Essay on prejudice

0 Professor Tafarella 02br
00English 101 02br
009 May 2005 02br
00 Prejudice against Race 02br
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00 The phenomena of detestation is as close to us as, if not closer than, our own self. We all can identify with one or another form of prejudice. Generally, we comprehend what it is to loathe or at least dislike with great passion, another human being. Early on in our lives, we make connections of attractions and repulsions towards others. From these feelings, we form opinion and preconceived notion towards the cause of these experiences, whether they are good or bad. In most of these instances, we are able to recognize what the results of harmful responses to others are. For instance If someone has harmed us or disappointed in some way, we may shrug it off as no big deal and keep going on with our day without hitting or shouting in retaliation. Generally, we are able to let go of negative feelings, but occasionally we may let those feelings and emotions get the best of us. On such occasions, we may perhaps lose control and become victims of our own fury. 02br
00 For example, a child who is constantly bullied by another child of a different race (lets say for instance an African American child) will in the long run tier of being bullied and possibly seek vengeance on his or her perpetrator. He or she will in future instances, associate the hurtful memories of the African American child with others of that same race. The child may or may not intentionally hold prejudice, but because he/she experienced unfavorable situations, will attribute the African American ethnic group and its people as unpleasant and hurtful. Of course, this can be the case with any race and not only associated with African Americans. Usually, once we have experienced a negative situation with an individual of a different race than our own we hold those negative memories against others. A gay man may be a target of prejudice by a group or an individual by simply being what he is. Dallas Texas: On October 26, three men ran up to two gay men eating in a park and began beating them. During the attack, the assailants called the victims “queers” and “fags.” one of the victims, who was of Asian decent, also was called anti- Asian slurs. After the beating, the perpetrators stood the victims, up against the wall and shot them “execution style,” killing one of the men and wounding the other. (16) This is just another example of prejudice, in this case, towards social sexual preference of the victim. The gay men were not hurting anybody but because three ignorant people believed that the lifestyle and appearance of the gay men was wrong or unnatural in some way, justified in their minds that beating the men and killing them was right. 02br
00 Prejudice is not classified specifically towards one group of individuals. It begins with our hatred of one person in a particular group. From that hatred, we move in the direction of abusive and damaging behavior towards the group of people the individual (we are out-ing) may have belonged too. There is a good reason why we out-groups are often chosen as the objects of hate and aggression rather than individuals. (Gordon W. Allport) When we attack, an individual there is some sense that he/she is like us. To harass him would be to provoke some anguish within ourselves. We attack others (groups of people) because it is easier to consider that a group of people has no body image unlike a single person. 02br
00 Is Prejudice Inevitable? Is it a personal dysfunction or a learned behavior? There are so many questions that we can ask our peers and ourselves on this one topic alone. I am going to attempt to answer but a handful of these questions. Prejudice as the name suggests, is the process of “pre-judging“. In other words, it means to come to a conclusion about a subject matter before knowing anything about it. Do I believe it is inevitable? No, I believe that we are to a certain extent, all prejudice against something or someone. Whether we intend to be or if it is in our subconscious. An example of this, would be a man or a woman that in a relationship and something does not go quite right. He/she may form a bias opinion about that person with whom they are involved. If the relationship turns sour the hurt party will in future relations, make an effort to be more conscious of and avoid others whom they may feel are similar to the party by whom they were hurt or disappointed. Possibly forming an opinion that is unfavorable and blanket the “type” of individual as the same. This will lead to social stereotyping. 02br
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00Works Cited 02br
00National Gay and *** Task Force Policy institute, Anti-gay/*** Violence, Victimization, and Defamation in 1991 (Washington, D.C.), Page 16. 0-