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Mexican American Stereotypes And Prejudice

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People also acquire attitudes by socializing with other groups, like teachers, television, parents and even religious groups. “Social learning approaches to stereotyping and prejudice suggest that attitudes and behavior toward members of minority groups are learned through the observation of parents and other individuals” (Myers, 1996). Investigators have found that differences in self-monitoring influence the link between attitudes and behavior. Individuals who are low in self-monitoring strive to make certain that their actions match their principals, values, and attitudes (Snyder, 1982).If a child that was raised in a white family that has negative attitudes towards blacks, will have principals, values and attitudes against black people. …show more content…

Although the two are not the same, they are commonly related, and either condition can be present without the other. Prejudiced people do not always act on their ideological bias. The Chief Executive, for example, might choose despite his or her stereotypes to hire the Mexican Americans. This will be prejudice without discrimination. On the other hand, a Black entrepreneur with a completely respectful view of Mexican Americans might refuse to hire them, because he would be afraid they would take their business elsewhere. In this case, the entrepreneur’s action would be considered discrimination without prejudice.
Prejudice can sometimes be confused with ethnocentrism. Prejudiced individuals and ethnocentric individuals have developed a negative attitude towards an object from a personal belief based on the differences of a racial, religious or ethnic group. Ethnocentric individuals believe that they are better than other individuals for reasons based on their heritage, while prejudiced individuals may not act on their attitude. Therefore, someone can be prejudiced towards a certain group but not thinking that they are better than the …show more content…

All people are raised in a certain way; therefore our beliefs, values and knowledge will be based on what we were taught through our childhood and our teenage years. By the time people are adults, they will already have an attitude towards something, it will be hard for most of the people to change the way they think and think differently than the society they are surrounded by. It requires being brave to brake the chains that attach people from certain groups that are a majority and make a stand from the minority groups. Knowing that they are going to be discriminated or even punish like in other countries, is not something that everyone has the bravery to

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