Speech About Prejudice

Prejudice is a word that is used to describe people who categorize others into groups based on their skin color, race, or religion. I am reading a book in my English class. In this book, there are many misunderstandings and stereotypes, but one of the things in it is prejudice. There are many examples of prejudice in the book that relate to how people use it in our society. Prejudice is something that everyone has and can never get rid of it. In the book called, To Kill A Mockingbird, which is the book I am reading, prejudice is all around and you have to deal with it or just not be prejudiced to anyone so they won’t say anything to you. No matter what you do, there will always be someone who is prejudice and won’t stop. The book also shows

it through a child’s point-of-view to show that a child can also understand what prejudice is and how to use it. It also shows how much of it, a child can see during their childhood.
To really get a good look at how prejudice is spread throughout the world, we must see it in action in a fictional/realistic world. In this case, we will be using the novel in order to see that prejudice is in fact a bad thing that people have. The quote from the novel to explain this is, “ ‘Did you pay a bushel of potatoes for him?’ I asked, but Atticus shook his head at me.This is prejudice, but you can also say that it falls under the category of stereotype. This is because the main character/narrator, Scout, was listening to a conversation with Walter Cunningham, a poor farm boy who helps his family on the farm, and her father, a lawyer, were having about crops. Since Walter’s family was poor, they couldn’t repay what was given to them in cash so they repaid them in any way they could like giving them carrots or in this case, potatoes. The quote represented prejudice because Scout had categorized him under the section of people who are poor and can’t pay anything back. Although it was a joke she had said, it was a rude joke that presented prejudice. This is very familiar to the real world because this can actually happen. When someone is too poor or owes someone else, they can’t repay you as fast as you would want them to or they would pay you in something else like a sandwich or in this case, potatoes.
There are other ways to tell if someone is being prejudice. One quote is, ”Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop.” Scout had beat up or pushed Walter’s face in the dirt because he was poor. Now him being poor was not the real reason Scout had beat him up. It was mainly because she had to explain to her teacher that he was poor and could not pay back a quarter she was going to loan him. The teacher got mad and made Scout stand in the corner at the back of the class. This meant that because she stood up for someone who is poor, she got punished for it and blamed Walter. Walter had no choice in this. It was not his fault he’s poor. In real life this happens as well. Some people get mad at others because they are poor or they were close to the situation and they get punished for it.
Some ways of finding prejudice are easier than others.

Another quote from the book is, “but they were Haverfords, in Maycomb County a name synonymous with jackass.” This shows prejudice because the rest of their family were jerks so people just assumed they were jerks as well. With the fact that they stole a horse and were sent to court, they might have been known to be jerks, but the whole County already knew they would be jerks. Just because their last name is a name from a generation of jerks, doesn’t mean they would turn out to be that way. This happens in real life as well. If you have a specific last name, people would treat you depending on what it is. For example, if you were a relative of King Louis XVI, a king famous for not knowing how to rule and making France bankrupt, you would not be trusted with anything like money or food. It would be a sad time for you and your future/present family. There are other ways that this can happen. Although you might be a very nice or smart person, that doesn’t mean people are going to take you the right way. You could go to high school for the very first time and you have to sit in the front next to the teacher's desk while everyone else gets to pick their own seats. Now you might be really nice and smart, but since your older brother or sister went to that same school and class and the same teacher and they were a trouble maker or they never did their work, the teacher automatically thinks you will be bad as

well.
So all in all, the Haverfords were called jerks because of their last name, Scout beat Walter because he is poor, and Scout made a joke about Walter not being able to repay debts. Many people are showing prejudice, even if they don’t know they are showing it. The fact that it shows it in the book is a type of resemblance to how it is shown in real life. No one knows why people do it, but many do. In real life, you see people all the time saying things to black people and to Asians. Mexicans and Americans also get comments that are very rude. Prejudice is a virus that has infected everyone, it can be treated to the lower temptation of making fun of others, but can never be cured.