In the Norton Reader 13th edition, readers will find an article “In Defense of Prejudice” by Jonathan Rauch. Rauch correctly tells us that rather than trying to get rid of prejudice, we should try and teach people to fight prejudice. Rauch says “stamping out prejudice really means forcing everyone to share the same prejudice, namely that of whoever is in authority” (575). He believes that people don 't need to focus on destroying prejudices, but instead put effort into redirecting it so that they it is used to help people. That would require that everyone put prejudice against prejudice, which would allow everything to be put up to public criticism. Rauch lets it be known that he is gay, and a Jewish man, while using quotes from several historical figures and universities that are well known in society. Rauch talks about times when prejudice was called into question of whether a person’s misguided belief can be taken as prejudice.
Throughout this essay, Rauch does a good job to defend prejudice. However, he makes it clear that he does not think it is right,
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Simply Psychology.org illustrates a study on the human mind by Dr. Sigmund Freud which states, “A prejudiced son may not act of their attitude. Therefore, someone can be prejudiced towards a certain group, but not discriminate against them. Also, prejudice includes all three compotes of attitude (affective, behavioral and cognitive), whereas discrimination is just behavior” (Mcleod).The reality is, everybody is prejudiced, as Rauch argued. The crazy, obnoxiously liberal anti-prejudice people are prejudiced. To say somebody is prejudice is to say oneself is prejudice. It is very sad that they are unable to see that they are just creating a never-ending cycle of prejudice. It makes them prejudice to name someone else as prejudice, just as it makes someone prejudice to name someone else a “spic” or
In David Brook’s, “One Nation Slightly Divisible” and Jonathan Rauch’s, “In Defense Of Prejudice, both writers make valid points. Both authors also have a common technique; Brook’s and Rauch seem to have biased viewpoints towards the subject matter. But although these two authors share this similarity, one author stands out in how he uses the bias to his advantage or even to the advantage of the audience to better understand and be convinced by his ideology. Although both authors seem to have biased viewpoints, their bias fuels their arguments in efforts to successfully fulfill their purpose. David Brook’s appears to structure his biased viewpoint in a way that exhibits a more pervasive bias than Jonathan Rauch in how he uses the bias to incorporate
“vulnerable to manipulate” and that it is “more often than not a willful ignorance and acceptance of stereotypes.” Bissoondath’s article discusses through examples of two men who are very friendly, who make unconscious insensitive remarks that are based on stereotypes. He also goes on to describe
“Discrimination” by Kenneth Rexroth is a poem about his strong negative view of the entire human race. He points out specific instances in his everyday routine where he really despises what humans do. The poem's significant elements Rexroth implemented is tone, lyric poem, and caesura, which make a huge contribution to his strong negative view of the human race. Rexroth has been using a strong tone to show his negative feeling throughout the poem of the entire human race. Rexroth describes the human race’s art negatively with powerful words which starts to end the poem with a strong negative tone.
Prejudice is an issue that cannot be easily avoided in today's society. It has and always will have a huge impact on the discrimination that some people face based on religion, appearance, background, mental/physical disabilities and etc.
When the word “prejudice” is mentioned in public conversation, undertones of anger and unfairness usually accompany it. Prejudice is often defined as a predetermined opinion not based on fact,experience, or knowledge. Many acts of inequalities and discriminative wrong-doings in history can be traced back to being a result of prejudice.So what place does a concept with such a negative connotation have in an institution of higher education where students and faculty of varying cultures and backgrounds come together to learn? Instinctively, a good number of people would answer that prejudice and its negative consequences have no place in such an environment. However, a contradicting opinion is expressed in an article written by Jonathan Rauch titled “In Defense of Prejudice” . In this article, Rauch expresses his dissatisfaction with the
Gone are the days of legalized slavery, of Nazi Germany, of women being incapable of having a notable opinion. No longer is there a system of racial segregation adopted by an entire country, complete white supremacy or lynchings performed by the Ku Klux Klan. Yet, although we are no longer exposed to such past experiences and despite us living in a world where diversity is embraced more than ever, the existence of prejudice remains. Today we have universally come to accept multiculturalism, varied ethnic backgrounds and those populations who historically were forever stigmatized. But in spite of these developments prejudice has manifested itself in other, more subtle ways and no matter how modernized society become such unfavourable attitudes
Vincent N. Parrillo is a professor who teaches Sociology at William Paterson University in New Jersey. In his short essay “Causes of Prejudice,” he states that there are many kinds of levels in prejudice that are based on six different theories. Within those six different theories, it includes authoritarian personality, self-justification, frustration, socialization, and social norms. According to Race/Class: A State of Being United, numerous writers such as Daniel Winer and Rosabelle Price Walkley has agreed with Vincent N. Parrillo “Causes of Prejudice” and describes the word prejudice as an “attitudinal system of negative beliefs, feelings and action orientation regarding a certain group or groups of people.” There are certainly more than
Jonathan Rauch’s essay “In Defense of Prejudice” essay immediately stood out to me for a few reasons. As a black Muslim woman living in America, I’ve dealt with my fair share of prejudice and for that I’ve always had a negative view towards it. Also, I found the title to be striking and unconventional which automatically drew me towards it. In “In Defense of Prejudice”, Rauch makes it clear that while he is not in favor of prejudice, he is in favor of allowing people to express their prejudice as openly and freely as they choose to. He takes a somewhat controversial stance with his belief that banning hate speech actually goes against freedom of speech and that eradicating prejudice should not be the goal of Americans, but to use prejudice
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...
Prejudice and the Holocaust Prejudice was the main factor that led to the holocaust. For some, resisting these forms of oppression was survival. Considering the dehumanizing the Nazis had forced upon the Jews, people took whatever courage and strength they had to get through this period of time. I believe luck also had a part to play in survival.
In the article “In Defense of Prejudice: Why Incendiary Speech Must Be Protected” by Jonathan Rauch, Rauch attempted to justify his point on prejudice by saying, “…the last thing society should do is seek to utterly eradicate racism and other forms of prejudice.” I personally very much disagree with the steps Rauch proposed. Eradicating/Containing racism is the best idealistic step to take in order to make the future generation of the minority group live without having to worry about daily negativities from the society in my opinion.
While prejudice and discrimination are closely related, the terms are not interchangeable. Prejudice is a negative attitude, feelings, thoughts or beliefs toward an entire category of people. There are two important factors that are present in the definition of prejudice, and they are attitude and entire category (Schaefer 35).
From the reading I learned prejudice is when a person attaches negative emotion to a certain group of people that is not based on facts. Prejudice has two levels cognitive or affective where the cognitive is thinking and feeling prejudice while affecting is actually doing prejudice actions. Discrimination is also discussed in chapter one. Discrimination is unequal behavior or treatment of a person based on them being a member of a group. An example of discrimination would be not getting selected for a job because you are African
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.