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What is prejudice?

 

Prejudice can be found anywhere that we can see differences between people. Prejudice is generally defined as a preconceived opinion or idea, based on very little reason or actual experience. The many types of prejudice include: race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, disability, age, and religion. 

Many studies show that categorising is a natural human process. In a study by DJ Kelly, from the age of nine months, a child can distinguish different features and characteristics between its own race, group A, but cannot distinguish the different characteristics or features of another race, group B. This would not generally be considered prejudiced, as a baby of only nine months has not experienced, or been taught enough about these things to have formed their own opinion, it is a matter of what they are surrounded by; the diversity they have been exposed to. 

There is no one way that prejudices develops. It could be a matter of the way the person is brought up, or that they have had an extremely bad experience with a certain type of person, however many psychologists believe that it is a mistake made by our minds when they try to simplify things, to allow us to understand things about the world better, by categorising. We put things, including people, into different groupings to determine how we feel about something; if it is good or bad, dangerous or safe, if we should fear it. Many people feel that fear is a determining factor of our prejudices; that we should stay away from a type of person because they could hurt us. It is essentially a fight or flight mode. This is also where stereotyping and generalising also effects prejudice, as people put similar people in the same category, assuming that they are all the same, where in actual fact, they only have one feature linking them. Othering is something which is quite common in these scenarios, where people disassociate from by defining and magnifying the differences between the person they are prejudiced towards, making the gap between the “in-group” (us), and the “out-group” (them) bigger.

Racial prejudices are deep-rooted in society, due to systemic racism, which essentially determines the segregation of black from white. Through this, we see part of the reason behind the difference in higher and lower socio-economic areas.

 

The Brain’s prejudice

In social psychology, prejudice is defined as an attitude toward a person based on their group membership. Neuroscience has established that prejudiced behaviour is controlled by a complexed neural pathway, which consists of cortical and sub-cortical regions. The seat of emotion and classical fear conditioning is a structure of the brain called the amygdala. Psychological research consistently supports that fear plays a big role in prejudiced behaviour, which is why much of the brain research in accordance with prejudice is focused on the cortical regions, and their influence on the amygdala.

In a study by Jaclyn Ronquillo, where eleven, reasonably young, white men were shown photographs of faces with varied skin tones, while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), when seeing black faces, it resulted in greater amygdala activity than when viewing white faces. Other research suggests that the amygdala does not only respond to characteristics like race, but in fact responds to any out-group category, depending on what that person feels is important.

Research is still being done in this area, to determine whether or not the amygdala activation response to people of other races, is something that we are born with, or if it is something that we learn over time.

 

 

What is race?

 

We call ourselves the human race which, in many ways should mean that we consider ourselves to all be equally human and the colour of our skin should not make us different. However, this is not the case.

 

Through much research, many people believe that the great division between black and white races, cultures, and ethnicities, was created during the slave trade when white slaves were told that if they aligned themselves with the people in control, who were also white, then they would be relatively safe. This left the black slaves at a disadvantage in much of society; as the white people could slowly rise in station, the black people had to work, and were treated terribly. White people were considered to be human, while black/indigenous people were considered the antithesis, the opposite; alien, animal. Resmaa Menakem a therapist and trauma specialist from the U.S. makes the point that creating the category of whiteness, was a species move not a race move; that it became about who is human, and who is not. He also says that the trauma which black cultures endured, is passed down through generations, like muscle memory. Trauma is felt and often repeated through later generations.

 

 

 

What is racial prejudice?

 

Essentially, racial prejudice is the hostility towards, or prejudice against the members of a race or ethnic group. It is the culmination of hundreds of years of segregation, the colonisation of countries, which should have never become the ‘property’ of any singular nation.

Racial prejudices are deep-rooted in society, due to systemic and institutional racism, which essentially determines the segregation of black from white. Through this, we see part of the reason behind the difference in higher and lower socio-economic areas.

Mitigating prejudice

 

To mitigate racial prejudice we have to firstly understand that it is not the problem of the race, ethnic group, or person of colour, it is the problem of the person or group of people who are being prejudiced. According to Resmaa Menakem, the best way to do this is for white bodies to get together and work it out; work on their issue. Then, and only then can the two mend what they can of the past, and make sure it does not happen for future generations. 

Some other ways we can mitigate prejudice, is to expose ourselves to more diversity; make sure our children are exposed to more diversity, because only then will we see and understand that every type of person is human.

We need to embrace the diversities and differences in people. 

 

We need to keep having conversations about these problems, and learn why we have our prejudices.

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