As seen from the title, I will answer this question so we can have a bigger understanding of these differences. This will also help your vocabulary about important topics in our world. Previously, we defined prejudice as an idea we have before we actually get some experience or proof about a certain group of people. This being characteristics we get from the world around us about specific groups of people we may not encounter or have many relationships with. This can lead to discrimination. Discrimination is our actions and feelings reflecting our prejudice towards a group of people. This is when we feel uncomfortable around some people or we think they are weird or not normal because we have a prejudice idea about ourselves in comparison to others. Discrimination then follows after we have the clear prejudice idea and are accepting it. The level of discrimination can affect the level of treatment towards others. If someone has a huge prejudice idea towards a group of people being bad, then they will discriminate by hatred towards that group. Where on the other side of the spectrum, if someone has a small idea that a group of people may be bad, then they will discriminate by segregating themselves from the group of people. Anyone can be on either end or anywhere in the middle. Prejudice and discrimination can also work towards a positive way of treating people. The same situation would apply but you would act nicer and better towards a group of people. You can even have a better sense of trusting a group of people, but that would still be discrimination. Sometimes we may think we are being nice and polite to people. If we think again, we may notice a certain idea we have towards the group of people we treat better and worse. There is no benefit to any part of prejudice and discrimination. While it may seem good to treat people kindly, it is still not fair because they did nothing to deserve that treatment. I know that may sound harsh but my point is that anyone and everyone deserves to be treated kindly. A stranger of color is walking by and you do not hold the door for them is not fair because they did not do anything to deserve that. At the same time, a white stranger passes by and you hold the door, say hello, ask how their day has been is still unfair because they did not do anything to deserve that either. We should he holding doors for everyone and asking everyone how their day has been. While we know we should not have any prejudice and therefore have no discrimination towards everyone, it is very hard to get there. The same way I explained we are always learning ideas from society which creates prejudice, we are also learning discrimination because it comes from those ideas even if they may be unconscious.
It's mean. It's unacceptable. It's not good to have. But what is it? Prejudice - Learned pre-judgement about another person based on the characteristics they show. Prejudice uses stereotypes we unconsciously learn from media, family, friends, school, work, and society. We are always learning prejudice ideas even if we don't think about it. It's about ideas of groups of people which we are told are true. Then we start to believe them, sometimes without noticing, which then leads us to discrimination, or treating a certain group of people in a way that fits our prejudice. Someone else might also see our actions, specially kids, which then leads to others believing in the same prejudice. This cycle then keeps going. Now, we all know that we sometimes laugh when we see others acting from a prejudice idea we all know is false. We see vines of black guys laughing while they film themselves and the store worker following them around the store. Of course this can be funny to an extent, but it is only because we are aware that not every young black male is always robing a store. Therefore we laugh at the store worker who believes in this prejudice but what if I very rarely meet young black males? What if I don't have any black friends and there are no black families in my neighborhood? The only memories I would have of people of color then would be the rare people of "meet" and the people I see on TV, computer, movies, and media. What would I be seeing? I would most of the time see a black male as the robber, the bad guy, the tough one, and the aggressive one. What can that do to my perspective of people of color? In this case, maybe I wouldn't find this vine very funny. Maybe, I would be the store worker following around the young black male because most of my ideas about him are bad. My point here is that we are only aware about what we know rather than thinking about why we believe/know/think the way we do and why others do the same. We need to be aware about what we see and indirect ideas we get all around us. Laughing at the store worker doesn't resolve much. It gives some of us a good time but we need to not only know what we are really looking at but also share the knowledge around. Talk about what others think, feel, believe, then try to find out why. Don't assume! Don't be prejudice! BUT, learn how and why things work the way they do. Most of all, don't ignore or "resolve" a problem by saying it doesn't exist because it does. It's something that may not be possible for it to not exist. |
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May 2015
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