People are not born prejudiced. “It is something that is learned". It can be learned in the same way other attitudes and values are learned, primarily through association, reinforcement and modeling. For example, children may learn to associate a particular ethnic group with poverty, crime, violence and other negative things” (2006 Anti-Defamation League). Also, prejudice in “children may be reinforced by listening to derogatory ethnic jokes, especially when others laugh along or think they're cool”. Lastly, children may simply imitate the prejudices of their older family members and popular friends. Prejudice is to pre- judge. “Prejudice is a baseless and usually negative attitude toward members of a group. Common features of prejudice include negative feelings, stereotyped beliefs and a tendency to discriminate against members of the group”. (Kendra Van Wagner) Therefore, people are not born prejudiced but it is something learned by family, friends, peers and the media. There are many different types of prejudice. The three that are most current in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee are racism, sexism and socioeconomic prejudice.
Racism is a big problem in many people’s lives. Throughout history, many groups and cultures have been significantly affected by racism. African Americans are an example of a group of people who have suffered the effects of racism. In 1867 the “Ku Klux Klan, was founded as a secret organization terrorized the African Americans and the black population at large. The group indulged in brutally murdering the black community and anyone socially advocating their cause. In the Southern states, the Colfax and Coushatta massacres in 1873 and 1874 were just some of the many brutal assaults launche...
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...r job is a profession. Subsequently, they have nicer houses and may come from a family with money. These socioeconomic differences lead to multiple problems and conflicts.
Therefore, the world is a very prejudice place. Everyday people are dealing with racism, sexism, socioeconomic prejudice and other related problems. People are not born being prejudiced, it is something that is learned depending on a multitude of factors, such as their race, sex, living conditions, economic situation and education.
Works Cited
Anti-Defamation League, 2006- http://www.adl.org/education/miller/q_a/references.asp
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Kendra Van Wagner - http://psychology.about.com/od/pindex/g/prejudice.htm
Megaessay, 1- http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/12799.html
Prashant Magar,3, 5/19/2009 - http://www.buzzle.com/articles/racism-against-african-americans.html
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, is a novel which explores the theme of challenging racial prejudice. Within this novel, Lee has portrayed unintentional racial prejudice through the characters Atticus Finch, Link Deas and Scout Finch. With these characters, and their roles in exploring the theme of racial prejudice, Harper Lee has set unintentional boundaries for readers, as result, racial prejudicial thinking from contemporary perspective, in comparison to historical views, is challenged to a small extent.
Sometimes, people discriminate one thing, but strongly oppose the discrimination of another thing. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, this issue is very much expressed throughout the story. This thought-provoking story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during a time when there’s a rape trial against a falsely accused African American named Tom Robinson. There is also a discrimination, of sorts, towards a man named Boo Radley, by three young children named Jeremy “Jem” Finch, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, and Charles “Dill” Baker Harris. Both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are similar in their own ways through their inherent goodness.
Prejudice can be defined as any preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience, 2. Harm or injury that results or may result from some action or judgment, and due in part to the first Amendment, which gave all Americans the right of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition, many Americans believe they have the right to verbally judge whomever and whatever they seem fit, to no extent. However these same American underestimate the impact prejudice can have on a person’s body and mind because as we all know prejudice grows. Prejudice can also affect all phases of life: the past, the present, and the future. Maya Angelou said, “ Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.
“Prejudice is a learned trait. You’re not born prejudice; you’re taught it” –Charles R Swindoll. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about a young girl named Scout who lives in a world filled with prejudice. There are many instances and types of prejudice in the novel. A man named Tom Robinson was convicted for doing a crime he never did because of the color of his skin. To this day, Tom would have never been tried because the evidence assuredly shows he is not guilty. One only becomes prejudice if you are taught it from other prejudice people. Harper Lee shows this idea throughout her novel through her characters, dialogue and theme.
“To Kill A Mockingbird” is marvelous and unforgettable novel. Not only show how dramatic, sad in and old town – Maycomb be like, but through her unique writings, some big conflicts about politics and critical is going on through this tired old Southern town. Not just in general like education, friendship, neighbors but also pacific in individuals like family and the people’s characteristics themselves. In one book yet can covered with such many problems, Harper Lee must have been experienced a lot and deeply understanding that time. That is why the book lives, becoming literature and get the love from the audiences a lot. One of the problem and mostly run along with the story and interest me is racism between white people and black people socially.
Prejudice meaning pre-judging someone and having an unwarranted bias occurs often in today’s society and has been around since the beginning of time. Prejudice can effect people’s decisions and have an unfair impact on society. The text ‘To kill a mocking-bird’ written by Harper Lee and the movie ‘Philadelphia’ directed by Jonathon Demme explore this idea thoroughly.
Some people say prejudice is part of human nature. Others think we learn it from our elders. Either one could be true, as there are various controversial beliefs about why prejudice exists in the world. One interesting theory is that prejudice is an emotional reaction that is triggered in our brain whenever we encounter unknown people, who have different physical characteristics, different personalities, and/or different beliefs. In fact, these unfamiliar people scare us, and we start treating them differently to reassure ourselves that they cannot possibly matter to us. Another possible reason for prejudice could be negative education about others, either direct or indirect. An example of the direct type would be that you are deliberately taught to avoid certain people who are discriminate...
Racism is evident in the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Throughout the story whites are constantly challenging blacks, and vice versa, because blacks want to be seen as equals and not as a lesser race.
The novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is a simplistic view of life in the Deep South of America in the 1930s. An innocent but humorous stance in the story is through the eyes of Scout and Jem Finch. Scout is a young adolescent who is growing up with the controversy that surrounds her fathers lawsuit. Her father, Atticus Finch is a lawyer who is defending a black man, Tom Robinson, with the charge of raping a white girl. The lives of the characters are changed by racism and this is the force that develops during the course of the narrative.
'Democracy,' she said. 'Does anybody have a definition?' ... 'Equal rights for all, special privileges for none' (Lee 248).
In the book West Side Story by Arthur Laurents there were many prejudices. Prejudice is a favoring or dislike of something without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge. There were prejudices in West Side Story that had to do with the types of people, their races and sex. Sometimes prejudice can be in small doses and can be meaningless, other times prejudice can be very serious and cause death.
There are many examples throughout “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street” that show that prejudice is a human flaw. According to Les Goodman, “You were so quick to kill, Charlie, and you were so quick to tell us who we had to be careful off. Well maybe you had to kill. Maybe Peter there was trying to tell us something. Maybe he’d found out something
In an article for The Atlantic titled “The Workforce is Even More Divided by Race Than You Think,” Derek Thomson looks at workforce participation and wages by sex and race. He finds that regardless of sex or participation in the workforce, race takes precedence in determining how much workers make: "White men and women out-earn black men and women, who themselves out-earn Hispanic men and women, among full-time workers—even though Hispanic men have the highest participation rate" (Thomson). The reason for this, Thomson explains, is the accessibility to higher wage jobs, with whites and Asians having a much denser presence in jobs such as construction managers, CEO’s, physicians, surgeons, and software developers, whereas blacks are more likely to work as security guards or bus drivers, and Hispanics are more likely to work as maids, house cleaners, or in landscaping jobs. A central dynamic behind this is the difference in level of education between races: “Blacks and Hispanics, who make up about one-quarter of the workforce, represent 44 percent of the country’s high school dropouts and just 15 percent of its bachelor’s earners.”
Despite cultures and conflicts, the fundamental bonds remain: We all belong to a common family. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee is a timeless classic about coming of age in a small southern town in the 1930’s. The book follows Jem and Scout, two siblings, who must face the harsh realities of life. Hypocrisy and racism together make the two most important themes.
Prejudice can be caused because of various reasons. Religion, ethnic race and social status are examples of causes of prejudice. Sometimes prejudice is caused by how we are raised. Many times parents pass on prejudice beliefs to their children. A lot people raised in the southern part of the country are prejudice against blacks. In the early to mid 1960’s, prejudice was alive and well in the south. Blacks had their own bathrooms and were forced to ride in the back of city busses. It’s hard to believe that was doing on only 40 years ago. A lot of Middle Eastern countries are very prejudice against women.