Definition Essay On Prejudice

418 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of prejudice on people

In a world where tensions are high and even the little mention of being prejudice puts people on the defensive sometimes I wonder why the word prejudice hasn’t been put out of our dictionary all together. It’s a powerful word usually surrounded by negative connotations and angry faces. But being prejudice isn’t something that should be sneered at. As human beings it's hard for anyone to not be prejudiced or biased. It’s being prejudice that make us the vulnerable humans that we are.
The textbook definition of prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. Which makes prejudice just another daily opinion humans create in order to understand something they are experiencing or feel more comfortable with …show more content…

For example if were a young girl and you are walking past an intimidating older man you might find another route on the same street that appears safer. This isn’t due to anything that is wrong with your judgement but opinions and reasoning ingrained into your mind to avoid anyone who appears dangerous. This might be the same for a young black teenager who avoids eye contact with police officers, because opinions have been formed based on information that has been shared, despite that teenager not experiencing it for himself.
The most important thing about prejudice is that it does not make someone racist nor does it indicate any ill will someone might have against a person of another race. Racism is an action or blatant superiority complex over another race. Prejudice is often looped in with racism because they stem from similar definitions and it tends to be used to describe a someone who is racist. Prejudice can also be described as pre-judging and might be similar to something that happens after studying a person for a second. Racism is pre-judging plus the action or ill will, they might be very close, but they are nothing alike.
In order to fight prejudice one has to understand in what areas they are being prejudice in. Think about why you fear a certain quality of a person and wonder if that is rational thinking. Understand that prejudice is an opinion and in order to make the correct opinions one needs to know the

Show More
Related

  • Who Is Jonathan Rauch In Defense Of Prejudice

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    When the word “prejudice” is mentioned in public conversation, undertones of anger and unfairness usually accompany it. Prejudice is often defined as a predetermined opinion not based on fact,experience, or knowledge. Many acts of inequalities and discriminative wrong-doings in history can be traced back to being a result of prejudice.So what place does a concept with such a negative connotation have in an institution of higher education where students and faculty of varying cultures and backgrounds come together to learn? Instinctively, a good number of people would answer that prejudice and its negative consequences have no place in such an environment. However, a contradicting opinion is expressed in an article written by Jonathan Rauch titled “In Defense of Prejudice” . In this article, Rauch expresses his dissatisfaction with the

    Read More

  • Prejudice In The Sneetches

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gone are the days of legalized slavery, of Nazi Germany, of women being incapable of having a notable opinion. No longer is there a system of racial segregation adopted by an entire country, complete white supremacy or lynchings performed by the Ku Klux Klan. Yet, although we are no longer exposed to such past experiences and despite us living in a world where diversity is embraced more than ever, the existence of prejudice remains. Today we have universally come to accept multiculturalism, varied ethnic backgrounds and those populations who historically were forever stigmatized. But in spite of these developments prejudice has manifested itself in other, more subtle ways and no matter how modernized society become such unfavourable attitudes

    Read More

  • Prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and in Maya Angelou Literature

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    Prejudice can be defined as any preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience, 2. Harm or injury that results or may result from some action or judgment, and due in part to the first Amendment, which gave all Americans the right of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition, many Americans believe they have the right to verbally judge whomever and whatever they seem fit, to no extent. However these same American underestimate the impact prejudice can have on a person’s body and mind because as we all know prejudice grows. Prejudice can also affect all phases of life: the past, the present, and the future. Maya Angelou said, “ Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

    Read More

  • Medger Evers

    2036 Words  | 5 Pages

    Prejudice is an unfavorable opinion or feeling, formed beforehand (e.g., before even meeting a person) based on non-personal characteristics (e.g., skin color, religious, gender). One form of prejudice is racism. Racism is negative attitudes and values held by people about other people based on their race. It is this attitude which causes one to discriminate against another. Discrimination is treating people unfavorably on the basis of race, color or sex. Prejudice and discrimination were prevalent in the 1950s and 1960s. This era was a time of hatred, a time of violence, a time when black people were colonized by the white colonizer, and it was a time of white-on-black racial violence. Because of this hatred, the whites discriminated against the blacks.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Prejudice In The Movie American X

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    Prejudice is a dreadful mindset that people can perceive from another person by their first look. As long as human race roams the Earth, prejudge mental will never cease. However long that we as people stay here on Earth is how long prejudice will last. We frustratingly try to obliterate prejudice, but it always upheaval back with maximum force. People take into consideration peoples race and ethnicity, and if it is diverse from theirs, then that person is probably prejudice towards them in any other ways, shape, or form. Prejudice has been with Mankind since the beginning of the human revolution. The simplest example of prejudice is when it comes to black and white revolution. Since colored human race were slaves in the beginning of American

    Read More

  • African-Americans: Prejudice Today

    1193 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some people say prejudice is part of human nature. Others think we learn it from our elders. Either one could be true, as there are various controversial beliefs about why prejudice exists in the world. One interesting theory is that prejudice is an emotional reaction that is triggered in our brain whenever we encounter unknown people, who have different physical characteristics, different personalities, and/or different beliefs. In fact, these unfamiliar people scare us, and we start treating them differently to reassure ourselves that they cannot possibly matter to us. Another possible reason for prejudice could be negative education about others, either direct or indirect. An example of the direct type would be that you are deliberately taught to avoid certain people who are discriminate...

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockinbird Racism, Sexism, Social Class Conflict

    1030 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones."

    Read More

  • Human Flaws In The Monsters Are Due On Maple '

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many examples throughout “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” that show that prejudice is a human flaw. According to Les Goodman, “You were so quick to kill, Charlie, and you were so quick to tell us who we had to be careful off. Well maybe you had to kill. Maybe Peter there was trying to tell us something. Maybe he’d found out something

    Read More

  • Ghost Boy by Ian Lawrence

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    Prejudice is an issue that cannot be easily avoided in today's society. It has and always will have a huge impact on the discrimination that some people face based on religion, appearance, background, mental/physical disabilities and etc.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jonathan Rauch's In Defense Of Prejudice

    1165 Words  | 3 Pages

    Simply Psychology.org illustrates a study on the human mind by Dr. Sigmund Freud which states, “A prejudiced son may not act of their attitude. Therefore, someone can be prejudiced towards a certain group, but not discriminate against them. Also, prejudice includes all three compotes of attitude (affective, behavioral and cognitive), whereas discrimination is just behavior” (Mcleod).The reality is, everybody is prejudiced, as Rauch argued. The crazy, obnoxiously liberal anti-prejudice people are prejudiced. To say somebody is prejudice is to say oneself is prejudice. It is very sad that they are unable to see that they are just creating a never-ending cycle of prejudice. It makes them prejudice to name someone else as prejudice, just as it makes someone prejudice to name someone else a “spic” or

    Read More

  • Understanding Immigration: Stratification and Prejudice in USA

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    From the reading I learned prejudice is when a person attaches negative emotion to a certain group of people that is not based on facts. Prejudice has two levels cognitive or affective where the cognitive is thinking and feeling prejudice while affecting is actually doing prejudice actions. Discrimination is also discussed in chapter one. Discrimination is unequal behavior or treatment of a person based on them being a member of a group. An example of discrimination would be not getting selected for a job because you are African

    Read More

  • To Kill a Mockingbird and Philadelphia

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prejudice meaning pre-judging someone and having an unwarranted bias occurs often in today’s society and has been around since the beginning of time. Prejudice can effect people’s decisions and have an unfair impact on society. The text ‘To kill a mocking-bird’ written by Harper Lee and the movie ‘Philadelphia’ directed by Jonathon Demme explore this idea thoroughly.

    Read More

  • Race, Ethnicity, and Hate Crimes

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    While prejudice and discrimination are closely related, the terms are not interchangeable. Prejudice is a negative attitude, feelings, thoughts or beliefs toward an entire category of people. There are two important factors that are present in the definition of prejudice, and they are attitude and entire category (Schaefer 35).

    Read More

  • Prejudice

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prejudice can be caused because of various reasons. Religion, ethnic race and social status are examples of causes of prejudice. Sometimes prejudice is caused by how we are raised. Many times parents pass on prejudice beliefs to their children. A lot people raised in the southern part of the country are prejudice against blacks. In the early to mid 1960’s, prejudice was alive and well in the south. Blacks had their own bathrooms and were forced to ride in the back of city busses. It’s hard to believe that was doing on only 40 years ago. A lot of Middle Eastern countries are very prejudice against women.

    Read More

  • Race and Prejudice toward the Culture of Poverty

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prejudice is a biased thinking, it refers to thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and feelings that someone holds about a group of people. Prejudice is a prejudgment that is not based from actual experience. Racism is a type of prejudice that is used to justify that one race is superior to other races. There are three levels of prejudice that exist, cognitive, emotional and action orientation. Cognitive level of...

    Read More

More about Definition Essay On Prejudice

Open Document