# How to face rejection by discrimation

While racism is the most obvious way to experience unfairly [biased](mind-bias.md) rejection, there are many ways to be a victim of others' prejudice:

Everyone has a [bias](mind-bias.md), and you might just be unlucky to have your [culture](people-culture.md) of origin:

- Born the wrong skin color or [ethnic association](people-family.md) for that country (i.e., a minority race).
- Born into the wrong family (i.e., a lower [social class or caste](classes.md)).
- Born with the wrong brain (i.e., [neurodivergent](mind-neurodivergence.md) like autism or schizophrenia or mental disabilities).
- Having the wrong [religious affiliation](religion.md) for that part of the world.
- Having a prior [criminal background](hardship-criminal.md), irrespective of how you [changed](people-changes.md).

Expect prejudice to follow you everywhere.

- Often, moving to another culture will migrate you into a different kind of prejudice because you're an outsider.

Learn to accept it.

- Everyone is entitled to their opinions, even when it's a severe misjudgment of the truth.
- The only thing you can do is focus on improving yourself and ignore them.
- Find a simple way to defuse the conversation, either with something that calmly dismisses their attitude or [humor](humor.md) that breaks the tension.

Even when they don't say anything, other people *do* see your mistreatment.

- The reason they don't speak up is because they're often either quietly trying to survive or don't know what to believe.
- Frequently, if you demonstrate above-average moral character, they'll quietly support you.

Cut down on bigotry by redefining yourself:

- Age discrimination is usually by younger people, mostly because older people *were* once young.
  - To look younger, [lose weight and get in shape](body-3_exercise.md).
  - Shave off hair to look younger as a male, and grow it out to look older.
- Race discrimination usually establishes itself upon skin color, but sometimes on [family background](church-family.md).
  - Most of the time, it's between whites and non-whites, but often blurs into [cultural aspects](people-culture.md) as well.
  - Use a nickname that's similar to the culture you're trying to integrate with, or consider legally changing your name to something commonplace (e.g., "Ahmad" in a Middle Eastern country).
  - In the USA, *any* Spanish race of any amount on documentation is "Hispanic or Latino".
- Gender discrimination is usually either against males or LGBetc.
  - Given the [taboo](morality-taboo.md) nature of asking sexual preference, you can easily claim whatever you want and change it as needed.

There's never anything wrong with sincerity about your unfair treatment, but never condemn or attack others:

- Directly assaulting people, verbally or physically, creates one of several forced conditions:
  1. That person meant well and failed, so you're causing harm to them that you shouldn't.
  2. That person didn't realize how much they hurt you, but you've now made them an enemy, and they'll attack you back.
  3. That person was legitimately malicious, but they'll twist your reaction against you.
  4. If that person is *unbelievably* patient and slow to react, they *might* avoid assaulting back.
- The only way you can get out of your situation is to [creatively](mind-creativity.md) *avoid* the people who harm or oppress you, *not* attack them directly.
- If you feel compelled to attack anything, be harsh on the problem (such as the ideas to justify the belief) and soft on the person or people.
- Human nature is extremely fickle, so they likely don't realize how much they've hurt you and may even become your ally in a decade if the situation plays out correctly.

No matter what you do, you *will* make enemies, but don't be afraid of them:

1. They must be [motivated](purpose.md) to hurt you.
2. They must be able to hurt you.
3. They need a conviction, often [moral](morality.md), to follow through with it.
4. And, most importantly, they must believe they can get away with it.