Do you understand how prejudice happens?

Write a reflection on your reaction to the several articles in “Understanding Prejudices” and the section on Prejudice in “Beliefs, Values and Attitudes”.

A few days ago I expressed my own inclinations to prejudicial behavior. So I am aware of how prejudice happens. To understand the dynamics of it all one must do a little research and a lot of soul searching. Rereading the material on Prejudice in Beliefs, Values, and Attitudes just made me realize how serious of an issue this is. According to the essay, however, we are prejudice towards others (individuals or groups) when we ourselves are members of another group. Supposedly, we don’t choose to be prejudice and if left to our own devices wouldn’t behave in such a manner. What we really strive for is fulfilling the need of being able to affiliate with other people. That’s what drives us to join groups, that connection to others. But once we are initiated into the group we pick up (either on our own or with the aid of other group members) idealisms that create friction amongst our group and people from other groups. On a small scale take a look at school cliques. Usually, the school is comprised of several different groups. For example, the major division happens between the popular kids and the unpopular kids. The popular kids tend to be the jocks and the cheerleaders. The unpopular kids tend to be the nerds and the teacher’s pets. These sets of people connected because they each held similar interests, and that’s fine and dandy. There’s nothing wrong with connecting with someone that you have things in common with. But it is a rare thing to see members of each of these groups mingling with members of the other groups. And if there is interaction, sometimes it’s not for the benefit of all. A jock can exploit his physical stature on a mild mannered nerd to get what he wants, answers to the test, a good research paper, even tutoring. The jock might believe that his standing in the school hierarchy is above all other students. And that the praise from the teachers and the school administrators on his most recent win just confirm his stature in the eyes of the public. This behavior is very similar to that of a prejudging person. On a larger scale this type of behavior can be devastating, and the likes of it have been seen throughout history. Take into consideration the Trail of Tears or the Holocaust. So many people suffered due to perceived differences. In the articles of Understanding Prejudice the focus is taken off of the victims and is placed squarely on the behavior itself. In a way it victimizes the discriminators. Prejudice is seen as a personality disorder, a behavior that the person can’t help but exhibit. However, there are two different types of prejudice: unintentional and intentional. The unintentional prejudice person picks up such behavior from early learning through passive observation of the people in their surroundings, such as family members, peers, sometimes even their community. These people can be heard saying “I am not prejudiced,” and then react in the manner that is considered prejudiced due to what they may have picked up during early learning. The intentional prejudice person is one who has gone through a more active learning process later on in life. These people share certain fundamental personality characteristics, much like people diagnosed with a personality disorder. The prejudice behavior is very much integrated into one’s identity and is seen as a defense mechanism to defend said identity and even the person’s way of life. It is much more difficult to change intentional prejudices. Learning more about prejudice has helped me to learn more about myself. Unintentional as I may have been in my reaction it is still not an acceptable way to live. Thankfully, I have the resources that can aid me in becoming an individual who has multicultural awareness/consciousness.