Prototype an Advantage or Disadvantage?

Society has a way of making assumptions based on one’s physical characteristics. Often at times we categorize individuals to a particular social group. In regard to society’ perception of an individual this however, contributes to the development of social construction of racism. Most people want to be identified as individuals rather than a member of specific social group. As a result, our social identity contains different categories or components that were influenced or imposed. For example, I identify as a, Jamaican, Puerto Rican and a person of color. I identify racially as a person of color and ethically as Jamaican and Puerto Rican. According to Miller and Garren it’s a natural human response for people to make assumptions solely

According to psychologist, Pam Nugent, belief perseverance is the “psychological phenomenon in which there is a tendency to persist with one's held beliefs despite the fact that the information is inaccurate or that evidence shows otherwise.” (Nugent) People tend to maintain and protect their beliefs that they have obtained throughout their lifetime. Because of the the prejudice and bias they embrace through social representations, people try to defend their opinions and reasonings about a particular situation even when conflicting findings prove differently.

One of the most prevalent themes throughout the world’s history is the dispute over race and racial differences. But, there is a problem: the majority of the population doesn’t have a clear understanding of what race is. Race is a socially constructed grouping of people that was created in order for people to differentiate themselves from one another and has many sources of influence. While most people believe race is determined by biological characteristics (hair type, skin color, eye shape, etc.), this is not true. To make things more complicated, there is no cut and dry definition to race. Authors of Race and Ethnicity in Society, Elizabeth Higginbotham and Margret Anderson, claim that there are seven different distinct ways to define race. They begin with the popular belief of biological characteristics, and, as mentioned before, through social construction. They go on to note that race can be formed from an ethnic group, from social class rank, from racial formation by institutions, and also can form from one’s self-definition (Higginbotham & Anderson, 2012, p. 13). All of these ways to define race have been seen throughout our history, and many of them have caused problems for minorities, especially in the United States.

Few people are going to openly admit to being prejudice against people of other races, gender, and religions. However that doesn’t stop many of us from having unintentional racist thoughts. In 1979, Henri Tajfel, a social psychologist, proposed that “the groups which people belonged to are an important source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to the social world.” This ideal of categorizing and subconsciously labeling ourselves is better known as “Social Identity Theory”. Tajfel continues by saying “In order to increase our self-image we enhance the status of the group to which we belong. For example, England is the best country in the world! We can also increase our self-image by discriminating and holding prejudice views against the out group (the group we don’t belong to). For example, the Americans, French etc. are a bunch of losers! Therefore, we divided the world into “them” and “us” based through a process of social categorization (i.e. we put people into social groups). This is known as in-group (us) and out-group (them). Social identity theory states that the in-group will discriminate against the out-group to enhance their self-image.” We all unintentionally discriminate against others that are in the “out-group”, and by doing this we are excluding ourselves from certain religions, cultures, races, and even genders. This ideal of labeling ourselves can be traced back to childhood and factors such as where we

You see what you see, you hear what you hear but do you always believe what you see and hear. Most people do believe everything they see and hear because they only remember what confirms their own bias. We as people associate with others or certain medias that support the beliefs we have, and our memories help us remember information that can be used as proof to make what we believe seem true. The only problem that stands in the way is if the information we are receiving is true or not. There is where most of us go wrong we don’t fact check we just assume. We assumed pizzagate was true without even considering it. Almost everyone uses confirmation bias wheather they realize it or not. Confirmation bias is used to show intelligence and boosts self-esteem, it is heavily influenced in the news outlets and social media, and has a huge effect on society today.

They decide to do this in order to provide the reader with a clear understanding of what they will be focusing on throughout this book. These two experienced scholars divide this book into nine chapters with subheadings in each. Beginning with an overview and summary of what they will be talking about throughout the book and ending with a provocative conclusion that forces the reader to think about the information given, the authors do an exceptional job at securing the reader’s focus and attention. The two scholars commence the first chapter with a history of prejudices in America and state that “concerns regarding race/ethnicity are not new” which further demands that the reader think and contemplate on how many acts of prejudices has occurred in the United States as well as relate it to the present (Gabbidon, Shaun, and Helen Green 315). Gabbidon and Greene continue to discuss various trends in different aspects of crimes. They examine elements such as hate crime trends including what group of people commits the most hate crimes as well as the most prevalent victims. Throughout these chapters, the two scholars provide the reader with numerous tables and graphs as well as plentiful in text citations, further developing trust between them and the reader. Moreover, it conveys that they have done a sufficient amount of research in order to

It was so easy to generalize against a group of people that they failed to realize at that age that those certain instances do not apply to a group of people because they all share the same trait. As adults, they learned that they experience instances where they want to say that a certain action happened because “they were black”. However, their experience in third grade makes them realize that they have seen everyone of every color act similarly. Examples of positive of negative actions can be seen across all sorts of groups of people, yet it is the negative

Sometimes, when people hold beliefs, they rarely and deliberately search for counterevidence that disproves their beliefs. This leads to people having confirmation-bias. Kathryn Schulz describes confirmation bias in her book Being Wrong as "the tendency to give more weight to evidence that confirms our beliefs than to evidence that challenges them" (Schulz 124). In my experience, people sometimes completely dismiss evidence that counters their beliefs, no matter what the source of the information is. As an example, one of the beliefs that I had was that the drinking age should be lowered by a few years to give young adults the chance to find out how alcohol affects them, so that they can make more responsible choices. What I had not considered,

Stereotypes are loaded with derogatory associations, suggesting inferiority, irresponsibility, immorality, and non-humanness (Perry, 2014, pg. 76). They provide both motive and rationale for injurious verbal and physical assaults on minority groups (Perry, 2014, pg. 76). Acting upon these interpretations allows dominant group members to recreate whiteness as superiority, while punishing the Other for their

Another example could be later in the story when the boy was going to go see if he can play at his friend's house, just then the presumably white mother repudiated it because he was not of the same skin

This fear of society’s shows how discrimination and stereotypes come

Confirmation bias is a tendency of people to prefer information that reinforces a thought or believe that they have. People demonstrate this bias when they retain information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotional issues and for deeply rooted beliefs. (Science Daily)

Racial discrimination has always been a common social issue for the past couple of centuries. Even as times change and racial inequality decreases, discrimination is still an evolving and ongoing pattern inscribed in people, whether one is consciously aware of it or not. This paper will tackle the racial discrimination that is inevitably passed on to our youth and children. Using the search keywords “children racism,” this paper will argue that, although most people try to avoid inscribing racial tagging in our youth today, children will still be exposed and, consequently, develop racial profiling and judgments, whether it was taught or self-realized.

Belief perseverance is the act of resisting change in our ideas and beliefs once they have been created. When there is evidence that leads us to believe in something, it is very hard to shift away from that belief despite any contradictory information about our original views (Nisbitt & Ross, 1980). Belief perseverance interferes with critical

The study of prejudice, stereotyping, and racism has been a major theme in social psychology reflecting concerns of society (Jost & Kay, 2010). History of colonization contributed to Europeans’ prejudice against people of color (Tuffin, 2004). For centuries, racism was used to justify the advancement of European nations. In the 18th century, the