Prejudice Essay Research Paper Prejudice has been

Prejudice Essay, Research Paper

Prejudice has been apart of human beings since the beginning of time. People

hold disparaging views towards other groups because of sex, race, color and

religious beliefs. If our society hopes to move forward and continue to be

productive, prejudice must stop. In a time when the world is advanced as it ever

has been, prejudice still remains a major problem. Discovering the roots of

prejudice, and being able to understand prejudice views, we as a society will be

able to find solutions to stop it. To understand prejudice, we must first

consider all the factors that contribute towards it, and then find a way to

counter these factors one by one. Prejudice 3 The Roots of Prejudice There is no

simple one-word answer to the question of what causes people to be prejudice.

The result of prejudice stems from many complex mixtures of environmental

factors, upbringing, media, economic status, and finally experiences. With this

being stated, what is the main factor for prejudice, and what can we as a

society do to overcome prejudice views. When prejudice is mentioned, one tends

to think of white and black conflict, but prejudice views can also be held about

women, age, religion, and other ethnic people. To begin to understand the roots

of prejudice, it must first be defined. Prejudice is an attitude held toward the

member of some group, based solely on their membership in that group. How people

develop their attitudes and stereotypes of other people is where the root of

prejudice begins. By learning how and why prejudice views take root, society

will learn to change these negative opinions. Groups of people who hold

prejudice outlooks about other groups of people tend to process information

about these groups differently from the way they process information about other

groups. The individual traits and behaviors do not affect how they are viewed,

unless their behavior reinforces the prejudice opinion already held. There is a

belief in our society today that things are much better racially now then a

hundred years ago. The media portrays this idea daily. This statement can be

classified as being somewhat true, but we as a society still have a long way to

go to achieve racial harmony. Development of Prejudice There is still an

enormous public display and denial of prejudice in our society. According to

Earl Hutchinson: The most dangerous example of public racial denial is the

militia and patriot movements. Prejudice 4 They depict themselves as

.anti-government activists. fighting to preserve American freedoms. They

exorcised derogatory references to blacks, Jews, Asians, Gays, and Feminists

from their public statements and writings. The media and some civil rights and

liberties groups back them up and print their writings. These groups may differ

in tactics from the old Klan, Nazi Party, and John Birch Society, but they still

unite three points: White Christians must rule America, the federal government

is the enemy, and violence is the only accepted means to gain control. (1996,

p.87) When the media covers these groups, they give them free publicity and a

chance to be heard. Opinions are not only formed from the news, but also from

television, magazines, and radio. For a long time, there were very few programs

that portrayed blacks, Asian, Gays and other ethnic people in a positive manner

on television. Even today, there can be an argument that very few television

shows are geared towards minority races. For example, look at the popular shows

.Friends., .Frazier., and .The X-Files., none of which have a main

minority character. By not having a positively portrayed minority on these

shows, the media is helping prejudice. Media, television and radio are all

contributing factors towards prejudice views, but not the only factors. The

Tradition of Prejudice People learn from a young age to form opinions, values,

beliefs, and stereotypes from their parents. Because parents and environment

play such a major role in children.s upbringing, it should be pointed out that

this is one of the main contributing factors towards forming prejudice views.

When children hear their parents saying something prejudice, or observe them

acting a certain way towards a group, the child begins to form the same

opinions. By forming the same Prejudice 5 beliefs as their parents, they are

inheriting prejudice behavior. Their environment plays just as an important role

in forming prejudice views. Children who come from a poor isolated area have

fewer experiences to draw their own differing opinions from their parents. When

a child comes from a more educated, less isolated environment, they have more

experiences to draw their own opinions from. This can help explain why in the

southern part of the United States people had, and still have a hard time

changing prejudice views. David Goldfield

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