Many people have prejudices based on race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, country of origin, etc that hinders them from living a happy, productive life. People are often racial profiled, harassed, bullied, assaulted and killed because of prejudice. The number of hate crimes have increased significantly over the last decade. According to BBC The number of hate crimes in 2016 was 6,121 – about a 5% jump from 2015. Nearly half of them were fueled by racial prejudice while others include sexual orientation and religion. Prejudice: Why can’t we all just get along ?There is a significant difference between prejudice and discrimination. Prejudice is about an attitude and discrimination is about behavior. One of the main explanations of those two things are prejudice. Often times people behave in a prejudice way because they believe something to be true about individual(s) because its the social norm. They just grow to accept it without questioning it. An example of prejudice is having a bad attitude towards foreigners.
Prejudice can have a strong effect on how people behave and interact with others. Especially those who come from different backgrounds. Sex, race, age, sexual orientation, nationality, socioeconomic status, and religion are all factors that cause people to behave in a discriminatory way against others. prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination Categorizing things are how humans process things. There is always too much going on around us for us to think logically. To simplify our thought process, we resort to categorizing them too quickly. Prejudice and stereotypes emerge from this. Stereotypes help us process high volumes of information that would otherwise overload our brain. A common stereotype is that all asians are smart .
When we categorize things, we tend to focus more on the differences between groups than the difference between people in certain groups. Out-group homogeneity bias is a phenomenon where people perceive others from a different group as being all the same while thinking theirs is diverse. Benevolent prejudice is a seeming positive type of prejudice that is expressed in terms of positive beliefs and emotional responses. Though it associates supposedly good things with a certain group, it does a great job ofkeeping the group in inferior positions in society. In an experiment, Caucasians viewed African Americans as hostile, cliquish, irresponsible, and loud. In that same sense, the same White American believed that African Americans were athletic, musical, religious, and had strong family ties. When African Americans were tested, they said that White Americans were self-centered, greedy, stuffy/uptight, and sheltered from the real world. In same tongue, they said White Americans were intelligent, organized, independent, and financially well-off.
Another type of prejudice is hostile prejudice, hate for people of a different race, religion, ideology, with a disability, from a different country, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Benevolent prejudices can help justify any hostile prejudices a person has toward a particular groupSexismThis is prejudice or discrimination based on someone’s gender. More prevalent, against women. Sexism is the belief that one sex is above the other sex. It places social constraints on what men and women can and should do. It is a form of socialization that establishes gender roles for both men and women are not as strong or as capable as a man. Especially when it come to logic and rational reasoning. According to this view, women are supposed to be friendly, passive, nurturing and emotional therefore women would not make good leaders.
Women are just as as capable as men but their roles are devalued when being compared to man’s work. Misogyny is the extreme form of sexism against women. In societies where misogyny is common, there are a lot of brutality and mistreatment of women. Rape and domestic violence are prevalent. In almost all cultures, women are objectified and sometimes even as a property. Patriarchy is an agenda sexist people are trying to push. Nationalism is the loyalty to one’s country, exalting it above others and strongly promoting of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations. In order words, nationalism is when someone sees their country as superior to others. It is a form of in/out group thinking, and it encourages the “Us. vs Them” attitude. Nationalism encourages exclusion and prejudice attitudes towards anyone who is part of “them.” Classism. This is the differential treatment based on your social class or what people perceive your social class to be AKA prejudice. It is a system that oppresses certain class groups in order to advance and strengthen the dominant other. It assigns characteristic of worth and ability based on one’s social class. This includes individual attitude and behaviors, systems of policies that makes the rich richer at the expense of the poor, and cultures that has accepted and maintain these things.
Middle class people are seen as more intelligent and hard working than the lower class folks. In this way, the wealthy middle class people serve as an example of what is “normal” in the class hierarchy. The lower class sometimes accept the beliefsand attitudes of the upper class. Overall, classism allows for preconceived notions to form against certain classes of people and puts us into categories as rich and poor. Sexual Discrimination. Homosexuals and bisexuals are not safefrom prejudice or stereotypes. A “homophobe” is a person that has a deep hatred for homosexuals. Due to the vividness effect, many people perceive homosexuals as being too flamboyant. In a way, heterosexuals are the privileged groups. There is a lot of discrimination based on the basis of sexual orientation. Some of the privileges homosexuals enjoy are the freedom to marry, show public affection, having role models and representation in the media, religious support and not being denied housing, employment and other services due to their sexual orientation. Studies show that gay men make significantly less than straight men.(Morgan, E. e., & Davis-Delano, L.,2016) Religious Prejudice.
While many religions teach their members to be tolerant of people of different religions. This hasn’t always been the case; historically many wars are rooted by religion: genocides, ethnic cleansings, and other forms of violence fueled by hatred of religious groups. The Holocaust occurred because of Hitler’s hatred for the Jews. Anti-Semitic is the hatred of Jews. It involves both religious and racial prejudice. In the 1930’s and the 1940’s, six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. The Shiíte and Sunni are both part of Islam yet they can never get along. In many religions of the world, someones religion is what defines their character. People tend to think that their religion is better and it is what everyone should follow. This is when, identifying with a religion becomes dangerous. Religious prejudice has led to discrimination which includes oppression of religious practices and refusal to give jobs and resources to people of the opposing religious beliefs.
Religious fundamentalist movements are religious prejudice that often result in conflict too. The definition of it is movements that encourage adherence to a basic set ofreligious beliefs. Christianity is the world’s largest religion. Catholicism and Protestantism are the two biggest branches of it. The second largest is Islam and those faithful to Islam are known as Muslims. Both Christians and Muslims believe in one supreme God. Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism are some of themajors religions that originated in India. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. Just like Christians and Muslims, Jews only believe in one God, also known as a monotheistic religion. Linguistic Discrimination. The unfair treatment of someone based solely on their use of language is known as linguistic discrimination. Language has always been used as an excuse to discriminate against people. Many languages have been outlawed, looked down upon and even abused. The non- speakers of those languages are often discriminated against. Our attitudes towards people instantly change the moment we hear them speak. We form immediate opinions about them before we even get to know them. People are judged by their grammar, vocabulary, syntax, idiomatic expressions, slang and accent. Certain accents make people appear less intelligent. For example, in the United States, those of the Southern accents are perceived to be less intelligent because of their accent.
Many African Americans speak vernacular English which many consider substandard english. Along with many other dialects it has been called “lazy” and “bad” and even “incorrect” English. A hearer of AAVE may think that the speaker is ignorant or uneducated when this might not even be the case. Hispanic Americans with an accent and basic english vocabulary maybe be thought aspoor and illegal. While Hispanic Americans with an extensive vocabulary may be perceived as successful and legal citizens . There is biased against being deaf and American Sign Language users because of the belief that spoken languages are superior to sign languages. There are many state laws put in place to protect non native speakers. However, many jobs require someone to speak fluent English in order to be considered for a position because it is needed in the work setting.
Ageism. This is the stereotyping and discrimination against an individual on the basis of their age. This term can be used to name prejudice and discrimination against children, though it is mostly used in relation to the treatment of the elderly. Whether the “old geezer”stereotypes or trying to obtain employment, people who are 60 and older often fall victim to ageism. In fact, a survey of 84 people aged 60 and up, nearly 80 percent of participants reported experiencing ageism. Ageism can come in the form of someone assuming you have memory or physical impairment, making jokes about older people, and not being taken seriously all because of one’s age. There are several types of age related biased such as Adultism; which is discrimination against youth and Jeunism. Jeunism is synonymous to ageism because its discriminating against older people in favor of younger ones. Implicit ageism are thoughts, feelings, and behavior one holds about older or younger people. Though they can be positive, most tend to be negative. Managers have stereotyped older people as being weak, difficult to train, not tech savvy, resistant to change, cautious and uncreative. Age discrimination can happen both on a personal level and an institutional level. For example, an older person might be told that they are too old to play a soccer game and a younger person might be told they are too young to get a job. Those are on the personal level. In the institutional level, there are policiesand regulations put in place to limit opportunities to people of certain ages and deny them to all others.
Age discrimination even spills out into politics because someone has to be a certain age in order to run for President, become a Senator or a Congress member. It is thought that by this age, the candidate should have enough experience, education, and accumulated wisdom. There is a lot of discrimination against the elderly in the healthcare system. After being diagnosed with a potentially curable disease , older people are less likely than younger people to receive all the necessary treatment. It is thought that theelderly people are not physically capable of handling the treatments and that complications in surgery may result in death. Often times health care professionals try to manage the elderly’s’ disease instead of curing or trying toprevent. Caregivers like CNAs and HHAs may undermine what an elderly patient is capable of because of the assumption that all old people are weak. Studies show that when old and young people alike here stereotypes about their incompetence or their uselessness, they perform worse on measure of competence and memory.
In 2016, California passed the state bill AB-1687, this bill requires ‘commercial online entertainment employment’ such as IMDB toallow users to remove their ages. This was done as an effort to reduce ageism in the entertainment industry. Xenophobia. This is the fear of non natives in a given population. Xenophobia can be defined as the ‘attitudes, prejudices and behavior that reject, exclude and often vilify persons, based on the perception that they are outsiders or foreigners to the community, society or national identity.’ Racism and Xenophobia are different but often are mistaken for one another. because racism is more about the difference in skin color, hair texture, facial features etc while xenophobia is more so about the attitude towards a foreigner or someone they might an outsider. Some people call it the “new racism” since its based on cultural differences rather biological differences. Many consider President Trump’s travel ban to be xenophobic because not only does the ban prohibit people from certain countries from entering the United States but those same countries were exclusively Muslim majority.
Neurological Discrimination. Neurological impairments may affect one’s speech, memory, motor skills, ability to learn, and muscle actions. When a neurological impairment limits major things like thinking and muscle action, that individual is considered disabled. People with neurological impairment may face a great amount of discrimination in the hiring process and in the workforce. Often, employers assume that people with neurological impairmentsare a burden. As a result, they might start discriminating against them. In order to get and keep a job, it is crucial for the disabled individual to understand their rights. Employers are not to question one’s disability whatsoever nor can they require you to take a medical examination.
Employers cannot fire an individual based only on their impairment. In some cases, employers will go out of their way to make the work setting a living hell just so they could drive the employee away. However its illegal for coworkers, supervisors, or customers to harass you based on a neurological impairment. Persistent harassment and teasing should be promptly reported to the employer and the employer must take steps to correct it. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, neurologically impaired are entitled to reasonable accommodation by theiremployers. Employers can deny the accommodation solely on the cost.
Racism. This term has two definitions. The first being that racism the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and the second one is discrimination or prejudice based on race. Racism has existed throughout human history. It has been the cause of many wars, formation of nations, legalcodes and even slavery. There is racism amongst Western groups, Asians, Africans and other groups. But the most infamous one would have to be the enslavement of Africans in the new world by westerners. The white colonizers had this racist belief that Africans were less human than them. This was not always the case. When Portuguese sailors first explored Africa, they saw that Africa was just as advanced as they were. African countries could not manage to keep up with European technological advances. So the Europeans took this as an opportunity to enslave and transfer them to work in the colonies across the Atlantic. They came to see Africans as savages because some africans were selling their own people and because they wanted to justify their actions around a time were Western civilization was promoting individual rights and human equality.
Anti semitism sees Jews as subhumans and superhuman at the same time. Racist sees black as merely subhuman. Anti semitic is more so about hate while racism is about inferiority. In 1827 African Americans were considered three-fifths people for purposes of taxation and representation. Throughout the 20th century, scientist were trying to find petty reasons to degrade the black race and to elevate white race. In America alone, there has been a lot of racism towards various groups of people. The Jim Crow laws ordered separate but equal facilities for blacks. These laws called for separate schools, public places, public transportation and separate facilities for whites and blacks. In 1955 a 14 year old boy named Emmett Till was brutally murdered for whistling at a white woman. His killers were acquitted by an all white jury. On Sunday, September 15, 1963 an African American church was bombed by the Ku Klux Klan and 4 black girls died. Interracial marriage was illegal in many states.
A black woman named Mildred loving and a white man named Richard Loving were both sentenced to a year in prison for marrying each other. They took this to the Supreme Court and won. Even after the Jim Crow laws were long gone, blacks were still belittled. This time through the discriminatory practice of redlining. Redlining is practiced in real estate and it typically involves lenders refusing to lend money or extend credit to borrowers in certain areas of town. Those areas are often occupied by people in poverty or people of color or both. In the 1990s, the burning of churches continued and a total of 145 churches were set on fire. A few years ago a white supremacist show up an African American church. Many African Americans do not vote because they feel as if they are misrepresented in Congress. African Americans only made up 8.7% of Congress.
Irish, German, Italian, polish and Russians are some of the other people that used to be discriminated against even though they are white. During the Great Depression, many Mexicans were forcefully deported to Mexico even though they were U.S citizens. Since the 9/11 attack, many Arabs and Indians have been target of racism and discrimination . Racism can exist between minorities. It has been said that over 886,000 deaths could have been prevented from 1991 to 2000 if African Americans had received the same care as whites. According to the NAACP website, if African Americans and Hispanics were incarcerated at the same rates as white Americans, prison and jail populations would decline by almost 40%. The disparities betweenblacks and white are huge when it comes to the justice system . According to the hate crime statistic Act the largest number of hate crimes are committed against African Americans. Conclusion Prejudice and racism can result in war, crimes and even genocide.
Whether good or bad, prejudice attitude affects everyone. Everyone belongs in a social group and that’s what helps forms identities. Some people can’t get their heads around the differences between social groups, so they resort to being prejudice. The more unfamiliar your social group is, the more prone you are to falling victim to prejudice. Integrating and building relationships with members from a group different from yours is what will help minimize prejudice. Social groups aren’t only formed by races but there also formed by ethnicity, nationality, social class, religion, sexual orientation, profession, gender and many other things. Prejudice is a result of stereotypes. A stereotype is overgeneralized belief about a certain group of people. Discrimination is when people act upon their prejudice attitude. A better way to understand those 3 things is with these examples: an example of a stereotype would be all black girls are loud. An example of prejudice would be I hate Miami Dolphins fans, they make me mad. Finally, an example of discrimination would be I would never hire Mexicans because there already taking away our jobs. From the times we were kids, certain stereotypes just stock with us. They’ve been reinforced by teacher, parent’s friends etc.
When we hold stereotypes about people, we expect them to live up to the stereotype. A self-fulfilling prophecy is when the individual changes their behavior to live up to what’s expected of them. thus, conforming the stereotypic belief. Confirmation bias is when were interacting with the target of our prejudice and we only focus on things that supports our stereotypic expectations while ignoring others that don’t. In group biases form when we feel a strong sense of belonging and connection to our group. This leads to discrimination of the out group because we start perceiving them as less preferred. In-group’s who feel threatened will often use the out-group as a scapegoat for their frustration. Prejudice is a subcategory in social psychology.
