You know those conversations when a person tries overtly hard to prove they aren’t prejudiced? The conversation almost always goes like this
Someone: “That sounds like you are <insert prejudice here>”
Person: (Surprise, Anger, Raised Eyebrows) “Me? <Insert prejudice here>? <****> I am so not. <X%> of all my friends are <insert prejudice criteria>”
Now let’s begin! What the devil is with this statistic? Do you track this prejudice statistic every time you make a friend? That in its very essence makes you prejudiced! Some of you will jump and say “No I just took a ball park figure”. This isn’t an estimation game. You don’t get brownie points for having a high number. Besides we both know that the number you just threw is not the exact representation of the people with that prejudice that you interact with. So please stop. You aren’t fooling anyone.
Its just quite sad that our brains are wired to process this tactic in the way its not supposed to. So stop being suckered into people who use it.
P.S:- Someone once said “34% of all statistics are made up on the spot!”