Reflection 14

Before reading the passages I already knew a lot about prejudice. To me, Prejudice is a big issue in the world today. Many people just ignore the fact that it is one of the main issues. They have no knowledge to what prejudice truly is and how it is created. We are not born with the concept of being prejudice; we learn it as children. We learn them as true, validated facts. But they are never truly researched or tested for its’ validity. As we grow up, we are just left with that one understanding about the race. Later, when a situation arises, we then act based on the prejudice learned. Our minds conflict with the prejudice decision and the moral decision. This causes doubt and internal discomfort. As a human, we are known for avoiding situations that are uncomfortable to us. We use forms of denial to better convince ourselves that we are correct. We can go through so many discomforts because of learned prejudice. When we are young, some state that the prejudice actions we take are unintentional because we really do not comprehend what we are doing. But later in life most adults do the prejudice intentionally. Acts of intentionally prejudice are always pre planned. It is part of the individual’s identity. They cannot stand change or difference because they do not fit into a “framework”. I think we need to try and educate those in power. Educators, leaders, business men should be taught how to correctly influence people. They are in great positions of influence. If they influence a group to a certain prejudice, it could seemingly spread to more and more of the population. For years, people have tried to create programs that can help people further understand the damage prejudice can do to us. We cannot achieve success in these programs without looking at ourselves more closely. A good way would be to examine the prejudices we commit. We can questions are minds and ask: is this right, do they deserve this, is it fair, why am I doing this and how can I stop thinking negatively. It is hard process to get rid of learned prejudices. You are going against what was taught and changing a perspective entirely. I personally think that anyone can change their behavior towards someone. Without the proper teaching, these prejudices will continue throughout generations and generations. We must educate and teach people that this will destroy us one day.