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0English 101 02br
009 May 2005 02br
00 Prejudice against Race 02br
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00 The phenomena of hatred 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 an example of this would be a child who is constantly bullied by another child (lets say for instance an African American child) will in the long run tier of being bullied and perhaps seek vengeance on his or her perpetrator. He or she will in future interactions, link the hurtful memories of the African American child with other members of that race. The child may or may not intentionally hold prejudice, but because he or she once experienced unfavorable situations, will judge 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 related with African Americans. Usually, once we have experienced a negative situation with an individual, 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 one more example of narrow-mindedness and prejudice, in this case towards social sexual preference of the victim. The gay men were not hurting anybody; they were simply going about their lives enjoying lunch together. They were made victims of hatred and prejudice because three ignorant individuals believed that the lifestyle of the gay men was wrong or unnatural in some way. The assailants obviously justified it to themselves that beating the men and killing them was right. They may have believed that by taking these “queers” out of society, they were somehow making the world better. On the other hand, perhaps they felt that doing this crime was going to make their personal lives better. 02br
00 This type of prejudice is stemmed from stereotyping. It seems easier to “forget” that each person is unique. People who place stereotypical blankets over a group are making unfair assumptions by judging that group of people from one experience they or someone they know may have had with an individual of a similar group. Every person has almost certainly heard the phrase “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” However, we all do, over and over again, and often we judge them unjustly. Each time we make somebody’s acquaintance, we automatically form an opinion of that person. We may be judging them by appearance alone but we make a quick overall judgment on the spot. The problem with doing this is that the judgment is never middle-of-the-road; it is the majority of the time either positive or negative. 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 putting out) may have belonged too. There is a good reason why out-groups are often chosen as the objects of hate and aggression rather than individuals. (Gordon W. Allport, 31) 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. Discriminating a group of people may seem less invasive or less hurtful in our own minds. To Attack a large group of race or ethnic background because it is easier to consider a group of people having no body image unlike a single person. It is seems less disturbing to the attacker to judge and harass a group because in that kind of setting he/she is not hurting just one person, they are alienating an entire community of people. 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. 02br
00 As infants and small children, we learn to behave in the manner that our mothers and fathers have taught us. Our firs real relationship is the one we form with those two people. Most children are carefree, enjoying the company and friendship of any other child no matter the color of their skin or their upbringing. The child’s life is made up of eagerness and normality with positive relationships. Only when we are exposed to hate do we begin to except and rely on it. We learn by example, everything we are taught stays with us in one way or another. To become prejudice is our own choice. Others do not make us discriminate another soul we do this to ourselves. An example of this would be a woman that has had a run of flawed relationships with the opposite sex, she may form an opinion that all men will cause her harm or that all other relationships with men will result in a bad relationship. 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 person by whom they were hurt or disappointed. Ultimately forming an opinion that is unfavorable and blanket the “type” of individual as the same. This will lead to social stereotyping. 02br
00 Not all Prejudice is bad, when we think of the word in our minds we automatically 02br
00assume that it is being reffered to in a negative state. Sometimes our minds must be prejudice for our own well-being. Take for instance a woman walking down a sidewalk on a dark night; she can take a short cut to her destination if only she walk down a dark alley where it is been known that aggressive homeless men lay. If this woman deceids not to take the walk down the alley she is in a way being prejudice that there are homeless there, but she is also simply looking after herself. She has made a deceicion to protect herself from danger y choosing to avoid the situation. 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 02br
00Allport W. Gordon, The Nature of Hatred, 02br
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