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`` Don 't Just Stand There `` By Diane Cole

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Prejudice is an issue that is alive and well in society today. Many people are willing to speak their mind and say exactly what they think without giving thought to who might be hurt by the words that they speak. In a culture where people can be very easily offended, prejudice has become an issue that must be addressed. In her essay "Don’t Just Stand There", Diane Cole expresses her ideas towards prejudice. She says that people should stand up to prejudice in order to keep people from being hurt. People may not always change when they are confronted, but confrontation allows somebody to address the problem. Confronting prejudice can have a positive effect on people because it may allow people to realize what they are saying, it can help change the way that people think, and it can stop the acts of prejudice. First off, confronting someone on prejudice statements can help them realize what they have said. Prejudice is not always intentional, and some people may say things that are unintentionally offensive. They would never know that what they said was wrong unless somebody confronted them about it. Cole says that, "he may not have realized that the comment was offensive"(Cole 312). What the author is saying here is that people can be spoken to respectfully, and that they can be confronted in a way that allows that to realize and correct the problem. There are always going to be people who speak without thinking first, and as a result they will say something that they do not

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