American jail Essay Example for Free

American jail Essay Prejudice is defined as â€Å"a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue (â€Å"Prejudice,† 2005). † A person may assume, for example, that all individuals suffering from AIDS are filthy and must be ignored; or all Africans are unintelligent. The Nazis had similarly supposed that all Jews are worthless and stupid, and therefore must be killed. As a matter of fact, prejudice can be based on gender, religions, cultures, geographical backgrounds, as well as race. Social psychologists define it as an attitude. It could be positive as well as negative. The positive type of prejudice is understood to result in the white privilege. It may also be directed at beautiful or rich people regardless of color. The negative attitude could similarly be directed at an individual or an entire society. Regardless, our attitudes known as prejudices are usually not founded in reason. People who foster prejudices normally believe that they are right to have negative attitudes toward certain individuals or groups of people. Such people justify their prejudices by offering various examples to show that they are right. A white man who has visited an American jail may say that he knows that all African Americans are bad people because most of the people in jail are African Americans. Racism – which is a form of a prejudice – thus intellectualizes the negative attitude of people toward people. Racism is actually defined as a belief system which states that individuals can be superior to others on the basis of race. This theory has led to much violence and genocide in the world. Still, most people have preconceived notions about other people with respect to their races. It takes a high level of education, perhaps, to believe in the essential equality of mankind. References Prejudice. (2005). WordNet: Princeton University Cognitive Science Lab.