Ignorance a Formidable Obstacle

Te Ao Hou, September 1965, Page 14

Ignorance a Formidable Obstacle Insofar as human nature is responsible for this mental distortion, we cannot cure it. We can take certain steps to prevent it, we can guide, and teach a rational approach; but we cannot suppress or stamp out a person's way of thinking. The ultimate decision lies within each person. Probably the greatest contributing factor in the nurturing of prejudice is ignorance, which grows fundamentally from lack of personal contact between the prejudiced and the prejudged. People who cannot be bothered going out of their way to find out more about other races tend to arrive at set conclusions from the largely inaccurate opinions of others. These opinions are applied to the pre-judged race as a whole, and they may become exaggerated as they pass from one person to another. Members of that race who have proved themselves contrary to the stereotype are either irrationally ignored, or are regarded as very rare exceptions who can be divorced from the inflexible general impressions gained of that race. Ignorance is one of the most formidable obstacles to closer human understanding. Our immediate problem concerns the need for improving the theoretically harmonious, but in fact indifferent relations between our country's two main races, Maori and Pakeha.