Monday, April 28, 2008

Question 2

2. What is prejudice? Where in the world have you seen prejudice? What are the effects of prejudice?

Prejudice is judging someone or something before you actually really know that person or thing, and discriminating that person/thing because of judging beforehand. I think that the word "prejudice" is made up of the prefix "pre" and "judice" kind of sounds like "judge" and it is similar. "Pre" means before, so it means before-judging. I have seen prejudice in my own life, in other people's lives, occasions, events, and so on. I think that prejudice is seen in everyday life. I have been prejudice sometimes, or more truthfully, a lot. I am the sort of person that judges a person by his or her looks before I actually get to know that person in their real being. For example, when I first came to this school, I looked at each person in my class and thought to myself, "He looks really smart." or "She dresses really well" or "He's so ugly" or "She's so pretty." As I think these comments to myself, I start to act like I already know that person, when all the while that person could be someone TOTALLY different inside. Because of judging people before I get to know that person, I miss special and precious relationships that I could actually keep, and instead throw them away. This could lead to a huge issue, because some people that I meet, I hang out with that person because he/she is popular or have similar characteristics as me. Sometimes, these people can actually turn out to be really awesome friends, but a lot of the time it turns out that that person is actually awful inside. This is a life lesson to learn : Being prejudice can enable you to miss out on perfect opportunities to meet people and get to know them. I've seen prejudice in other people's lives. Sometimes I overhear gossip, or am part of one, and I hear things that are prejudice about usually a person. Sometimes it feels "good" to talk about someone behind their backs, but really inside, I'm the one hurting. There are so many effects to prejudice. Like I said before, being prejudice can make you miss out on a lot, and secondly, it can hurt other people, and sometimes it can even hurt you, even if you are the one being prejudice. I've seen prejudice in international schools, where there are differnet nationalities and different people. Prejudice usually leads to harmful words, and undeserving treatment.

2 comments:

Dong-HyunK. said...

I completely agree with you about how prejudice means pre-judging. You judge someone with lack of relevant facts of an event. This is the definition of prejudice in the dictionary, but I think when we think of prejudice we tend to go towards racial prejudice. The Germans have been prejudice against the Jews because of thier belief that Jews are racially offensive to the Germans. They are imperfect and filthy like gypsies and homosexuals who defy the laws of perfection. Prejudice can also be seen in social classes and sexual identity. So there are many different ways prejudice is seen but racial prejudice is what we tend to go towards more often because I think it is the most significant element in which we overlook a person and pre judge. Nice blog and I hope to share more ideas Caroline.

AnthonyK said...

i knew it, you are a superficial person!