In the United States, the old aristocrats in Northeast China look down on the upstarts 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 China and Henan Province. In Europe, Germans are often ridiculed as lacking in humor and rigidity, while the French are ridiculed as surrendering. Before World War II, there was geographical discrimination against Irish people in Britain, which led to Ireland's independence from Britain in the late1920s. In China, Shanghai and Henan are easily labeled as geographical discrimination. Discrimination against Shanghai is because people always think that Shanghai is discriminating against foreigners, while Henan is always discriminated against. Even in the province, regional discrimination can be seen everywhere. Southern and northern Jiangsu, southern and northern Anhui, and central and eastern Sichuan are all cases of regional discrimination.
From countries to big cities to urban villages, an ecological contempt chain runs through the whole society, and everyone may be involved in this contempt chain, and no one is spared. Whether it is discrimination or being discriminated against, it is perfectly normal. However, existence is not necessarily reasonable. No matter how many high-sounding reasons are used to describe this "normal", it does not mean that it is correct. In modern civilized society, regional discrimination can only be tied to the stigma of "moral correctness" after all.
Why is there geographical discrimination?
From birth, people begin to establish contact with the world. A baby gradually learned the dialect of this place and began to agree. "This is my city. I belong to this city." . Everyone is inevitably closely related to the city where they have lived for a long time, and has been labeled as this city. Dialect or accent is the most obvious connection. When we are in other places, our identity will be simplified to a fixed label, such as "Shanghainese", "Henan" and "Hebei". It is this irresponsible simplification mechanism that leads to regional discrimination everywhere in life. When a thief in Henan province is caught stealing, people often don't pay attention to what kind of person he is, what kind of education he has and what happened, but choose to focus on the fixed fact that he is from Henan.
You know, in fact, most people are not rational enough, and "one size fits all" is a common problem for everyone on the planet. Prejudice and discrimination against a person from Henan or Shanghai can easily expand into discrimination against all people from Henan and Shanghai. Isn't there a female guest in If You Are the One who discriminates against all Ningbo people because she was dumped by her boyfriend in Ningbo? Fixed and narrow prejudice will lead to a "social stereotype", and this cognitive framework will easily give people a kind of cognitive illusions: "Hey, he is from Henan, mostly a thief" and "He is from Shanghai, and he will definitely discriminate against me" .......................................................................................................
Once this prejudice goes to extremes, it will turn into a kind of hatred, and hatred will turn into violence, and violence will aggravate hatred. If this escalates, it will be those innocent people who are injured after all, and those who vent their anger and hatred are as meaningless as playing house among children. Geographical discrimination is just a boring and vicious carnival of a group of people.
Although such words are not on the table, there is no doubt that society is such an atmosphere. The uneven development between regions has given a huge space for regional discrimination. The gap in economic, educational and cultural levels between different regions is inevitably reflected in social psychology, which forms the sense of superiority of people in superior regions and the sense of inferiority of people in inferior regions, and psychological asymmetry leads to regional discrimination. People in advantageous areas often look for various reasons to despise people in inferior areas: poor accent, poor quality, and rustic clothes ... In fact, it is only because advantageous areas have the right to speak economically. You have money, and you have reason! At the end of last century, people all over the country were scrambling to learn Cantonese, and no one thought Cantonese was ugly. At that time, being able to speak Cantonese often symbolized wealth. Over time, the inferior area will be upgraded to the superior area, and the superior area will be reduced to the inferior area, and those who are laughed at because of their poor accent will turn around.
As a human feature, regional discrimination will certainly exist in human society for a long time, and it is impossible for us to ask everyone to completely abandon the psychology of regional discrimination. However, we can't hurt those innocent people because of geographical discrimination, let alone insult a person because of geographical discrimination. This is the bottom line, otherwise this person cannot be called a decent person, and this society cannot be called a decent society.
No matter where you come from, I hope you and I can be treated gently by others.