What Can be Done About Prejudice? by Kenneth C. Gartner Are you prejudiced? Or rather, to catch you out, are you not prejudiced? I don't like admitting it, but I am. If you can say that you are not, you must be practically unique. But if for example you dislike Roman Catholics, or think that all Maoris are generous, then I'm afraid that you must join the countless ranks of offenders. No-one escapes the tentacles of prejudice. It may be towards race, colour, nationality, religion, class, beliefs, or even towards other tribes within our own race. Whatever is involved, whether it be trivial and harmless or serious and pernicious, it is prejudice. When someone's ideas and beliefs are prejudiced, he is incapable of forming impartial opinions on the subject concerned. When he acts on these distorted judgments, he is showing unfair discrimination. Thus, when A says he doesn't like Maoris because they are dirty he is prejudiced, but when A refuses to rent his house to a Maori because of his opinion of Maoris, he is discriminating.

Race and Colour Racial and colour prejudices are probably the most prevalent ones in New Zealand, and are those with which we as Maoris are most concerned. Racial prejudice is the result of a gradual accumulation of biassed generalisations culminating in the development of a ‘stereotype’ of a particular race. We hear therefore of Italians who are all bad-tempered, of Australians who always swear and gamble, of spendthrift and lazy Maoris, of Jews who have crooked noses and hoard their money. Nor is such prejudice one-sided. Many whites are prejudiced towards coloured people, but at the same time they may be prejudiced towards people of their own colour, for instance European immigrants; many Maoris are prejudiced towards their coloured neighbours the Islanders, and vice-versa. Colour prejudice is not always as clear-cut as racial prejudice; often it is more refined and subtle. For instance, a ‘fair’ half-caste Maori may manage much more easily in European company than a darker half-caste. The latter would be more conspicuous than the former, and Europeans may be more tempted to avoid him, especially if other Europeans are around. At socials and gatherings many Europeans feel too self-conscious and scared to associate with a person of coloured skin; they feel themselves being singled out, and wonder what their European friends may be saying about them. European parents whom I once knew found it impossible to accept the idea of their daughter marrying me and bearing ‘throw-back’ children. Not that they had anything against me personally—in fact, they thought I was a ‘very nice chap’—it was just that, well, they had to protect their daughter (and themselves too, I suspected) from the gossip of neighbours, if we had dark children. This is colour prejudice.

Economic Factors There are many reasons for prejudice, but some seem to be more universal and significant. One of these is to be found in the economic gains which often follow prejudice. In the nineteenth century Maoris were generally regarded as inferior to the white settlers, and this was felt to be an excuse for depriving him of the asset reserved only for more civilized and worthy people—land. In South Africa the Africans are kept in virtual slavery, partly to provide essential cheap labour and services for that country's (or more accurately, the Africaans') economy. And in the United States discrimination is also an economic necessity; if it were not for this, Negroes would be competing directly for white men's jobs, causing hardship to the white man and a lowering of his living standards.

Political Reasons Political stability and ambition may also be a cause of prejudice; the success of some political parties has depended largely on their ability to carry out programmes of domination and repression of a minority race. Hitler's