Police National Search Centre
Fear of disability
One of the police officers said:
“I’ll start. I used to hate disabled people. Particularly disabled drivers. Their special parking spaces annoyed me and I would deliberately park in them when off-duty. I thought if you can’t walk why the hell should you be driving? I was quite comfortable about my prejudice and never questioned it. A few years ago I met, fell in love with and married a wonderful woman. Then, a year ago she developed Multiple Sclerosis. Each morning I watched the woman that I love get up in pain and I know that every extra step she takes hurts her. She drives to work and I know how important her disabled space is to her. And soon she’ll be in a wheelchair. And now I’m the greatest advocate of disabled spaces and will get out and remonstrate with other drivers if I see them take a space and they are not disabled.”
Looking back I realised in our family we never talked about disability except to make fun of it. I was a traffic cop and I was terrified that a disabled driver might be involved in an accident and that I would be too embarrassed to help them and do my job properly and I realised that it was fear and ignorance that was driving my prejudice.
The atmosphere in the room had changed completely, not into embarrassment but into an eagerness to share more stories.
Loss of identity in a changing culture
A warrant officer indicated he would like to speak next:
I used to have an obsessive hatred of Asians that kept me awake at night for years. I thought they were going to take over my world and take away everything that was familiar to me. Then I was posted in Kenya in a predominantly Asian community and as my children brought home Asian friends and I met their parents my wife and I developed some of our closest relationships and maintain those friendships to this day. When I think about it now it becomes clear to me where my prejudice came from. When I was 18 I left Liverpool to complete my basic training. When I came back to Liverpool there had been the influx of Asians into the area escaping the regime of Idi Amin. St John’s market changed dramatically and I felt that everything in Liverpool was unfamiliar to me. I had mixed up losing my childhood identity in the army with the arrival of Asians in Liverpool. Rather than recognise that my childhood was over I blamed them from taking it from me.
Stories from the war
A third participant who had so far been reluctant to talk started,
“Ever since I was a kid I hated Germans based on what my Grandfather said they were like during the war. My surname is of German origin and all my life I have fought people who make comments about it and wished it wasn’t mine. Then when I was posted to Germany and worked with German soldiers I developed a deep respect for their efficiency and good practice and of course really enjoyed lots of the German woman. When I returned from that tour of duty I talked to my Grandfather about my change in attitude and he explained that although he had told me stories about German atrocities he too had had the utmost respect for their abilities as an army. I realised I had misunderstood the passion with which he told the stories which was with respect and not with hate.”
The stories continued, we had established a safe environment for people to talk openly about their prejudices. This is a crucial part of diversity training as it is a safe way to engage with our own prejudice and it builds a model of the conditions necessary to overcome prejudice.