Prejudice
By Sarah Mckee
What is Prejudice?
Prejudice describes a mindset which unfairly categorizes a group of people,or a single person, in a hostile or unfriendly way. Prejudice is an attitude that you feel towards someone, and it is often mixed up with discrimination, which is a behavior that you act towards a group of people.
My Views on Prejudice
Prejudice s usually a negative attitude felt toward a certain group of people. I personally feel that prejudice happens to often towards sexism, racism, and homophobia. I feel that prejudice commonly happens because media has scared people into believing one certain viewpoint on a group of people, which causes them to generalize them all as the same. This makes people's behaviors shift more negatively when they are faced with a person involved in that group. Prejudice happens so much in our world today, and it is hard to escape it.
Examples of Prejudice
Imagine walking down a dark street and seeing 4 elderly men walking down the street towards you with canes. You would most likely not be threatened or feel in danger while passing them. Now trade those elderly men in to 4 twenty-three year old multiracial men. While you are walking in the dark neighborhood and they are walking towards you, you are more likely to keep your guard up, feel you heart beat a bit faster, or make more of an effort to avoid walking next to them. This is common in our world today because media and news has made it clear to us that if there are young men walking around at night in a dark neighborhood, they are most likely dangerous, drunk, or trying to start trouble. This is an example of how your attitude changes when you put a certain group of people in a situation, and your attitude changes because of who they are.
Another example is one that was big especially after 9/11. While going through our American airports, or boarding a plane next to a man, or group of men, who look even remotely like they are Islamic, many Americans would start to feel worried, unsafe, or start to act distant towards the group.
The Daily Life of Being a Homosexual
Prejudice has calmed down very much in terms of homosexuality, but there are still a lot of times when prejudice has effected me through my life. I play basketball and I go to the gym, but it would take me hours to convince myself it is ok to go into a woman's locker room. I did not use a woman's restroom for 12 years while I went to public school, I either held it, or used the nurses restroom. This is because every time I caught myself walking into a woman's restroom, anywhere I went, people scattered out because they thought I was a boy. When I go into the woman's locker room at the gym, many people cover themselves up with their towels, or move into the bathroom stalls to get dressed. I understand people do not fully understand who I am, and they do not mean to have a different attitude toward me, but it happens every single day.
The effects of Prejudice and Discrimination
What We Must Do To End Prejudice.
We must focus on building relationships and opening up our minds to people who are different than us. We must realize that the media feeds their viewers mainly negative news because they enjoy informing on the hate and fear in the world to make people talk about what they say more. We need to take time to converse with those we think we are scared of because of what the media has told us about them. we need to know that we should not generalize one group of people as one certain thing. Everyone is unique, every gender, race, culture, ethnicity, and every age has millions of different things to offer. Stop generalizing, start realizing that everyone is a different person.
References
Galinson, S. (2015, November 18). Prejudice, Racism, And Stereotype - A Haiku Deck by Sydney Galinson. Retrieved March 20, 2016, from https://www.haikudeck.com/prejudice-racism-and-stereotype-education-presentation-SNxbrABn1B
Morris, C. G., & Maisto, A. A. (2016). Understanding psychology (11th ed.). Pearson Education.
The effects of Prejudice and Discrimination. (2011). Retrieved March 20, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AtRk4tx13k