Subconscious Prejudice

I had a Pride meeting tonight. People don't realize how much work is put into Pride, especially since the festival is June 4th and I'm already going to meetings.

Tonight, Brian and I were watching Lost. Up to this point, we knew that the plane that crashed split on two. The survivors of the front half of the plane are the main characters of the show. They think that all the people in the back of the plane died.

In this episode, a black woman named Rose tells someone that she 'knows' her husband, who was in the back of the plane, is still alive. People don't believe her and think she's only holding onto hope.

Later, we actually learn that there were survivors from the back of the plane. These survivors have captured some people from the first group. At the end of the episode, a man in the shadows asks people from the first group if they know a woman named Rose.

At this point, Brian said "It's her husband!"

When the man came out of the shadows, we learn that he's white.

Brian said, "Oh, that's not her husband."

I looked at him and asked, "Why can't that be her husband? Because he's white?"

It turned out that this is her husband. Rose and Bernard are an interracial couple.

I thought it was interesting that Brian immediately thought they couldn't be married. Why would a prejudiced thought enter the mind of someone who isn't prejudice at all? I think it's because Brian, who has lived his whole life in Utah, is a product of white culture.

When Bernard came out of the shadows, I didn't even think about his skin color. Is that because I haven't lived my whole life around white people? I've had lots of experience with people of different ethnicities: my parents are an interracial couple, I have a black uncle and a Mexican uncle, half of my high school in Texas was made up of minorities, and at BYU I had roommates that were African, Arab, Asian, Native-American, and white. I think because of those experiences, I don't look at race or ethnicities like other people.

That doesn't mean I don't make fun of them though.