Int 470 K.

Mina 1

Short Research Paper

INT 470
Prejudice and
Discrimination
Kemia Mina

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Prejudice and Discrimination has been an ongoing issue that has been
occurring all over the
world for centuries. They are both considered to be very negative issues that
are produced
towards people of other racial groups, sex, disabilities, sexual preference,
and even as an
individual. Even though these issues are not spoken about in todays
society, its considered to
be a hidden gesture, and a secretive issue that no one wants to claim its
existence. It has
played a huge factor in todays society that have recapped our history and
allowed up to reexamine the issues that we have witness, today such as the Travon Martin
case. To recap on
the Travon Martins case, he was a young African American boy that was
killed by a white man,
because he was wearing a hoodie, and looked suspicious. All of these factors
play a role in
discrimination and prejudice. Most of society today wants to believe that it
doesnt exist
because today, everyone and everything is more acceptable than it was 50
years ago. There are
interracial marriages, homosexual marriages, women who are climbing the
ladder of success
over men, handicap people are employed, and so many more unusual events
that are taken
place. But, after examining these current events, just because it is more
acceptable in society
doesnt mean that everyone accepts it. People are entitled to their opinion
about what kind of

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world they would love to live. When I say world, I am referring to a world that
each individual
person wants to create for in their own individual space, as well as their
offspring, and surround
themselves with what they believe life should be. Prejudice and
Discrimination are often times
taught to us, by our families. It is an attitude that we possess with the
understanding of
knowing it could be right or it could be wrong. Our mindsets are all going to
be different, so it is
fair to say that we all discriminate? Because if your answer is no, than you
are incorrect,
because a non- discriminative person or non-prejudice person, would
discriminate against a
person who does discriminate, because they feel that they are right? The
bottom line is, is that
we all live in this world together. Even though we all work together, all
eat lunch in the
same cafeteria, all attend the same schools, all live in the same
neighborhoods, all share
the same grocery store, all marry each other, we still have a bit of
discrimination brewing
within our souls, and maybe a little bit of prejudice too. But the real question
would be if
prejudice and discrimination visibly exist today? If it does, than why are
people still prejudice,
and practice discrimination? In this research, I want to focus on the
psychology, sociology, and
history point of views in regard to Prejudice and Discrimination.
Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually negative) towards an
individual based

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solely on the individuals membership of a social group. (Mcleod, 2008)

Psychology Theories on
prejudice is described as a stereotype. It involves having negative attitude
and stereotype
beliefs about members of a group. From a psychology point of view
stereotypes are broken
down into two groups: individual stereotypes and group stereotype. The
negative attitude is
broken down into three components: the cognitive component- comprises a
set of beliefs
about a group or individual, the affective component- a feeling towards a
group or individual,
and the behavioral component- a set of behavior or actions towards the
group or individual
based on the other two components. A prejudice person may not act on
their attitude.
Therefore, someone can be prejudice towards a certain group but not
discriminate against
them. (McLeod, 2008) Psychology strategies for trying to solve the problem
of prejudice are the
following: non-competitive contact between in and out groups on terms of
equal status, and
the pursuit of common superordinate goal which are attainable by
corporations. Another way
to reduce prejudice is: direct intergroup contact, social learning, social recategorization, and
cognitive interventions-weakening stereotypes. (Kim, 2012)
According to psychologist Gordon Allport, prejudice and stereotype emerge
in part as result of
normal, human thinking. In order to make sense of the world around us, it is
important to sort

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information into mental categories. He said, The human mind must think
with the aid of
categories. Once formed, categories are the basis for normal prejudgment.
We cannot possibly
avoid this process. Orderly living depends upon it. At that point an
experiment was
conducted. The researchers gather men and women for this experiment that
were all the same
height. The volunteers were not only a combination of men and women, but
were also different
ages, and different races. The volunteers in the experiment was photograph.
The people had to
guess the height of the people based on the photograph in front of them.
The people typically
choose the men to be the taller than the women. They pre-judged their
opinion before even
considering the fact that there may be a possibility that men and women
could be the same
height. This would be a part of human thinking that Allport was referring to.
This experiment
was about of discrimination process of thinking. Most people believe and is
probably even
taught that that men are naturally taller than women, but does not fell to
realize that women
and men can be the same height.
Sociology Theories point of view on prejudice and discrimination is that it is
common throughout the world. It can be seen in different forms and styles. Prejudice and
Discrimination are
related to each other. Most of the times one leads to the other. Most
prejudice is a negative

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and involves prejudging a group as inferior. Sociologists believe that we are

not born with
prejudice. Rather we learn prejudice from the people around us. Prejudice
does not depend on
negative experiences with others. It also reveals that people who are
prejudged against one
racial or ethnic group also tend to be prejudges against other groups. People
can be and are
prejudiced against people they have never met and even against groups that
do not exist or
existed in the past. (Sociology Guide, 2012) Discrimination is an action which
an unfair
treatment directed against someone.(Sociology Guide, 2012) It can be
based on many
characteristics: age, sex, height, weight, skin color, clothing, speech, income,
education, marital
status, sexual orientation disease, disability, religion, and politics. When the
basis of
discrimination is someones perspective of race, it is known as racism.
(Sociology Guide, 2012)
Sociologist believes that discrimination can be perceived as a negative and a
positive form. A
negative form would be prejudging a person or prejudice. A positive form is
when a certain
group believes that their members are better than any other group.
Sociologist believes that
there are five theories that will help reduce prejudice. The first theory is, the
Self-Esteem
Theory- that when people have an appropriate education and higher selfesteem, their

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prejudices will go away. Another theory is the Contact Hypothesis, which is

bringing together
members of different groups so they can learn to appreciate their common
experiences and
backgrounds. The third theory is, the Cooperation Hypothesis, which holds
that conflicting
groups need to cooperate by laying aside their individual interests and
learning to work
together for shared goals. The fourth theory is, the Legal Hypothesis, which
is that prejudice
can be eliminated by enforcing laws against discriminative behavior. The
final theory is,
Cooperative Learning, or leaning that involves collaborative interaction
between students,
while surely of positive value to students, does not assure reduction of
hostility between
conflicting groups. (Cliffnotes, 2010) Sociologist believed that once an
individual has achieved
greatness in their lives that it would change their look on prejudice, but the
research has not
been too successful. So because some of the theories were unsuccessful
after research, they
then came up with another solution that could improve race relations. The
improvements
consist of: A desire to become better acquainted, a Desire to cooperate,
Equal economic
standing and social status, and Equal support from society. Sociologists
speculate that one
reason prejudice is still around is the fact that these conditions rarely
coincide. The insights of

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both disciplines psychology and sociology, could be effective; however, if the

prejudice was
taught this attitude, there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it. From
an
Interdisciplinary approach, all can be done is to have a better understanding
of why the
prejudice feel the way that they do, and move forward from there.
Prejudice and Discrimination in history was taught. It was an attitude that
was passed from
generation to generation. In history, a lot of events took place under the
issues of prejudice and
discrimination. The events such as the Holocaust, the Brown vs. Board of
education of Topeca,
Kansas, Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat, Little Rock Nine, and World
War II. All of these
events stimulated from the issues of prejudice and discrimination. The issue
was that one group
of people believing that they were superior over another group, and in all of
these cases justice
was eventually served. Groups were than formed to try to prevent anyone
from winning from a
legal stand point such as, the Klu Klux Klan, the Nazis, the Black Panthers,
etc. Historians, like
Allport believed that prejudice was, more than an incident in peoples lives.
(Durrhein, 2014)
Allports (1954) foundational text on prejudice was written at a time when
many American
explicitly defended racial segregation and inequality and people said such
things as Negroes
are stupid, dirty, and inferior. This included crude stereotypes, the belief in
the constitutional

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inferiority of black people, and support for segregations and unequal service
provision.
(Durrhein, 2014) Prejudice and Discrimination played a huge roll in history. It
was the foundation of our society today. When a person is prejudice, there
behaviors consist of
discriminating, and stereotyping other as well.
Prejudice and Discrimination is an issue that has been going on for centuries.
Psychologist,
Sociologists, and Historians has reflected on the issues. Psychologist and
Sociologist have
provided what they believe are resolutions to reducing the problems at hand.
Historians give
insights on how it began and the events that took place in regards to it. The
issues could be
reduced, but what steps are we going to take as a society to reduce it? From
an interdisciplinary
point of view stepping outside the box would definitely open our eyes to the
world. We, as a
society have to understand that there is more to life than chicken. For
example, if we are
accustomed to eating chicken every single day, because thats what we were
taught to love and
eat, that is what we are going to eat. Our minds are afraid to try anything
else which means
that we are stuck in the box of chicken. It doesnt matter if its fried, baked,
grilled, or
barbequed, it is still chicken. However, if we explore outside the box, we
would find out that
there are other meats that can be eaten besides chicken. There is steak, fish,
pork chops, beef,

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shrimp, and crab. Scary right, but if we try it, we just may like it, and if we
think about it, all of
the other meats falls under the same category as chicken, which is protein.
Yes, the other
meats look different and taste different, but its a variety of things out here
in the world that
we can enjoy besides chicken. That analogy works the same way as getting
to know someone
else outside of your element. We all fall under the category of human,
regardless of what
color, age, sex, lifestyle, or disability that we have, we are all human. Why
discriminate and
prejudge a person, while you are stuck inside the box? Come out of the box,
and explore.
Interdisciplinary approach is way beyond a classroom setting. It is a part of
real life situations. It
help gives a better understanding to a lot of problems and issues that we
face in everyday life.
It cant change anyones opinions towards others, or the way they believe
things are supposed
to be, but it will give some insight on why people think the way that they do,
and give us some
background on the matter that will allow us to understand others point of
view and the reason
why they think or believe things that are considered negative.

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Sources
Copyright Blacksacademy- April 2005, Psychological Theories of Prejudice
and Discrimination
Houghtom, Mifflin, and Harcourt. Prejudice and Discrimination
www.cliffnotes.com/sciences/sociology/race-andethnicity/prejudiceanddiscrimination
Cherry, Kendra. What Is Prejudice?
http://psychology.about.com/od/pindex/g/prejudice/htm
Cross, Ashley. Prejudice
http://sociology.about.com/od/P_Index/g/Prejudice.htm
Sociology Guide- A Students Guide To Sociology
http://www.sociologyguide.com/socia_inequality_exclusion/theories-ofprejudice.php
Sociology Guide. Difference between Prejudice and Discrimination. 2010,
Retrieved from http://sociologyguide.com/socia-inequalityexclusion/prejudiceanddiscrimination
Kim, Sol-A. Technique for reducing Prejudice and Discrimination. 2012.
http://seibpsychology.2012-wikipaces.com
Durrhen, Kevin. Two Histories of Prejudice. 2014 Univeristy of KwaZulu-Natal