Prejudice

NYC cabbie: "There are two things I hate--prejudice and Puerto Ricans!"

As a man, maybe I'm not in a position to talk about sexism.  But I remember when I was little reading a children's book about Annie Sullivan, who taught language to Helen Keller.  She had a very difficult childhood:  trachoma damaged her eyesight, her father took to drink, her mother died of TB, and she ended up in an appalling poorhouse with her little brother, who died there. (The poorhouse flour had weevils in it!) But she got a break and ended up in a Boston school for the vision-impaired.

A few years later she read that the state was conducting public hearings into their poorhouses, so she went to one. (Nothing changed.) But the school's directors were furious with her and threatened to expel her.  Back in the 1880s it wasn't considered "ladylike" to attend a public hearing. (And she hadn't even spoken, just listened!) Fortunately, she was allowed to stay.

Why do I mention this? Because reading this story was really the first time that I got a sense of how unfair society could be to women and girls.

We all have some prejudices. Courage is being afraid but overcoming your fear; wisdom is being prejudiced but overcoming that!