According to the dictionary, prejudice means “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.” Many people conceive prejudice to be related to race- for example people with white skin and people with black skin however the idea of prejudice includes everything- from religion, culture, gender, geographical background, race and even age. Discrimination based off of prejudice has been continuously displayed throughout history; in the 1600’s when black men were used as slaves, world war two, when millions of people were killed for their skin colour, religion, sexuality and way of life. Of course, these are only a couple of examples in a world filled with prejudice and discrimination.
Today, society claims to have become accepting of all these aspects and that everyone receives equal rights. Even if this was true and society had reached the ultimate point of “political correctness”, there will always be individuals who illogically discriminate against people who are in some way different to them. These people seem to have a tendency to create groups and invite people who share the same hatred towards a certain group to join. Because of this unfortunate reality, prejudice-racism, sexism, homophobia etc... will never be stopped.
The idea of prejudice comes from nowhere but spoken history, from parents hating a group and continuously passing it on to their children, after all; no one was born hating a black person, the Jewish race or other cultures and groups. Prejudice isn’t just a “preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience”, it’s a development that humans receive through educators who don’t know any better, it’s natural to be confused when meeting someone different from you, but unless you were taught otherwise- it’s not natural to have an immediate hate towards them. To have prejudice feelings towards them; to discriminate.
Hagar Barazani