Racial Prejudice And Racism

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Racial Prejudice and Racism 1 Racial Prejudice and Racism Racial prejudice and racism have been a significant problem in the United States for many years. And, I believe it will continue long after you and I are long gone. What can we as a society do to make a change, be a pioneer in molding our communities together? Act as a colorblind society? I don’t think so. The answer I believe is to educate each other and to have an open understanding of what racial prejudice and racism really mean and how they differentiate between each other. Prejudice is pre-judging of a person or situation based on no facts what’s so ever. Prejudice is a defense mechanism. It was designed to keep us safe. Here’s an example: If you see a lion charging at you, you will automatically assume it’s going to eat you. However, it may be coming up to lick your face, but you assume that a large charging lion want to eat you. When we don’t know somebody very well, we characterize him or her based on what we see on the outside. This is because of our ignorance of the person’s real character and personality (Newsweek, Racism vs. Prejudice, 2009). Unfortunately, we’ve all been guilty of this behavior at some point in our lives. Racism is the systematic subordination of certain racial groups by those in power (Orbe and Harris, 2008, pg. 8). In other words, that one race is superior to another. This has to be taught or developed as a cultural ideology. For example, like the Spanish Reconquista pushing the Moors out of Iberia used race as a rallying cry Racial Prejudice and Racism 2 (Newsweek, Racism vs. Prejudice, 2009). Racism has had such a strong impact on the world that it has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nations, and legal codes. The word, in my opinion, carries such a negative connotation. Racial prejudice and racism are often terms thrown around in the everyday

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