Gordon Allport The Language Of Prejudice Analysis

The Language of Prejudice by Gordon Allport suggests that those who share characteristics such as gender, race, sexual orientation, age, etc. will find themselves being labeled by their external status. The majority of the time, the epithets are primarily conveyed as neutral or even positive. But, eventually be thought of as negative labeling because that is how society perceives categorizing in any way. The author indicates that classifying forces us to overlook all other features of a person. Labeling expands the distinction of a human being and disguises the important characteristics of the person. Allport proves his theory because the thoughts and feelings alter after the students recognize the ethnicity of the females. History and cultures

have enormous impacts on the way words are perceived. The author states that many categories have two kinds of interpretations. He uses examples such as the word “black” in the English language as having negative connotations. As opposed to the Latin niger meaning black. Minority names can also be thought of as derogatory although they are the correct terms to use for specific ethnicities. Allport advocates that “minority groups are often understandably sensitive to names given them and sometimes see evil intent where none exists” (5). This can be directly related towards communist labeling because of the malicious emotions that individuals have whenever they vent to other people.