Prejudice.

Why do we ever listen to "others". These others with their opinions settle over one like a gritty vale excluding the real world with "their" take on what they have 
contrived as real.
We form most of our opinions second, third  fourth hand and rarely first. This highly filtered opinionated world of events marks our prejudice and distorts the actual. We see everything through a dirty windscreen smeared and distorted.
Our take on our fellow human beings is equally manufactured. The media, the innuendo, the gossip are all at work to discourage the true picture. Especially now, the "Internet", un-alloyed with rules or bothered by guilt is a bar room place for shopping our prejudice. We are safely more than an arms length away from any sort of retaliation if we hurt or misappropriate a persons culture or tell a story which is not only untrue but hurtful. We side with the majority irrespective of how well informed that majority is. We laugh at serious dilemma, we poke fun at people who are not in a position to argue their case.
I was reflecting the other day how in so many occasions in my life I have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and yet nothing happened and I had enjoyed the simple welcome of people who would be described by "others" as dangerous.

Soweto in the 70s was not a place a white South African would go because the prejudice and fear that was created by Apartheid made Soweto seem like Hell's Kitchen.
My German friend Carl had lost one of his lead workers and we decided to attend his funeral in the heart of Soweto. Not only were we welcomed by the family and mourners but absolutely no hostility was shown by anyone. We had breached a gap in human relations by acknowledging our respect and this was reciprocated by everyone.
On Christmas Eve In a bar in Newark, just after the riots in that town I entered this African/ American environment because I was drawn to the music and being a 'Pommy abroad' I felt at ease to go in and have a beer. The only white face in the place I excited some interest but having established my credentials I was open to being just one of a crowd and not afraid to be there because I had no prejudice.
Prejudice distorts the facts and it should be the facts which we are after to form our own opinions. These opinions will only be true in so far as we make an attempt to be as honest as we can, not only with others but with ourselves.