Tuesday, April 24, 2007
I agree with the statement that prejudice is a disease we can never get rid of. First of all, I shall define the key phrases in this statement. 'Prejudice' is an opinion on someone or something that is not based on reson or experience. 'Disease' is contagious, harmful and hard to eradicate because of its root causes, and often it has side effects. 'Never get rid of' means to take action so that something or someone is no longer there to worry or annoy you.
Prejudice and discrimination are negative manifestations of integrative power. Instead of bringing or holding people together, prejudice and discrimination push them apart. It is especially destructive when it occurs on a large scale--as it did in Sri Lanka, or the Middle East--it also occurs on smaller scales as well, when one group holds negative stereotypes of another group and discriminates against members of that group based on those stereotypes. Prejudice is happening everywhere in every country. This phenomenon has been existing centuries ago, thus we can conclude that prejudice is a disease we can never get rid of.
Prejudice mostly happens in the United States. For example, 41% of the Whites believe that Muslim religion supports terrorism. Other examples include 46% of Hispanics and 41% of the Blacks believe thatAsian-Americans are crafty and devious based on Harris poll for NCCJ, 1994.
On September 11, 2001 attacks 4 planes hijacked and crashed into World Trade Center and The Pentagon by 19 hijackers. Nearly 3000 dead. Since then, prejudice in the States expended. More Americans regard Muslim as a terrorist or law-breaker. This is extremely unfair to the Muslims in the States.
The reasons why prejudice can never get rid of are because that stereotype maybe one of the 'first' skills children learnt in age 4-5, and they will be prejudiced in age 7 under social influence, such as some television programmes contain ethnic jokes, and racial-biased information. Thus it is extremely difficult for us to get rid of prejudice.
source: http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/prejdisc.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks
♥ a butterfly landed @ 8:31 PM
2 Comments:
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By 
, at
May 20, 2007 at 12:17 AM
I agree with your point that prejudice is a diesease we can never get rid of. Your views are well-supported by real life examples and statistics, which shows just how common and widespread prejudice is. :D
By 
vera, at
May 21, 2007 at 7:36 PM
