Monday in class we discussed prejudice and discrimination. Remember, prejudice is the thought, whild discrimination is the action. Please write a paragraph giving an example of prejudice and discrimination. It does not have to be about race - any discrimintory act will work. It does not have to be an example from your own life, but if you can think of one, feel free to include that (names removed)!
When I was walking around downtown Portland, there was a homeless person holding a sign that said "Anything helps" asking for money. A person walked by and said, "You are just going to use the money for drugs or alcohol. Why would I give you anything?" The prejudice thought was that all homeless people are alcoholics or drug addicts; the discrimintory action was yelling at the homeless person. The man could have ignored him, but chose to discriminate by yelling at him on a crowded street.
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A person in my family is a blonde and on her first day of work at NASA, she was asked by the boss to go around to 10 people and get five questions from each person. On the third person, she got questions such as what is your favorite color, what is your favorite number, and others like that. At the end she asked what was with all the easy questions and the answer was simple; your blonde so I didn't want to scare you off with hard questions on the first day. The prejudice thought was thinking that she was dumb just because she was blonde, but the discriminatory act was asking easy questions and his answer when she asked him about the questions.
White people used to think that an African american was 3/5 of a person.Which lead to slavery, and taking complete control over them and their freedom.
I asked my friend to have a sleepover with her, but she said she was too busy with homework so couldn't come over. I told her it was fine, and maybe next weekend we could hang out! She just shrugged and said she had to go. Later, I found out she went to a different sleepover with another girl. I confronted her about this, and I asked her why she lied to me, I would have been way less hurt if she had told me the truth. She told my she didn't want to come because she knew my parents were Russian, and since Russian parents are strict she didn't think it would be fun. First of all, that is incredibly rude to tell someone to their face! Second, it was completely stereotypical. The prejudice was when she assumed that all Russian parents are strict, and the discriminatory was her lying to me and not wanting to hang out with me because of my family.
Quite a few times in my old town I was called dumb because I am blond. They told me that whenever they had the opportunity, such as quizzes and tests. The prejudice was that blonde people are dumb. The discrimination was that people were choosing to actually call me dumb, and not in a joking way.
An overweight kid, with a lot of friends and no idea how he could change his shape, is supposed to be partnered up with a stranger in his classroom. He walks up to a fit, tall kid. He asks if he could be his partner, but he said, "I'm already working on mine with someone smart, sorry." The prejudice was that overweight kids are dumb. The discrimination was the fit kid being mean to him.
I am sure many people have experienced prejudice and discrimination directed at them at one point in their lives. People almost always absentmindedly form uneducated opinions against others before meeting them in person. For example, many people will assume that an overweight person will not be as active as someone that is fit. Although they don't know that for a fact. The overweight person may have already lost a lot of weight by working out every day in order to get more in shape and eating healthier. Their weight may still hold on to them, but they could be losing it at a rapid speed, much faster than the fit person.
An Asian gets paired up with a stranger to work on a big project together. While they were talking about it, the stranger says that he will leave all the hard parts to the Asian because he is used to it. The prejudice thought was that Asians are smart and they overachieve. The discriminatory act was making the Asian do the project.
Prejudice and discrimination event would be that a coach could have all boys play an athletic game and have the girls sit out during a PE class. The thought of this action would be men are more athletic than women. The action would be that the coach only put boy on a team to play a game and the girls sat out.
When I was in grade school at the start of the year, the teacher asked us to choose partners for an activity. I wanted to choose one of my friends but someone else asked me to be theere partner. I did not want to say no, so I agreed. When the teacher told us to start our projects, she immediately walked away to chat with her friends. At the time I did not know, but the was an act of discrimination. The prejudice thought was that all asians were smart; the discrimintory action was by leaving me alone to do the project. She could have chosen someone else she could successfully worked with, but she decided to leave all the work to me.
In elementary school, someone asked me to help me with their math homework during recess when we were allowed to stay inside. Instead of having me help her, it ended up with me doing it for her. She went to go talk with her friends a few minutes later instead. The prejudice was that Asians are smart/good at math, and the discrimination was her leaving me to do her homework for her instead of doing it mostly by herself.
I have seen lots of prejudice around the school, more than I'd really like to. For example one of my friends was having trouble remembering something in class and someone said, "Dumb blonde" which is a horrible thing to say when you're already embarrassed about not knowing the answer. In another situation a red head, maybe you know them as a ginger, was being accused of not having a soul and that every freckle was a stolen soul which is just a mean thing to say. Also with race I've seen a lot too. The quiet asian in our math class was being bullied and people were saying horrible things that I shouldn't say, basically about her being amazing at math which might not seem so bad, but it really is. There are a lot more examples I could share, but it might take too long. Really saying that people should really think before they hurt someones feelings with their "jokes". Something needs to change.
An event of prejudice and discrimination that actually happened in history was that a long time ago, left handed people had their left handedness literally beaten out of them because back then, the left hand was considered evil. The prejudice was that the left hand was considered evil, and the discriminaton was that left handed people got beaten for using their left hand.
One day in fourth grade, I was at recess and this guy asked to race. I said yes and then the guy laughed and began to walk away. When I asked him why, he said "Never mind, you would be no challenge at all, cause you're a girl." The prejudice thought was that all girls are slower than boys. The discriminatory act was telling me I would be too slow.
On the first day of school, a girl was dressed really fancily with makeup and all types of jewelry dangled from her thin body. Her hair was straightened with bright pink streaks. A girl walked by and yelled at the fancy girl saying "Wow, looks like we found our first popular snob!" and strutted away. The prejudice was the thought that all girls who dress fancily and wore makeup are popular snobs. The discrimination was the action of yelling at that girl and telling her she was one when that person didn't even know what the fancy girl was really like.
A clown at a traveling circus asked if he could tag along with another kid to a math camp because he wanted to learn some more. However,the kid laughed his head off and said "no way, you probably are just going to goof off the whole time. Besides, you probably won't understand this if you haven't even passed math in first grade". The prejudice thought was that clowns are stupid and goofy. The act of discrimination was refusing and laughing at the clown.
One day some kids were playing at recess. They were all playing four square. There was boys in every square except the last one. A person served it to the girl in the fourth square. He served it super easy and slow. She took the ball and gave it back to him and demanding a re-serve. The prejudice thought is that girls are not as good as boys. The act of discrimination was him serving it super easy to the girl.
One day, a blonde girl was talking to her friends when she asked her best friend to come over and do homework. The girls friend said she didnt want to because she would end up doing all the work. This was very stereotypical because she asumed that because she is blonde, she is dumb. The prejudice of this is that thinking all blondes are dumb, and the discriminatory was her deniying the blonde girl and telling her she didnt want to do all the work.
When I came to Oregon in 3rd grade I had a mental issue that led to me having a TERRIBLE year. The next year, I changed schools to one that had an ACCESS program that was absolutely RIDICULOUSLY terrible at their jobs. This formed an prejudice that people that are from the ACCESS Program are mentally retarded. The discriminatory act was that absolutely no one pays attention to you no matter what.
A group of kids were picking group members for a science faire project and everyone wanted to pick the Asian kids to be in their group because they thought that Asians were really smart and would help them alll get an A. The prejudice is that all Asians are smart and the discrimination is that Asian students are getting selected over others because of their ethnicity.
One day when i was in elementary school i was told by another student that i was not athletic because i am Asian. The thought was that Asians are not athletic. The discriminatory action was to go out and say that Asians are not athletic.
In a PE class, we were picking teams for basketball. I noticed that all of the boys got picked right away and almost none of the girls were picked. When all of the guys had been chosen, no one cared which girls they got on their team because "they were all bad" according to the captains. The thought is that women are bad at sports, and the action is picking them last for P.E.
A math teacher keeps on making fun of short people. In class one day she got a short kid to say "your tall, does that mean you play basketball" to witch she responded "Your short, does that mean that you play mini golf."
One day, a red-haired student was walking to class. A person from one of the clumps in the hallway yelled "Hey, gingy! How bad are the grades this time?"
A common prejudice thought is that all blondes are dumb. A discriminatory action is giving a blonde answers because they are dumb. This is completely wrong. Although some blonde people might not be the smartest that is the same for every hair color. I have friends who are incredibly smart and are blonde. I have no idea how this stereotype came up, but I really disagree with it and all other bad discriminating acts.
A white man goes into a bank, and does not want to be helped by a black teller so he comes to the counter and asks if he could have a different teller because he was scared the black man would steal his money. The prejudiced thought would be that a black teller would steal his money. And the discriminating act would be asking for a different teller.
One day a blonde kid was in class and they were assigned a partner project. The kids were told to get into partners. The blonde kid asked three different kids if the wanted to be partners but they all declined because they thought that they were all going to have to all the work. The thought is blondes are dumb and the discrimination is not wanting to be partners because they think blondes are dumb
Well for example a lot of people make dumb blond jokes. So the thought would be already having the stereotype that blondes are dumb. And then if you acted on it by making a joke directed at another person that would be the action.
A new girl comes into school, being one of the very few gingers. Having known no one, she searches for a place to sit in the school cafeteria at lunch. Finding a small, open table with a few students sitting there, she smiles and sits down. The students quickly take their lunches and leave. Later, the ginger spots one of the students who moved away and confronted her about the issue. The young teen states that gingers have no soul, so they didn't want to sit by a soulless thing. The prejudice thought was that gingers have no soul and the discriminative act was moving away from the girl.
I have not expiereinced anything like this but I could imagine....... Lets say my friend and I were walking around and saw one of our other friends. Lets say we asked him if he could hang out and he said no. We found him with another friend and asked what he was doing and thought he was doing work down with his dad at his beach house. Lets say he said no because he knew that my friend had darker skinned and said that we were going to be doing something bad and illegal or something of the sort. Lets say I had hung out with him one on one and he had no problem with it. The prejudice was when he thought that we were going to do something bad because I was hanging out with someone who had darker skin and the discriminatory was when he said no and went to hang out with someone else because of my friends skin color.
Lets say a man has always thought that blonde people are dumb, then his cubical partner at work gets fired and his boss decided to have him hire a new worker. He put up fliers for the job and the first personlined up for the interview is a blonde. To his self he says oh god no, one of these. The he says, "sorry I can't hire you". she say,"Why". "Because you are blonde". She then replies,"What does that have to do with anything". Then he says,"Get out of here". "Fine". The discriminatory act is that he wouldn't hire her for her color of hair.
Someone asked me what i'm made from. like am i part British, German, ect. so i explained everything but when i said i was a 3rd French, they called me a pervert and did a French laugh then left. the prejudice is that the person thinks all French people are perverts, and the discriminatory was when she did the stereotype French laugh and left.
A common Prejudice is that People with red hair and freckles "Gingers" don't have souls which no one really understands but people still say it. My friend, who has red hair, and i were hanging out. someone made a funny comment about his hair, but it was in a friendly way that wasn't intended to hurt his feelings. even though it didn't hurt his feelings it was still discrimination.
A prejudice that some people have as a joke, is that if you cant teach you teach gym. There are many more that are similar to that, that start as jokes, then people end up taking it offensively and eventually it spins way out of proportion and becomes even bigger and it hurts more people.
At a soccer game in Washington our team was is a tournament,but the other teams were calling us snobs. They assumed that just because my jersey says Lake Oswego. They were stereotypical people who thought ever person in L.O has tons of money and a big house.
One time at school we were seperating into math groups and I got pared with an Asian student and two others. One of the other students,leaned over and said something like "yay we don't have to do any work and it will all be right!". I thought this was extremely rude, thinking that that kid would do all the work just because of his race. I relize that being know as a very smart person is not bad, but I still think it's rude to say something like that.
When playing games such as soccer or baseball, everyone is divided into groups with everyone being the same gender. In soccer, there's a girls' soccer team and a boys' soccer team. In baseball, there is a totally different and "easier" version of baseball for girls. During PE, students are all split into gender groups and would only play against the same gender. Girls played against girls. Boys played against boys. The Prejudice thought was that girls aren't as athletic as boys. The discriminatory action was splitting the students or children up and only allowing then to play against the same gender.
So, once, I got a B for my overall score for L.A. I believe. My brother, somehow, got a hold of my grades, and when he saw the grade, he said, "You aren't an Asian anymore." he said this, because the prejudice on Asians are that they are smart, and that they get all A's
I dont have an example so i'm making this up, again this is not real: At my old school i was always treated differently for some odd reason. I finally had enough so I went up to my friend and asked why every one was looking at me funny. He responded by saying that everyone thinks you weird because you are Greek. I was furious so i marched up to some fellow classmates and yelled, "Im no different because i'm Greek". They yelled back "Go eat Greek yogurt!" The prejudice part was people thinking i'm weird because i'm greek, the discriminatory part was when the said go eat greek yogurt .
Although it was online, people were typing in asking people where they were from. Someone said the United States and a bunch of people were calling him fat and lazy. The prejudice thought is that people, most likely from other countries, have a notion that all Americans are fat and lazy people.
in WW2 the jews were thought to be lower than cathlics so hitler through em all in to jewish camps and tried to kill them
One prejudice is that "all blondes are dumb", which i dont really get. For example, I was in math and we were correcting homework and I got one wrong. Then someone jokingly said it was because i was blonde. I just kinda laughed but I felt a little even though it was really stupid. I don't know why or how this came to be but it isn't true at all.
In World War two the jews were thought to be lower than cathlics so hitler through em all in to jewish camps and tried to kill them also blonds with blue eyes were also "better".
In PE the teachers split up all of the people by gender. After school sports do the same. They set it up so only boys can play against boys and only girls can play against girls. The prejudice thought here is that girls are weaker than boys, and that it would be unfair game. The discriminatory act is separating the boys from the girls.
Every time I go into a store or simply just be in public, people always think of me as a rebellious person who drink and does drugs or steals something. This thought goes through a person's mind because of my colorful hair. They usually look me up and down in a disgusted face. I then smile to prove them wrong. The prejudice was that because of my colorful hair, I am a bad person; the discrimination is the look they give me.
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