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Racial Prejudice Essay

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What is Prejudice? Researchers struggle to define prejudice. Some say it is “a negative attitude or feeling toward an individual, group, place or thing” ( (Bokanic, 2009). Others say that this attitude is based on assumptions, which leads to the prejudgments of others. Whatever the case, prejudices can be formed against another person because of race, weight, gender, language, religion, or virtually any difference. Prejudices lead to discrimination and stereotypes.
For example, Wrenee, a French-American, was a victim of racial prejudice as a child. As she grew up, she searched for a place where people would not prejudge her based on her racial background. She became a doctor in a town in Southern Alabama, where her physical appearance …show more content…
More often, it is used to speed up a conversation on what is not considered to be an important topic. Stereotyping goes beyond race and gender. Consider conversations people have about people from the next town, another department in one’s school, supporters of other soccer teams, and so on. To change a person’s view of a stereotype, one must be consistently different from it. People must be aware of their own stereotyping blinding themselves to the true nature of other individuals. Stereotyping can be reduced by bringing people together, by their similarities not their differences. When they discover others are not as the stereotype, the immediate evidence creates clarity that leads to improved thoughts about the other …show more content…
Those who experience this on an ongoing basis due to who they are as a person, feel insecure. People who are stereotyped against may develop physical or mental health problems as a result. Each person has the social responsibility to be thoughtful of others. To resolve the situation, each individual on the micro level must change his or her attitude. Attitudes are “sets of beliefs and feelings toward an object that predisposes the person to act in a certain way when confronted by that object” (Bokanic, 2009, p.

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