Prejudice and Stereotypes

Everyone has dealt with being treated as an outcast at some point in their lives. Everyone has had an incident when we have been treated unfairly. Discrimination because of prejudice and stereotyping is one of the main problems that we must face in an ethnically and culture diverse world. Considering these beliefs and the means behind these actions may essentially help us be a step closer to resolving this social injustice. “Prejudice involves a negative attitude toward individuals based on their membership in a particular group”, (Feenstra, J. (2011). Prejudice takes place when a person has negative views about someone even if they do not have the complete background on the individual or group of people. Prejudice is mostly caused by a particular stereotype made about a person or group. A stereotype is “a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people” (Cardwell, 1996). People make stereotypes by making generalizations such as females should only cook, clean and raise children. Or all Americans t are greedy, or all African Americans steal. “Discrimination refers to the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit”( uslegal,2012).´An "ingroup" is a group to which someone belongs, and an "outgroup" is a group to which the person does not belong (hence, one person's ingroup may be another person's outgroup, and vice versa), “(Linville, 1998). On a personal level, I can relate to being placed in a stereotype. I can remember a time where I went to get my car fixed at a particular car shop. I could actually tell I was being treated different because I am a female. I think because they figured I was a woman I would not know about cars so the mechanic told me things were wrong with my car that were not actually wrong with it. I can also say I have