Prejudice Meaning

The word Prejudice is derived from the Latin word "Pre" (Before) and the word "judge". Prejudice is an assumption, prejudgement, or opinion about something or an individual. For example, individuals can be biased against another person of alternate identity, gender, religion, age, nationality, class, or other personal characteristics. In our day to day life, we often see Prejudice based on race, sex, religion, or culture.

Characteristics of Prejudice

• Prejudice is irrational
• Prejudice is acquired
• Prejudice has an emotional tone
• Prejudice is directed towards the group as a whole
• Prejudice is based upon a rigid and inflexible generalization
• Prejudice has functional nature
• Prejudice is not related to reality

Types of Prejudice

A Prejudice attitude can be due to various factors, including sex, race, age, sexual direction, ethnicity, financial status, and religion. Probably the most common types of Prejudice include the following types:

• Nationality prejudice
• Ethnic Prejudice
• Class prejudice
• Disability prejudice
• Age prejudice

How society is affected by Prejudice?

Prejudice is harmful to everybody. It has lots of bad effects on society and the people. Some of the common issues that can help us understand how it affects society are given below;

• When people are undervalued by others, it affects their self-respect and they may lose confidence or stop trying to move forward in their lives.
• It also results in bullying and other types of discrimination that affect the harmony among the people of a society.
• It can make the members of a particular group feel vulnerable, worthless and frightened. The growth and development of such people are affected badly as they may not get access to the facilities and opportunities that they deserve.
• It may lead to genocide in extreme cases such as during World War II, 6 million Jewish people were exterminated

How to prevent Prejudice?

Care of negative mentalities and suppositions is a crucial advance to prevent Prejudice. Be cautious about discriminatory language and keep away from cliché articulations about different gatherings of individuals. Prevent Prejudice also means that standing up against bigoted proclamations and jokes made by others.

Prevent Prejudice is something other than an individual exertion; it takes families and networks. Families can impart their traditions to companions and welcome companions to do likewise. Families and companions can likewise design trips to various regions inside and outside their local area and visit nearby tourist spots that middle on the battle for basic freedoms, like museums and historical places.

Causes of Prejudice

• Financial and political competition
• Uprooted Aggression
• Maintenance of mental self-portrait and status
• Dispositional Prejudice
• Prejudice through similarity
• Social learning and similarity

Impacts of Prejudice

It may cause the following issues;

• Battles/Arguments
• Hate
• Jealousy
• Bloodshed
• War/Riots
• Hurt

Why is Prejudice a problem?

• It affects the people and hurts them.
• It is unjustifiable.
• It conflicts with the vitals that our society set up and promotes.

Strategies to reduce or overcome Prejudice:

• Make yourself comfortable with various people. Every country has a different culture, tastes, caste, preferences, food, traditions, and activities. If we want to get to know someone, we need to stop judging and start learning from them. We need to adapt not to judge them by their activities and traditions.
• Spend time with individuals that are different from you and who you look up to or admire. It may help you to change your negative attitude towards members from different traditions or cultures.
• Good behaviour leads to attitude change.
• Aware people and get their support against social norms that promote prejudice
• Make people realize the discrepancies in their beliefs
• Promoting laws and norms that promote fair and equal treatment for all.