Tuesday 2 March 2021

Is it prejudiced to think someone's hair or clothes look daft?

The Black Lives Matter campaign has caused me to think about prejudice and stereotyping. It's also caused me to reflect on how campaigns on important issues get hijacked by militants, thereby losing some of the sympathy and support which could have helped make real progress. More on that point on another day, perhaps, but for now here's an item on prejudice I found stuck in my drafts that I thought I'd published months ago.

I've confronted myself recently over whether - or maybe how much - I am prejudiced against Jews and Muslims. Especially after reading excerpts from David Baddiel's thought provoking book Jews Don't Count. I probably am so prejudiced to some degree, against both at once. Indeed at times I'm sceptical to the point of prejudice about almost all religions, then I have a word with myself about tolerance.

We have a Jewish maternity home somewhere near us which caters for the, to me, rather weird beliefs Orthodox Jews have about women who have just given birth being unclean. (And for twice as long if it's a baby girl than boy!) So it is not unusual here to see orthodox Jewish families with the males dressed in their traditional garb and with their rather odd looking hairstyles to match. We've seen such a family walking out in the Welsh hills, minus the presumably pregnant or just delivered mother, a good few miles from the nearest road, struggling with a buggy and several children in what is unarguably unsuitable clothing for the location. Not long ago we saw a similar family, the young father protecting his already bizarre headgear from the rain with a transparent plastic rainhood, rather like a shower cap. Mrs H and I snorted. Is that prejudiced, I wondered aloud? Whether it is or not we both thought it looked funny.

But then we know that funny hairstyles and strange clothes are funny, as evidenced by so many comedians down the years:




It's probably a response from deep in our evolved human psyche to laugh at something that strikes us as strange. And all of the above characters want to be noticed and found amusing - don't they? I assume, of course that the Jewish family we saw don't want to be considered "funny", or maybe don't care what I and others think, which is fair enough.

Nevertheless, I've decided that it's not prejudiced to think that a person looks daft, that's just a view I'm entitled to hold. Of course in the case of religion and culture other factors come into play. I also think I'm entitled to find the slaughtering animals to some religious practices inhumane and therefore objectionable. As I understand it kosher meat requires the animal to have its throat cut generally without stunning and many halal-certifying authorities agree, though some allow non-penetrative forms of stunning and 85% of halal meat in the UK does come from animals which have been stunned. Some countries, New Zealand and Denmark included, have made stunning a legal requirement, whatever the religious beliefs of their consumers. I'm with those countries and don't really understand why this hasn't become the case in the UK. I suppose, contrary to what the some handwringers would say, we are actually a very tolerant society, being tolerant of practices that many people would have reservations about.

However, on the dress code aspect, I would maintain to the last a person's right to dress how they wish. After all, I cling to some residual remnants of ageing hippiedom, including a person's right to look a berk. I know some Muslim women say it is their right to wear the veil but I think it is society's responsibility to protect such women from rationalising what I see as male hegemony over them into something they believe is their choice. So I would have backed a bar on covered faces for security and general humanity reasons, but that might be a debate and issue that covid19 has affected; we'll see the Asian-style wearing of masks by some folk now however the pandemic progresses.

I also support a person's right to their religious views provided they don't harm others or involve cruelty to people or animals. While also maintaining my right to find many religious beliefs and practices antedeluvian, some of them harmlessly so, but some not in my opinion.

Authorities taking action against individuals for their beliefs or appearance has never sat well with me. As an impressionable teenager during the 1960s Summer of Love I started to significantly increase the interval between haircuts.  I'd been the subject of some remarks I found tantamount to harassment from the woodwork teacher, a pervy bloke who was also a regional scout leader (yes, I know, very Stuart Hall/Jimmy Saville....). But one lad in our year who was well ahead of me in terms of hair length was summoned to the headmaster and told to get it cut or be suspended. He did look a bit of a berk with long hair, but then I became an expert at that - here I am photographed a couple of years later with my school football 1st XI. I don't think I need to tell you which pillock is me:


It didn't look as daft when it got a lot longer....at least that's what I thought.

Anyway, I didn't know this lad Paul well, but he became an anti-authoritarian hero for me when he turned up for assembly the next day after receiving the ultimatum having had the first skinhead cut seen in the school. Indeed the first seen by many of us anywhere. Totally shaved. To me he looked even dafter (and a bit sinister) with his skinhead. But the panic Paul induced in the school authorities, followed by the inevitable suspension while his hair grew back, was absolutely hilarious.

Just as I thought the Orthodox Jew looked hilarious in his traditional garb with a shower cap over his hat. I accept that the comedians pictured above want to be considered funny - and probably the politician - but it's still a natural reaction to find funny hair and clothes funny. Even if we stifle the laughter out of politeness, it's still conscious reaction. so I consider it my right to think the Orthodox Jew looked a pillock and (anonymously as far as he's concerned) to say so here. I wouldn't say it to his face because that would be rude and it's his right to go about his business peacefully, albeit looking a complete twerp in my opinion.

Just as I've done myself on many an occasion. These days usually on a golf course.

PS If you don't know him, the middle "comedian" above is Milton Jones. We  hired Milton for one of our annual CEO's "town hall" addresses to the staff one year, as it was just before Christmas and, having run workshops on safety, innovation and other topics in previous years we decided to do something different. The employees all turned up to the suite at the football stadium we traditionally hired, expecting a formal session before refreshments and a late afternoon into the evening Christmas disco/party. They certainly got a surprise when the CEO introduced Milton. His 20 minute set was a scream and I distinctly remember seeing him ruff his hair up to make sure it was sufficiently in disarray - and, yes, funny - immediately before going on. Straight after the gig it was neatly combed. I spent a lot of time in management meetings while I was with the company, but the one in which, after scratching our heads for a theme, we decided to hire a comedian and spent all morning throwing out ideas, checking out cost and availability was memorable. You wouldn't believe how much the marquee comedians can charge for a short set: Tim Vine, Jeremy's bro' and master of the one-liner, was eye wateringly expensive. Milton was super value and you should have seen the faces of the staff, sitting there expecting a dry powerpoint presentation!


2 comments:

  1. Interesting that you're willing to talk about your prejudices and even try to explain them. I'm an atheist but support folks right to hold religious beliefs no matter how I view them. But what you are really talking about is tribalism, people who look or act differently. Of course tribalism leads to all sorts of trouble as it can mean my tribe is right your tribe is wrong or even a threat. And tribalism leads to cultism - some Breixteers became cultists did they not?, Trump supporters certainly became cultists. It's being able to recognise that this process it taking place (prejudice, racism, tribalism, cultism) and making sure you don't engage or get sucked into it. Trouble is that many don't see it coming or recognise it when they are a part of it because simple answers to complicated issues are all too easy to accept.

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    1. Good point sir, it is tribal. And most of us belong to a tribe (or several) and unwittingly subscribe to the tribal orthodoxy even if we don't acknowledge it.
      And all I was doing was trying to rationalise whether I should feel guilty for snorting at someone behind their back....

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