The Importance Of Prejudice In Society

Prejudice is when we have a preconceived opinion about someone or a group of people that is formed without knowledge, or even a real understanding about them.

Prejudice should not exist in this world. But unfortunately, it does and it always will somehow. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is an inspiring book and brings out hard truths about how the world used to be, about the great depression, and in some aspects how it still is today. It follows a girl named Scout and her family through three years of her childhood. Her father, Atticus Finch, took on a very big challenge to defend a negro for raping a girl. The book sort of revolves around this event. Prejudice is in many different forms of discrimination. Throughout the book it is demonstrated by race, class, and gender.

Prejudice is an opinion in which is not based on any reasoning, and may cause harm. Prejudice can be seen just about anywhere, and it affects our daily lives. There are many different ways a person can show prejudice beliefs, but why do they believe things they have never experience? Some may say it’s something personal with one’s self that causes prejudice thoughts, or some may think it their surroundings contribute as a motive.

“Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.”(Marguerite Gardiner Blessington). Over the years, countless people have fallen in to the dark abyss of prejudice because they merely following the trend of society. Prejudice is exactly what it sounds like; its root words are firmly planted. Prejudice may be defined as the act of pre judging someone because of their race, religion, sex, ethnic background, or can be based solely on how they look. Prejudice is a flaw in society many have dealt with for centuries, but one race has suffered in the United States of America where “all men are equal”, more than any other race in history. If all men are created equal, how could we treat people of a different color so unjustly? It is a travesty that cannot be forgotten and that can not, must not, and shall not be repeated. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee states the truth behind a world with closed minds. She put the world into perspective through her commentary that is still relevant today. Through her writing, we see the compassion, sympathy, and tolerance, or the lack thereof, from all perspectives: a father, a racist man, a confused woman, children, negroes, and a dear lawyer named Atticus Finch.

When scrolling through Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter we see images of  people who we look up to because of their physical appearance, that we consider beautiful and reject those who don’t meet the “ideal” standards of society because we are ignorant and don’t consider their feelings. Society's standards are constantly changing, as we try to meet them we ignore the value of the people around us. Instead, we should focus and set a goal to get to know people who we think are different from us.  In the novel To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Harper Lee conveys the message of if we humans learn to accept one another and set aside our predisposed beliefs of others we are more likely to understand them better, avoid conflict and gain new perspectives and bonds.

“The unemployment rate among blacks is about double among whites, as it has been for more than six decades” (Desilver). Some say that prejudice can still be seen in the modern world today. Prejudice is when a negative assumption is made about a person because they have a different opinion, race, or religion than others. In the modern world many people still have negative viewpoints towards people with no reasoning. Prejudice are not only seen today but also seen in 1933 in Maycomb, Alabama.

An American is a man, a woman, a child who came to the U.S. and started to grow and flourish to become the men and women that feel pride for their country and the freedoms they have through salutes to the country and leaving behind their past heritage to become a citizen of the U.S. We as Americans have very well tried to become who we are today by not being prejudice and not being without freedoms. We strive to be the best we can by saying our pledge of allegiances and our doing as much as we can for our country. Just as my grandfather does every morning by saluting of the flag always hanging in his yard up high.

In this modern world, prejudice is still a universal problem we still have yet to overcome. Although it is true that our society is much less prejudiced than it was 40-50 years ago, we are still struggling to create racial harmony in a world that is so diverse in terms of racial group, sexual orientations, ethnicity, nationality, religions, and so on. I think the core of prejudice comes from stereotyping, which is the generalization of motives, characteristics, or behavior to an entire group of people. In the world where media propaganda is ubiquitous, often times most stereotypes are not formed on valid experiences, instead they are based on images publicized by the mass media, or even created within our heads after seeing and hearing examples from many different sources, like movies, or even hearsay. Stereotyping is more powerful than we think, because it allows those false pictures to control our thinking that leads us to assign uniform characteristics to any person in a group, without consideration of the actual difference between members of that particular group.

People around the world face prejudice everyday. Prejudice has been around forever. They voice their opinions and through that comes with discrimination. They are criticized for their race, gender, or even how they act. They might not do anything wrong, but the way other societies and regions view them, they might have different opinions of how they act. Some people have dealt there way through prejudice, while others have to keep fighting for what they believe in or do. A single person might not even know who or for what they really think about someone or thing until they actually see it. In To Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Atticus Finch faced prejudice in their town for being ‘different’ or ‘weird’.

We as humans have a predisposition to separate ourselves from things we don't understand and the things we find to be different than ourselves. Harper Lee has done a good job of capturing this instinct, and showing the reader the evolution of prejudice amongst humans and how it can impact our society. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the most important theme found is Prejudice plays a big role in human interaction.

Judging others for things they cannot control is a central element of human nature. From race to disabilities, people are quick to make generalizations based on labels others are born with. For example, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, prejudice against others because of their family and social class is a major topic. The novel uses many of its characters to demonstrate how this type of prejudice affects people. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates that prejudices in a community limit how community members can succeed and be happy in life.

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.

Eurydice to Me "We are not the same. But we are somehow, one." (Veronica Roth) How often have you been comparing yourself to an ancient character from a play, but there is nothing to compare because of time or character? Most have had this experience but With Eurydice and me there are more similarities than not.

In today’s world, there are many social issues, like poverty, vandalism and unemployment. However, prejudice has become the most dramatic one. Prejudging people for their appearance is a common practice that humans perform. People are not only ridiculed for their color, but also by their religion, sex or age. Therefore, I consider that racism, ageism and sexism are the three major problems in our society and we need to cease them immediately. Much of our world’s history were based upon racism. In the 1600’s, white men used Africans as slaves and treated them as they were not human. "Colored" people were not even allowed to use the same drinking fountains as white people. Fortunately, in the last three decades, race

In this lifetime, prejudice is inevitable; it has molded history and continues to be a part of society. Prejudice is a burden to those who face it on the daily, and overtime, the only thing that has changed about it is the way it presents itself. The denial of environmental issues, like climate change, air pollution, and upon many more issues, make living on this planet unfit for wildlife, as well as humanity itself, despite being the sole cause of its destruction. The most difficult part of being a teenager in media res, is the dilution of large-scale issues.