‘There is no valid cause for prejudice’. Do you agree?

[removeduser_426582376423734]

A recent essay I wrote :-

I do not agree with the statement, for many reasons. Primarily, prejudice, in my opinion, is a human feeling, like love and hate. A person cannot escape his own prejudices, nor can he escape his other feelings. Prejudice (pre-judging a person) can be a healthy thing, for example, being nervous when seeing an Arab-dressed person on a plane, for it is not harming anybody and is born out of innocence. Also, discrimination can lead to ‘positive’ discrimination, the action in favour of one group to redress imbalance. This, too, is born of innocence, and can lead to a good outcome, e.g. the capture of future-terrorists.

Others may disagree by saying that prejudice can lead to discrimination – the action against those we dislike. This unhealthy act can lead to many different branches of discrimination, more likely than ‘positive’ discrimination. For example, in history, we see that discrimination has taken part in many radical movements over the past hundred years, such as anti-Semitism in Russia and Germany, apartheid in South Africa, and more recently, Neo-Nazism in the UK and the Klu Klux Klan in America. These organisations spread their discrimination and condone violence and, in the case of anti-Semitism, genocide – the attempt to kill a whole race of people. Discrimination can also lead a different path, not just against one race or type of person, but xenophobia – the hatred (or fear) of all foreigners. We must remember that, with fear and prejudice, comes hatred. The media has not made prejudice, against minorities such as Arabs, Muslims as a whole and other factions, any easier. If anything, the media has deliberately shown many minorities as immoral and, predominantly, evil. For example, the Muslims are, essentially, a peaceful race. However, the acts of a few, such as 9/11 and 7/7, are shown as the majority of the Islamic race. This is born of fear, which has been pushed on by the media, and in some cases, has lead to discrimination.

However, I am sure that I am right. This is because, for example, the prejudice has helped solve many crimes. The ‘stop-and-search’ problem has escalated, and so has the times that drugs, weapons etc. have been found. Although the media has been quite harsh on minorities, recent videos and articles have been anti-American and English, for example the recent footage caught on tape of harassment. I conclude that, although often prejudice can be unjust and lead to discrimination, the overall effect of prejudice can have a positive result.

[AngryTitusPullo]

For example, the Muslims are, essentially, a peaceful race. However, the acts of a few, such as 9/11 and 7/7, are shown as the majority of the Islamic race. This is born of fear, which has been pushed on by the media, and in some cases, has lead to discrimination.

Islam is not a race. Anyway, it might be in some people's mind when you say muslims the image in their head is a bearded turban arab. :laughing: It's simply a religion where the race could be arabs , causassian, africans, asians.. well even Eskimos I think.

[removeduser_426582376423734]

You know what I mean. I'm saying that, for example, if you see an arab in a plane, you're more scared than if you see a good ole white guy.

[Tom Paine]

That does not make prejudice right. I disagree with the statement, but I do think that there is no valid reason for prejudice based on someone's appearance; they look that way, so what? Prejudice, in fact, or pre-judging, I guess has to be based on appearance, and thus is always wrong; one must withold judgement to avoid error in said judgement, and the error can be a big problem.

[removeduser_426582376423734]

Yes, but the main point is that you disagree with the statement. If there was no prejudice, how could someone know if another person was capable of something?

[Tom Paine]

How does prejudice tell you if someone is capable of something? White people as well as Arabs have committed terrible terrorist attacks...

[Habelo]

Its never right with prejustify anyone, though its easy to do so and people who get caught in the storm should not get offended..

[removeduser_426582376423734]

In the essay, I am so firm in my rightness because I have to be. Believe me, I don't agree with the statement, but the reasons against it are in the second paragraph.

[Denny Crane!]

You say prejudice and you immediatly think racism and discrimination. This is the extreme form of prejudice, obviously a bad thing. Have you ever considered though why we are prejudiced? Why it comes so easy to us to do?

Trying to say you should not pre judge is like telling someone not to breath, because at some level you will always do it. It is an instinctive reaction when you first see something to first decide: Eat it, shag it, run away?. On some level every person you see will be prejudged to a greater or lesser extent by yourself. A male will instinctively judge if he is facing a physical threat and a female if she is facing competition. This pervades our personality on so many levels, so only through an educated and disciplined mind can we teach ourselves not to make extreme prejudgements on people. Though on a subconcious level there will always be a certain amount of prejudice of certain kinds.

Peter

[Tom Paine]

Yet we can ignore or overcome that; the concious overules the subconcious....

[removeduser_426582376423734]

No, the conscious does not overrule the unconcious. Have you ever heard the phrase - "I did it unconciously (or without thinking)." Unconciously, we do things like breathe, and look, and feel. We can't escape our subconcious, nor can we escape things like prejudice.

For example, if we were all (and I mean non-Islamic extremists, work with me here) not prejudice, we wouldn't care if an Arab came along with a simple looking car and drove up to a major oil depot in places, such as, Saudi Arabia. The prejudice lead to the action that, basically, saved the oil prices rising again (the security guards saw suspicious looking people, locked the gates, and fired on the car causing it to explode). I dont condone prejudice, but I think that sometimes it has an advantage.

[Denny Crane!]

Yet we can ignore or overcome that; the concious overules the subconcious....

To escape the more serious prejudice' yes you can. On some level though, you will be judging everyone you meet. There is no such thing as absolute impartiality, you prejudge every person simply based on appearance without even knowing it.

Peter

[HalfThere]

Using race as a statistical tool when executing policy can be productive, but prejudice taken too far, to the point of ignoring the individual, or attempting to force him to conform to a stereotype, does only harm.

Therefore, I disagree with your disagreement with the statement.

[removeduser_426582376423734]

Technically, you agree with my disagreement. Unless you outright disagree with my statement, you are agreeing with my disagreement.

[imb39]

Prejudice happens on all sorts of levels. We always prejudge people. When we meet, we normally expect a certain behaviour. It tends to be neutral but we expect a civilised response. On this level, it is perfectly natural. On the other hand if this prejudice is applied too widely and dictates our thoughts too much, then justification cannot be found.

[Tom Paine]

Natural and justifiable are different things entirely. Its natural to attack/kill one who encroaches one your territory, but nt justifiable.

[imb39]

Hence why I qualified it at the end...

[Tom Paine]

The finer ones, the narrower ones, still have the same applied to them.

[imb39]

I am of the olpinion that our whole society is predicated on the absolute basic employment of prejudice. I go into most situation based upon the idea that the other person will not attack me. This is a very basic form of prejudice, is it not?

[Tom Paine]

Hmm, true, but that is a very basic prejudice, very basic. It is one our subconcious agrees with the concious on. The concious would throw up the same thing.