of the country. The speech was particularly important for the international fellows, who have not discussed the Polish history at their schools. Thanks to that they could understand better the link between the difficult fight for freedom and current lack of trust of Polish society towards “others” generally. Are Polish next generations going to influence society’s attitude towards different cultures?

We were looking for the answers in the last lively discussion of the day. Participants were divided into six working groups and brainstormed on key topics raised during the intensive day. We created mind-maps where we could add our thoughts and feelings regarding the topics raised during the day. We agreed that there are so many marginalized “others” at every stage of developing Polish society’s identity and so many points of views that there is still a lot of things we can add to discussion every day of the fellowship.

The sessions were a part of the Humanity in Action Poland 2014 Fellowship  “Incubator of Ideas: Transformation, Democracy and Human Rights”. Young leaders from the U.S. and Europe gathered in Poland to discuss the democracy and Human Rights issues in the context of the Polish complex past and the present. After the brief introduction, we focused on the important topic of prejudice and stereotypes. Let the intellectual adventure begin!