Are you racist or just flat-line prejudice? Is there a difference
between the two?
-A racist believes that
one race is superior of another-
-One who is prejudice has preconceived
opinions-
Prejudice or pre-judging is ignorance or limited knowledge. A Racist
is prejudice and holds power to change or encourage. Being prejudice is oh so simple
and many people in the World are guilty of pre-judging.
Now let’s break this down=
All of us tend to have prejudicial attitudes towards other people,
places and things. This type of prejudgment is sometimes based on not being
educated about the subject or at the highest level--- ignorance. Now let’s be
real... Prejudgment is a normal human response to new things, changes, and such
issues dealing with racial, social, religious, sexual, and other forms of
differences. For example, if you hear
someone say all Hispanic food is spicy or all Black people like Hip Hop music,
both of these statements are prejudgments. Most of the time when a subject is
different from the norm, human beings without being educated or with limited
knowledge of the subject tend to prejudge. With that being said everyone is
prejudiced in some sense and realistically no one is exempt. Even the most educated person can be prejudiced
because their understanding of another person’s way of life can be different; which
can result in a prejudgment attitude. Only
a mature mind rather educated or not, has the ability to suspend judgment until
all the evidence has been received.
Have you ever heard that there are multiple levels or types of prejudice?
It is safe to say that all human beings
are prejudice because if you have ever decided not to go somewhere, try
something new, or meet someone different because of what you have heard, your
emotions, or due to a learned behavior, you are prejudice. Stereotypes or
believing what others say about or preserve something as, this is the cognitive
level. For example, all Asian people eat
rice and noodles. This statement is exaggerated and inaccurate which makes it a
stereotype. Stereotypes are the social scripts we have in our heads about
others. Can you name one stereotype that is absolutely without a shadow of a doubt--True?
Let me know when you find it! Now when
you begin to fear or feel with joy when encountered by another person, place,
or thing this level of prejudice is emotional or affective. The emotional level
of prejudice is the most important level because even after the cognitive level
has been challenged and undermined, emotions allow us to hanging on to
prejudice because of the psychological need it fulfills. Prejudice is an
attitude and when it results in an action, it becomes discrimination. This
level of prejudice is behavioral and it is this level where unequal treatment on
the basis of attribute such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation,
age, or social class membership. What level of prejudice do you fall into?
When it boils down to it, there are levels to this shit… In other
words all humans are prejudice it just depends on how much they put into their preconceived
opinions.
