Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice and discrimination is something we've all experienced at some point in time, whether it was because of your skin color, cultural, weight, etc... Prejudice can be defined as an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason. Prejudice is often confused with racism but they are somewhat different. Being prejudice may mean to think something or someone while racism may mean to have opinions about a certain race. Discrimination on the other hand can be defined as the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit. There are several types of prejudice. Some may include cognitive prejudice, what people believe to be true, affective prejudice, what people like and dislike, and conative prejudice, how people are inclined to behave. I think that cognitive prejudice is what we mostly see in today's society against African Americans. When another race interprets an African American they define them as thieves, trouble makers, loud people, poor people, and basically all bad things. And they truly believe that these things are true but they're not, not all African Americans share these character traits. Some popular types of discrimination are age, disability, race or color, religion, and sex. All of these types of discrimination play a big role in our society, in which we witness them almost every day whether it's at school, work, or home. A perfect example of discrimination was the discrimination against Claudette Colvin, the very first lady to refuse to give her seat up to a white man. Rosa Parks was recognized as the first lady because Claudette Colvin was young and they felt that she couldn't be a leader in the civil rights movement. This is an example of age discrimination. Discrimination is still occurring in our society and I've witnessed it not too long ago. My African American friend and this white guy had an interview at Food Lion grocery store, my friend had dreads and the white guy had long blonde hair. My friend was denied the job because of his dreads and the white guy was granted the job even though he had long hair.

Prejudice has been around since the early 1700's, which created discrimination. Prejudice and discrimination imply a negative relationship, instead of bringing people together prejudice and discrimination push people apart. Prejudice and discrimination are two of the worst aspects that a human being can display. You should never prejudge anyone off their skin color, religion, age, weight, disability, sex, etc... God created everyone equally so by doing such you're disobeying the lord. Even though all races have been prejudice towards one another or discriminated towards one another at some point in time, African Americans have always received the short end of the stick.

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