Prejudice and Discrimination essays

Prejudice and Discrimination essays There must be a reason for the popularity, despite fifty years of desegregation, of racially biased humor. There must be a reason books of "politically correct" fairy tales got big laughs and made big bucks for their clever authors. There must be a reason that people laugh about being "politically correct" in their thoughts, words and actions. And perhaps the concept is so continually amusing because it refers to a psychology that does not naturally exist in human beings. At base, although there is so much talk about unity' and globalism' and all of us being one (and I don't pretend to argue that we are or are not one in spirit), we all do come to this plane of existence in a variety of wrappers.' Moreover, these wrappersour bodiesare motivated by an infinite variety of thought engines. It could be argued all day and all night whether the contents and proclivities of these minds and mental states are inherent or environmental. It doesn't matter. What is important is that when humans are attempting to be non-judgmental, non-discriminatory and unprejudiced, they are attempting to surmount a very basic animal reaction to the simple fact of inhabiting a body different from most other bodies, but quite Other researchers, too, have found that stereotyping and the prejudice to which it gives life (sometimes followed by discriminatory acts, and sometimes simply held in mind) are so hard to eradicate in humans that they must be part of the package. "We've found out that despite the cleverest efforts of smart, knowledgeable researchers, it is very hard to get people not to stereotype." (Pratto, 1992, 184) There are circumstances in which stereotyping is reduced, including having additional information about someone that would otherwise be stereotyped or when one is personally involved with a stereotyping target or are motivated to be ...