Why are people prejudiced?
@SamanthaTilsley (51)
4 responses
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
22 May 08
Prejudice is learned...either by family, friends, religious leaders or even your neighborhood. Of course, the fear induced by religious radicals intent upon terrorizing the world has caused another kind of prejudice. As long as people are free to travel there will alawys be prejudice in one form or another. I agree that every person is human and I try not to think in any particular way about a person based on their heritage or color but there are many people in this world who feel differently.
@excellence7 (3647)
• Mauritius
22 May 08
Prejudices is born from the lack of ignorance of willingness to be ignorant, its born with the lack of real comprehension and worsened by the evil of discrimination, racism and status..Yet, the wise man is one, who really knows that we are all man on earth, though different..
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
16 Jun 08
What an excellent question and excellent post! This is something I've been trying to figure out for nearly all of my 55 years. We don't choose our parents or the color of our skin or any other physical characteristics that we're born with, we don't choose where we're born and actually for the first two decades of our lives, give or take a few years, we also don't choose our surroundings or upbringing. Clearly, some people have passed their prejudices down from generation to generation and that's very sad because none of us are born with hate in our hearts. We are all different from each other because every single one of us is unique, but for all our differences we have much more in common with one another. Why can't we just embrace these commonalities and learn from our differences?
Annie
@tigertang (1749)
• Singapore
16 Jun 08
Unfortunately being human involves having prejudices. If you put two human beings in a room, they'll find a way to have a prejudice against one another and getting people to overcome their prejudices takes time and effort. America, which is the land of opportunity for everyone, still has a problem getting people of different races, religions and sexuality to blend together - and America is probably the most diverse and tollerant society in the world.
I don't know what it is about human beings and their prejudices. I guess in anthropology we call the term "Fear of 'The Other'" and we tend to define the term THE OTHER by knowing what we are not. The most obvious difference for most people in race. The second most defining factor is religion. But even amongst people of the same race and religion, you get sub-groups. For example, in Nigeria, the Ibu, Yoroba and Hussa don't much like each other. In Northern Ireland, Catholics and Protestants have only just stopped shooting each other. In Iraq, the Sunni's and Shia are still shooting each other.
I think its only when communities are forced to live and cooperate that they start to become less hostile to each other and they cooperate, especially if there's a business to be made. America may not have perfect inter-communal relations but by and large people accept each other and one of the reasons for that is because they're in situations where they've experienced the fact that cooperation is better for their self-interest than fighting the other guys.
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