We are ignorant!
Ignorance is said to be "the absence of knowledge or information about a subject or matter" or also "the lack of culture or instruction of the person who has not received training or education." The word comes from the Latin ignorare, which means "not knowing".
If someone told us that we are ignorant we would probably be offended, but the truth is that in one way or another we are all ignorant, because there is nobody who knows everything.
The problem is that ignorance makes us act wrong or make mistakes.
In the case of people, ignorance causes injustices that bring great pain.
There are countless examples of people who are mistreated, despised [scorned] and even hated because we know nothing of them or their situation.
The simplest explanation as to why we act like this is that by nature human beings fear the unknown. Even if it is someone else, knowing nothing about him/her, we think about the possibility that he/she is bad or that he/she can cause injury to us personally or to our way of life.
This may seem like a normal reaction, given that it’s our defense system. The problem is when that reaction is induced by someone who makes us think that someone else represents a risk for us; and not knowing what to do, we choose the easiest thing… and that is to join the majority who by ignorance, despise the person in question. Of course there are always bad people and it’s better to act with caution, but on top of that, to despise someone because of their religion, skin color or because he/she speaks a different language that we don’t understand ... there is a huge difference!!
In modern society we have many ways of informing ourselves well before we act. For a principle of equality and justice, let us give the benefit of the doubt, but above all ... let us not support the culture of hatred!
