Talk about the unreasonable regional discrimination that exists

I have a college classmate who is from Henan. When you see the word Henan, you can roughly get the shadow area in his heart. In fact, it is not just him, not just Henan people, the whole world is basically shrouded in the shadow of regional discrimination. In this world with few universal values, regional discrimination is prevalent all over the world. All mankind finally has a reason to shout that slogan: We are family!

In the United States, the old aristocrats in the Northeast look down on the new aristocrats in other states, Northerners look down on Southerners, Southerners look down on Northerners, Texans look down on everyone in other states, and everyone in other states looks down on Texans , while New Jersey enjoys the treatment of Henan Province in my country. In Europe, the Germans are often ridiculed as having no sense of humor and being old-fashioned and mechanical, while the French are joked about surrendering. Before World War II, there was also regional discrimination against the Irish in the United Kingdom. As a result, Ireland changed from The United Kingdom is independent. In China, Shanghai and Henan easily become labels of regional discrimination. The reason for discrimination against Shanghai is that people always think that Shanghai is discriminating against outsiders, while Henan is always being discriminated against. Even within the province, regional discrimination can be seen everywhere. Southern Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu, southern Anhui and northern Anhui, central Sichuan and eastern Sichuan are all cases of regional discrimination.

From the country to big cities to cities and villages, an ecological chain of contempt runs through the entire society. Everyone may be involved in this chain of contempt, and no one is immune. Whether it is discrimination or being discriminated against, it is completely normal. However, what exists is not necessarily reasonable. No matter how many high-sounding reasons are used to describe this "normal", it cannot mean that it is correct. In modern civilized society, regional discrimination can only be tied to the pillar of shame of "moral correctness".

Why is there regional discrimination?

From birth, people begin to establish connections with the world. A baby gradually learns the dialect of this place and begins to identify with this place, "This is my city, and I belong to this city." Everyone inevitably has a close connection with the city he has lived in for a long time, and is labeled by this city. Dialect or accent is the most obvious connection. When we go out, our identity will be simplified into a fixed label, such as "Shanghai people," "Henan people," "Hebei" and so on. It is this irresponsible simplification mechanism that leads to regional discrimination that can be seen everywhere in life. When a thief from Henan is found stealing things, people tend not to pay attention to what kind of person he is, what kind of educational background he has, and what happened to him. Instead, they choose to focus on the fact that "he is from Henan." A fixed fact.

We must know that most people are actually irrational, and "one size fits all" is a common disease among people on earth. Prejudice and discrimination against a person from Henan or Shanghai can easily expand into discrimination against all people from Henan and Shanghai. Didn't there appear a female guest on "Very Do Not Disturb" who discriminated against all Ningbo people because she was dumped by her boyfriend from Ningbo? Fixed and narrow prejudices will lead to the emergence of a "social stereotype". This cognitive framework can easily give people a cognitive illusion: "Hey, he is from Henan, he is probably a thief" "He is from Shanghai, he You will definitely discriminate against me”... All of this is just my own ignorance and prejudice.

Once this kind of prejudice becomes extreme, it will evolve into a kind of hatred, hatred will evolve into violence, and violence will intensify hatred. In such an escalation, the innocent people will be injured after all, and the anger and hatred vented will be as meaningless as playing house between children. Regional discrimination is just a boring and vicious carnival of a group of people.

Although it is not popular to say that one dislikes the poor and loves the rich, it is undoubtedly such a trend in society. The uneven development between regions gives huge room for regional discrimination. The differences in economic, educational and cultural levels between different regions are inevitably reflected in social psychology, forming a sense of superiority for people in advantaged areas and a sense of inferiority for people in disadvantaged areas. It is inevitable that psychological asymmetry will lead to regional discrimination. People in advantaged areas often find various reasons to despise people in disadvantaged areas: their accents are unpleasant, they are unqualified, their clothes are rustic... In fact, it is essentially just because the advantaged areas have the right to speak economically. You have money and you are justified! At the end of the last century, people all over the country were scrambling to learn Cantonese, and no one thought Cantonese was ugly. Speaking Cantonese at that time often symbolized wealth.

Once time passes, disadvantaged areas are upgraded to advantaged areas, and advantaged areas become disadvantaged areas. Those who are ridiculed for their bad accents and lack of quality will be turned upside down.

As a human characteristic, regional discrimination will definitely exist in human society for a long time, and we cannot ask everyone to completely abandon the mentality of regional discrimination. However, we cannot harm innocent people because of regional discrimination, let alone openly insult a person because of regional discrimination. This is the bottom line, otherwise this person cannot be called a decent person, and this society cannot be called a A decent society.

No matter where you come from, I hope you and I can be treated with kindness by others.