Causes of Prejudice - Research Paper Example

Causes of prejudice Introduction Prejudice is the denial of a certain group of people in the society, mostly a minority group, exclusively based on their membership to a particular group, mainly the majority group. Causes of prejudice, is a well-documented book by one of the famously known sociological authors named Vincent N. Parrilo. In his book, Parrilo tries to analyze a number of theories that tries to explain the motives behind a prejudiced behavior. there are two instances of prejudicial attitudes; these are the positive and the negative prejudicial attitudes. However, many sociological scholars have mainly tended to focus their research works and studies on the latter. The second article by C.P Ellis sounds like an autobiography. He vividly recalls many mishaps in his life that formed the basis of his prejudiced personality. The many difficulties he encountered in his life anchored with peer influence made him develop a strong sense of prejudice especially to the African Americans. However, this ended after he came back to his senses and realized that no race is better than the other is. Malcolm X, the author of the third article focuses on how our own individual behaviors’ influences our levels of prejudice. His strong desire to achieve without looking behind is well reflected on the third article entitled learning to read. His great interest to develop learning skills as an inmate, made him made him rise to be to be one of the greatest historians of all times. His unique personality made him an all round individual with no any racial bias to all groups in the society and motivates him to foster for the same. There are three important causes of prejudice, they are levels of prejudice, self-justification and personality. Prejudice, like cultural values, is learned through the socialization process. Many prejudices are passed along from the parents to their children. The media, such as advertising, television, as well as films, also take part in perpetuating negative depictions. This can take the form of stereotypes as well as demeaning images of assorted groups, such as gays and lesbians, ethnic minorities, the elderly, women, and the disabled. No child is born with prejudice. They learn core values and beliefs from their parents, other family members, the media, peers, teachers, and others around them. In short, children acquire prejudiced attitudes through the socialization process. Much prejudice socialization take place outside their home. Prejudice, therefore, is much often quite a broad social norm of a certain group where an individual lives. Individuals learn the social norms of prejudice through socialization, normally extremely early in life. For instance, a merely 7-year old child from the United States can comprehend a thing or two concerning the prevailing attitudes about the various races. Parents play an extremely vital role in the acquisition of prejudice. The relationship between the children's and their parents' attitudes toward members of minority groups is usually consistent. Parents can transmit prejudice to their children directly via reinforcement. In addition, children can simply observe as their parents talk about and interact with people from lowly perceived groups. In this way, they often learn their parents' attitudes of prejudice. “If we develop negative attitudes about Jews because we are taught that they are shrewd, acquisitive, and clan­nish—all-too-familiar stereotypes—as adults we may refrain from business or social relationships with them” (Anderson 67). As children become older, peer groups turn to be more critical in the transmission of the norms of prejudice. Normally, the peer groups’ attitudes will often match those from the child's parents because friends typically come from similar socio-economic backgrounds. In a case where the parents and peer group have different core values, the values of the peer group supervene, as the children grow older toward puberty. The media are an extremely important social learning source for prejudice. People from groups that are socially disadvantaged typically have some kind of little or no representation on the media, as well as in Hollywood films. Though currently there are only a few examples of stereotyped roles for minority groups like women and Blacks, there is an array of films showing images of Black tokens in a world predominantly full of white people. Moreover, inter-racial relationships exist only in the place of work, but none is there in the integrated neighborhoods. Importantly, peers, the media, parents, as well as other agents of social change are also powerful forces that teach social values countering prejudice. Parents have the ability to speak well of other groups, and some do. The American media has performed excellently as far as mass education on people with HIV/AIDS is concerned. When exposed to such social values, children grow with respect for other people. It is quite understandable why people prefer join extremist associations and groups. In an attempt to fight prejudice, people are at times forced to become active members of these extreme groups, some of which are illegal. “I can understand why people join extreme right-wing or left-wing groups” (Ellis 36). A good example of such groups is the civil rights movement in the United States. This group campaign for African Americans’ rights, who because of racial prejudice have experienced discrimination for a long time. Due to the prejudice resulting from their skin color, African Americans did not enjoy the same rights as the Whites. This prejudice led to social unrest. In the 1960's, African Americans vowed to fight against the existing social systems as well as the authorities, which had denied them these rights. Quite a large number of whites rose up in support for this campaign. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, slave trade ended, with African Americans becoming U.S. citizens having the right to vote. Nevertheless, there was a lot of prejudice against black people because the new laws got largely ignored. In most states, several laws came up, separating whites from blacks. The famous Montgomery boycott was a significant milestone for the African American liberation. It served to encourage blacks in other states to protest for their rights. A Dr. King was a perfect spokesperson that spoke out in the media, urging blacks to participate in sit-ins. He and many others became for this. This caused even more prejudice. Economic competition as well as conflict sometimes breeds prejudice. At times, limited resources can cause one dominant group to exploit totally another group to get material advantage. Often, the working class wishes to secure a docile as well as cheap labor force. They do this in order to mount favorable completion with other organizations. To achieve this, these organizations, import inexpensive labor. For instance, during the era of slavery, there was the cheap Oriental labor. However, cheap labor displaced the highly paid labor. As a result, the highly paid labor found its interests extremely threatened. Ellis says, “I always left school late afternoon with a sense of inferiority.” (43). This implies that class conflict came to get translated into pure racial conflict. This created economic prejudice. In addition, scarcity of jobs causes prejudice. Sometimes people have to fight to secure the few existing jobs. There is evidence to indicate that this breeds prejudice because those who fail to get the jobs feel the others were favored. Obviously, in a country where there are very few jobs, the citizens compete for jobs. There is a tendency for those who are able to use corrupt means to get these limited jobs. Due to the sensitivity of the issue of unemployment, people of lower social status develop prejudice against the wealthy citizens who can bribe to have their sons secure the best employment opportunities. For instance, in the American South, quite a sizeable portion of the general populace is grappling with job scarcity. Due to the potential gaps this problem is likely to create between the working class and the jobless, conflicts will arise. This is a direct cause of prejudice between the two groups. According to Anderson, “prejudice and discrimination increase markedly whenever competition for available jobs increases.” (80). Red China closed its doors to the western world after the World War II. The Chinese have always held numerous prejudiced attitudes on race and nationality. Chinese have often not had compunctions when directly making mockery on racial minorities. Sometimes there appears to be an ongoing belief that anybody other than Chinese is unacceptable. Throughout history, the Chinese regard anybody other than the Chinese as a barbarian or a savage. “The world never has known such a hate‐white campaign (Malcom X 43). The Whites, for instance, were seen to possess more bodily hair compared to monkeys, bigger noses than those of ant-eaters as well as an odor as awful that of a corpse. The Chinese also believed that some Whites tied themselves on to one another to prevent them from getting snatched away by birds. Others had holes in their chests to facilitate carriage with poles. From the evidence of one account, a few towns in the West consisted of women who got impregnated by simply staring at the shadows. All these conceptions are unfounded. It is mere prejudice by the Chinese. The Whites reciprocate by having their own prejudices against the Chinese. As Anderson asserted, “members of die majority group may believe that a particular low-status minority group is dirty, immoral, violent, or law-breaking” (69). In conclusion, prejudice is an undesirable manifestation of the power of integration. Prejudice sets people apart. Prejudice has several causes, most of which can be dealt with. Ironically, even prejudice can imply some sort of relationship. If such relationship did not exist among people, they would be totally unaware of the other group's existence. Where there is any form of, even a negative one, there exists some integration. Work cited Anderson, S.E. The Black Holocaust for Beginners. New York: Writers and Readers Publishing, 2005 Ellis, C.P. Group Dynamics. Durham: Cengage Learning, 2006 Malcolm X, Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 2009 Read More