Prejudice And Discrimination Essay

During the time I was born, in the 90’s, stereotypes were taught to children through school, family members, and media. “A stereotype is a mental category based on exaggerated and inaccurate generalizations used to describe all members of a group” (Bennett 91). As a child, I obviously did not realize I was being taught these cruel definitions based to categorize people into which racial group they should belong to. To put it another way, Bennett states, “As psychologists have pointed out, stereotyping is a natural phenomenon in that all humans develop mental categories to help make sense of their environments” (91). Provided that, I stereotyped my interviewee the same exact way numerous people stereotype me. For this reason, to better understand both the interviewee and myself racial identity, I consequently analyzed how we each portrait the world we live in.

For centuries, one of the most controversial aspects of society was racism. Minorities and ethnic groups are despised and viewed with abhorrence since the coming of the Industrial Revolution.

From the segregation and discrimination of African American’s to threats towards Muslims. Sadly discrimination in the United States is still happening today. These people that are affected are not equal to the other people who aren’t getting discriminated against. Studies show that it racism and discrimination is a big problem and it’s getting worse. “In a new nationwide poll conducted by CNN and the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly half of Americans -- 49% -- say racism is "a big problem" in society today” (Shoichet, CNN). Discrimination is a big problem and it’s only getting worse. Racial tensions are on the rise. The Muslim community has been repeatedly harassed and attacked because of their religion. “They have been harassed, fired from jobs, denied access to public places, and otherwise discriminated against because they wear hijab” (ACLU). Society sees them as future terrorist because terrorist in the Middle East claim to be Muslim. Society plays a big role in discrimination. “Racism is inevitable in any society” (Shoichet, CNN). There is always going to be racism is society. It’s going to happen to different people. That doesn’t mean that it should be brushed over or ignored. Society can manipulate other people into thinking that what they say is correct. “They perpetuate certain ways of seeing the world and peoples within that world” (Jiwani, Racism and the media). Society can change the way some people

What contributes to people becoming racist? Numerous factors contribute to the construction of people’s beliefs and ideologies. First, childhood environment plays a fundamental part in creating one’s identity, such as, residing in a monoracial neighbourhood, and family and friends’ sociopolitical view. Second, academic curriculum determines what information one receives. As each curriculum emphasizes varying aspects of historical background. For example, religious schools and racially homogeneous schools tend to have different academic curriculum. All of these components ultimately contribute to finalizing people’s mindsets: ignorance, religious belief, hereditary beliefs, and spatial and social isolation.

Language is arguably the most powerful tool in the world. Humans form certain stigmas to certain groups and is generally unintentional. Things like stereotypes are a common thing in our society. Even a name connected to a certain race, brings certain allegations about that person, may it be negative or positive. These negative allegations about a group of people eventually leads to prejudice. Prejudice can have enormous power over whole groups of people, like the social stigma of the Communist party. The author of this essay Gordon Allport graduated from Harvard College in 1919

Exploring and Defining Racism Works Cited Missing To define racism it is important to firstly define race. Race is defined as "a group characterized by closeness of common descent and usually also by some shared physical distinctiveness, such as colour of skin" (source: Modern Thought - Bullock and Stallybrass). Racism can be defined as "a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others" In the name of protecting their race from

Racism in our society has a long deeply rooted history. It has been in every part of our society and appears not to be getting any better. In order to fully understand racism one must look at the root cause of racism and the effects it has on an individual and a group. One must also look at the big picture of why there is the need for one group of people to think they are more superior than another and how it continues to progress. Experiencing racism is a traumatic experience and is something

When that happens then the words prejudice can be thrown around.As mentioned before, Is racism/prejudice psychological? The process of racism and prejudice has tendencies to arrange our experience in accordance to race into central and universal human brain processes.An article I read from “The Social Psychology of Cultural Diversity: Social Prejudice, Stereotyping and Discrimination written by Wright and Taylor,", says that “We create concepts in order to make sense of the endless complexity we encounter in our environment. This is a necessary part of human thought, allowing us to process information efficiently and quickly”(Wright). This means that if we did not create categories our lives and minds would be in a massive confusion. Also,in social groups we sort people into categories. People also uncontrollably distinguish members from their group are apart of from people who aren 't in their group. Additionally, people tend to evaluate people from other groups more negatively than people in their groups. This way, social groups easily give into stereotypes generally and to negative stereotypes in particularly. Because our world is filled with diversities and ethnicities we need to learn ways to reduce racism.

Devine (1989) argues that stereotypes are inevitable on the basis that stereotypes and prejudice coexist and that stereotyping occurs automatically. Devine attempts to prove this hypothesis in three experiments. Devine reasons that “as long as stereotypes exist, prejudice will follow.” This hypothesis is rooted in a correlation. Prejudice and stereotypes are related, however there is no clear evidence of causality; Knowledge of a stereotype does not mean an individual agrees with it.

In psychology, prejudice is different from discrimination. Prejudice is an unjustifiable and often negative stereotyped attitude that a person holds against the members of a particular social group. Whereas, discrimination is when prejudicial attitudes cause members of a particular group to be treated differently than others in situations that call for equal treatment. Thus, prejudice leads to discrimination. There are several factors that contribute to prejudice and discrimination, and there are many techniques for reducing the development of prejudice and discrimination.

Discrimination based on gender, race and ethnicity need to be eradicated from the face of the earth. In order to change our mindsets, we the people must put in the necessary effort it will take to remove these prejudices. Stereotypes are assumptions about people based on their traits, such as age, sex, race, etc. Stereotypes exist everywhere, all around the world. Stereotypical beliefs always seem to change over time and this is where we the people have the opportunity to counter discrimination due to stereotypes.

Stereotypes is one of the most common causes of racism. Through radio, through television, through the internet, through music, through books, and many alike, the real potential for stereo types to arise are an inevitable possibility. Parents, willingly or not, expose and teach their children, subconsciously, by saying statements and/or watching programs that involve racism. When there is a constant source of negativity towards a certain race, then it will eventually effect the overall opinions of the populous. (The 4)

Although prejudice and stereotype seem similar, they actually have two different meanings. While stereotyping involves the generalization of a group of people, prejudice involves negative feelings when “they” are in the presence of or even think about members of the group. “Prejudice comes from direct intergroup conflict, social learning, social categorization and other cognitive sources” (Ferguson). Not all stereotypes are negative; there are also positive and neutral stereotypes. Some stereotypes do not slander a race, culture, gender, or religion, but nonetheless generalize a group of people that may or may not be true. For example, some people say that all Asians are smart or good at math. Though people of Asian descent may often be more studious, not all Asians do equally well in school (Floyd, 62). Another common example of a positive stereotype is that all black people are good athletes, dancers, and singers. Though these are positive stereotypes, when people believe them, they don’t take into account that every person is an individual and different. A neutral stereotype

Another attribute that leads to racial discrimination is the way that people find means to justify their actions by degrading the actions of others. For instance, during the Vietnam War, American soldiers assumed that civilians of small villages were aiding the Vietcong. Based on presumption, the soldiers felt justified to torture the villagers and destroy their homes. “If we are able to convince ourselves that another group is inferior, immoral, or dangerous, then we can feel justified in discriminating against them, enslaving them, or even killing them”. The American soldiers deemed the torturing of the village people reasonable by convincing themselves that it would help destroy the Vietcong. Self-justification is apparent even in today’s society. Humans are always searching for excuses to justify our actions towards one another.

Society has always retained deeply rooted stereotypes in all aspects of life. Whether it is prejudice due to color, creed, or gender, we cannot ignore the differential treatment of specific groups that occurs daily in our world. Although much has been done to alter our views on such matters, can we really suggest that society