How Does Prejudice Affect Prejudice

Everyone whether it be consciously or unconsciously, have their own preferences, prejudices, and biases. The environment and individuals in one’s life affect what prejudices or biases a person develops. Every individual carries with them their biases that they have been taught or developed over time. Even though we may try to let go of our prejudices, subtle forms of it linger in our unconscious minds and may affect our attitudes and behaviors. Individuals most commonly will have prejudice against individuals who are a different gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or culture. Prejudice is also confused as being the same as stereotyping or discrimination. Prejudice is “a feeling of like or dislike for someone or something especially when …show more content…
Discrimination is the “practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people”. Discrimination happens when you act on your prejudice. There are many reasons which people are prejudice towards others. One reason is to justify social inequalities when people on both sides of power and wealth start believing that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get. So in a sense this is similar to saying that people are part of a minority group due to the fact that they do not work hard enough to get themselves out. Another reason why a person can be driven to be prejudice is being part of a majority group or minority group. If an individual is part of a majority group they will most likely favor everyone in that group. Most groups who are discriminated against all have one thing in common and makes them a discrete group which is things they cannot change about themselves such as skin color …show more content…
People who have greater privileges are put into a majority group; so as an example whites and men would be part of this group. People who have fewer privileges and who are usually discriminated against are part of the minority group, so in this case blacks and women would be part of this group. Individuals tend to discriminate others depending on one characteristic. In most cases the reason a person is placed in a minority group is due to a characteristic they cannot change about themselves, such as gender or race. Individuals are often quick to judge and have prejudices against a person based on external properties, but do not think about how that person may truly be on the inside. An example of this is the assumption that all Muslims are violent and cannot be trusted. This assumption may be true for a select few individuals, but not every person who is associated with being Muslim will ever fit that description. The same applies to gender where women are categorized as always being overly emotional and men are categorized as being tough and never showing emotion. Obviously these factors are not always true, but society seems to keep implementing the same values and beliefs to future generations. Gender and race may also affect education and job opportunities. Employers and the education system cannot publicly display acts of