Prejudice And Discrimination Essay

877 Words4 Pages
Prejudice and discrimination have become a social problem in the United States. Prejudice is a form of racism. To understand what prejudice is, we must know what racism is first. “Racism refers to any actions, attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, whether intentional or unintentional, which threaten, harm, or disadvantage members of one racial or ethnic group” (Fitzgerald). Racism manifests itself into many forms; which one of the forms is prejudice. Prejudice is a negative and unjustifiable attitude or stereotypes towards any group or individual based on that individual’s social ethnic group and characteristics. Prejudice only deals with the thoughts and attitudes of the individual and never on the actions. So, there can be many prejudice people…show more content…
Unfortunately, race is also used for racism and privilege. When a person enters a room, one can first notice that person’s skin color and ethnicity and can easily become a target for someone who is racist. Race privilege or white privilege is a concept that is hard for people of the dominant race to understand and to see how it affects others. According to Fitzgerald, most white people have not questioned the concept of race because they are part of the dominant race. Race privilege is defined as the advantages associated with being a member of a society’s dominant race. White privilege “refers to the rights, benefits, and advantages enjoyed by white persons that are not granted to nonwhites” and white privilege excuses white people from certain accountabilities that many of the subordinate group are hampered with (Fitzgerald). People of the dominant race often deny the concept of white privilege, claiming that they don’t see color, thus ignoring how racial discrimination affects those around them. It is also difficult for white people to talk about white privilege without feeling attacked and insulted. Because in our society we were conditioned to live in a meritocracy point of view, many people of the dominant race find it hard to see how social factors affect the lives of people of color. It is not understood that not everyone has the same privilege as white people
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