Racial Prejudice and its Impact

Racial Prejudice and its Impact

Introduction

A peaceful society is the custodian of progress and prosperity to any country. A society is made up of different people belonging to different communities, ethnicities, casts and color. Every society has its own traditions and norms. In order to ensure the peace and progress, these norms and customs should be respected and honored. Unfortunately, there have been noticed, several unethical and discriminative behaviors all around the world. The sense of superiority and guilt of inferiority has destroyed the peace process and caused immeasurable loss to humanity. One of the most common negative practices is prejudice in a society.

Prejudice refers to the social attitude of practicing unfavorable behavior towards a "particular" group, ethnicity, race or individual. It is considered as an unequal behavior which underestimates a community or group and promotes unequal treatment in the society. It is based on some negative assumption about an individual or community. Prejudice is a harmful attitude for a society which grows differences among communities and discourages unity and equality among the society (Kalat, 2010).

A stereotype is a classic view or concept about a person or group. It is primarily based on assumption, or myths about a community or an individual, and it is a strong view that may persist generations after generations. The stereotypical concept refers to a general perception which may be about Gender, country, race, tribe, society or workplace. Social institutions, peer group, Educational institute, and media have a strong impact on Stereotyping (Browne, 2011).

Prejudice is unfair behavior in a society, which creates, a sense of insecurity and unequal treatment for citizens. Practicing prejudice violates fundamental citizen rights, and it is against ethics. There are various internal and external reasons resulting in increasing or promoting prejudice in a society. Certain types of Prejudice are there which are still in practice in several regions of the world. Cultural difference, ethnicity, race or color distinction and community difference give rise to prejudice.

Discussion

In order to understand the actual meaning and concept of prejudice, first we have to understand and distinguish Prejudice to Stereotype. Stereotypical behavior, as defined above, is a general perception and concept about some person or community. It may be related to gender, cast, community or society. It includes general practices like in Britain Girls are usually considered pretty, appealing, delicate and gentle. Boys are considered as rough, a bit arrogant and straight forward. This is a widespread perception. Prejudice, on the other hand, is a combination of stereotype and negativity. It may lead to discrimination and unequal attitude towards certain community or race. Prejudice is a harmful practice for any state which has horrible consequences in terms of human rights violation and equality. Various examples in history evident that discriminatory behavior towards a certain race or community was a result of prejudices and baseless concepts about them (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman, 2009).

There are certain types of prejudice which have created prominent issues worldwide. Racism, Ageism and Sexism are famous and most common type of ...