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Prejudice and Discrimination Essay

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Bethany Norris – Unit 1 – Prejudice and Discrimination Part One Prejudice: The dictionary defines prejudice as an unfair and unreasonable opinion or feeling, especially when formed without enough thought or knowledge. This means that a person may form an opinion on a person or a particular group of people without having any facts or knowledge about that person or group. Prejudice is normally perceived as being bad but there are some instances where prejudice is an aid to survival for example if you see several scruffy men parked in a van in a dark alley, you will form a pre judgment that they must be up to no good so you choose to not walk down the alley. They could simply be movers, but healthy prejudice tells you not to take the …show more content…

Society was not kind to deaf children, there was no compassion or understanding and most children did not realize they were deaf because no one took the time to explain to them. Families felt embarrassed and ashamed of their deaf offspring, some families even decided not to have any more children for fear that they too would be deaf. Deaf men were also discriminated against during the First World War as they were deemed unfit for service, however, deaf soldiers would have had a distinct advantage over the soldiers who could hear as they would not get shellshock or distracted as easily by the surrounding noises. Some doctors believed that deafness was cause by a blockage in the ear and others believed it to be a brain dysfunction either way deaf people in asylums were subjected to horrific procedures such as needles being pushed into their eardrums and lobotomies. Deaf children often became strangers within their own families and were often rejected and abandoned this led to low self worth and extreme depression in some cases. As deaf children had no knowledge of language, as it was rarely taught in deaf schools, they developed their own ‘sign language’, which differed from school to school. This sign language was not universal and was normally only understood by the children at that particular school. Sexual predators also targeted many deaf people, as they were

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