Experience With Prejudice

Sadly, I have had some experiences with prejudice growing up. Some of the times were subtle where the other times were they weren’t so subtle. Prejudice is the holding of preconceived ideas about an individual or group. I first experienced this when I was 7. I was at the mall and there was a magician demonstrating his skills. It was set up where you can crowd around him and watch from different angles. I was the only African-American girl there but that didn’t bother me because mostly I was always in that position and I also didn’t mind. The magician was doing all the classics; quarters from behind ears and the infamous rabbit out of the top hat. Everyone including me was enjoying the show and clapping after all the tricks. Beside me was …show more content…
She simply said “Some people just don’t take a liking to us.” In my experience I assume that the woman was using the negative prejudice that all African-Americans steal. In the chapter it explains that a prejudiced person’s ideas are often based on hearsay rather than direct evidence and are resistant to change. The woman was acting off the preconceived ideas she had already. A concept that I have went through kind of was the concept of assimilation. Assimilation is the acceptance of a minority group by a majority population in which the new group takes on the values and norms of the dominant culture. I was kind of in the minority in the majority of my group which is African-American. What I mean is that I didn’t like certain things that African-Americans “usually like”. So within my own group was in the minority within the majority. This happened when I was younger but I ended up realizing that everyone is different for a reason. Things I would do to try to be in majority of my group included eating foods that everyone loved and listening to certain types of music. I experienced this for a couple of years before I stop trying to be a part of the majority. Another concept that I have experienced would be