Prejudice
Prejudice is an unjustified negative attitude towards a person that is not based on the reason of authentic experiences. The negativity is based on a person’s belief, social class, sexuality, education, political affiliation, disability, to mention but a few. The most well-known types of prejudice are racism, sexism, xenophobia, classism and nationalism. Whenever intolerance occurs, discrimination and bullying are likely to take place.The upbringing one may cause prejudice has been given. If parents have had their prejudice, they are likely to influence their kids to have the same. If one has had bad experience with a specific group, they are likely to extend the negativity to all people from the group though they are different. Discrimination is the unfair or unjust treatment on other people, particularly on the grounds of race, sexual orientation, gender, age, class, nationality, belief, to mention but a few. It occurs when a person is unable to fully enjoy their human rights or any other legal rights, unlike the others.There are various forms of discrimination. The different forms of discrimination may be direct or indirect. The conditions are age discrimination is where treated differently because of their age. Racism which is unfair treatment of people belonging to a certain race. Disability discrimination which is unfair treatment of people with disabilities. Sexual discrimination which is unfair treatment of people who have a different sexual orientation. The forms of discrimination take place in different places at different settings. Direct discrimination occurs when a person is differently treated because of they possess a protected characteristic. Indirect discrimination occurs. Indirect discrimination occurs when someone is treated in a way that has a negative effect on them.
There are many cases about discrimination and prejudice taking place. It is a fact that several people do not believe that it is still there and affecting people. There are cases of racial discrimination still being reported today. An example is the killing of George Floyd by the white police. There have been cases of police brutality towards the black Americans. It caused the awakening of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. It is a clear illustration that racial discrimination is still there. Racial discrimination leading to slavery against the blacks is still taking place in America even after passing the act of abolishing slavery.
Moreover, prejudice take place in different forms with adults and children. For example, in schools, male students tend to think that they are better than the female students. Whatever the male students can do the female students cannot. It demoralizes the female students and, in most instances, there are cases of bullying. There are also cases of children from the high social class looking down upon those from low social class. Some of them tend to think of them as thieves. Whenever they lose something, they suspect or accuse those from low social class. The attitude is usually passed down to them by their parents.
It is illegal to discriminate or prejudice people at workplaces but it still takes place. There have been many reports of discrimination and prejudice in workplaces but none have been held accountable. From the data, less than 15% of the United States workforce are the black workers and the largest share is held by the whites. Still there are no signs of the percentages likely to change any time soon.
Prejudice and discrimination have many disadvantages to people in their daily lives. Discrimination and prejudice in education may lead to a person not achieving what they wanted academically. It is because the unfair and unjust treatment demoralizes them and it may in turn cause them to fail. Failure to achieve academically may affect the future employment opportunities because they may be regarded as underqualified for the job position. Prejudice and discrimination against children by teachers may cause the children to have a negative attitude towards school. It is associated with low academic performance and motivation which later causes an increase in the number of schools drop outs.
Discrimination and prejudice in the workplaceincrease the turnover of employees in an organization. It is because the employees feel that they are not valued and neither is their work. It also leads to the discriminated employee to accept job opportunities that are less valuable even if they are qualified for better positions and opportunities. It also lowers worker’s motivation and satisfaction towards their jobs. It in turn, leads to the low productivity and efficiency in their jobs. If an employee constantly sees that promotions given to colleagues on the basis of gender, race, belief or any other discriminatory factors, it is likely to negatively affect their performance.
Moreover, the practices negatively affect a company’s reputation. It is because the company may provide low quality services to clients because of their race, age, belief, religion or sex. The client may speak ill of the company and in turn, no one would want to associate themselves with it. It thereby causes the company to lose potential clients which may lead to the downfall of the company.
However, there are several solutions that may be used to curb discrimination and prejudice in the different settings. People can gain the support of the public by creating awareness of anti-prejudice ways. It will help create awareness of how the people being prejudiced feel and the negative effects it has on them. There should be an increase in the contact with members of the different groups. It will be made possible if in the workplace setting the employees hired are from the different groups. It will make them work together and in turn, increase their contact. It will make the people value each other and their talents.
Additionally, laws and regulations should be passed that require equal and just treatment for all people. Harsh penalties should be given to those who practice discriminatory and prejudice practices. It will help curb the issues and reports of the practices because people will fear receiving the harsh penalties. Schools can create awareness programs that teach against discrimination and prejudice. It will teach them the negativities that may be associated with practicing them. They can also introduce programs where the students will work together to teach them the importance of treating each other equally and fairly. Serious actions to be taken against teachers and school heads who practice prejudice and discriminatory practices. For example, losing teaching licences and school heads losing authority over the schools.
The schools can introduce empathy trainings, which will teach the children to understand the emotions of others and their experiences. It will make them less likely to want to cause pain to the others thereby reducing prejudice. Adults and children should be encouraged to stop discrimination and prejudice.