Prejudice, Discrimination, and Stereotyping

Definition time! (All definitions taken from dictionary.com, a site I love because it gives more than just the definition. Awesome!)

prej·u·dice

[prej-uh-dis], verb, prej·u·diced, prej·u·dic·ing.

noun

1.an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.

2.any preconceived opinion or feeling, either favorable or unfavorable.

3.unreasonable feelings, opinions, or attitudes, especially of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group.

4.such attitudes considered collectively: The war against prejudice is never-ending.

5.damage or injury; detriment: a law that operated to the prejudice of the majority.

verb (used with object)

6.to affect with a prejudice, either favorable or unfavorable: His honesty and sincerity prejudiced us in his favor.

Idiom

7.without prejudice, Law . without dismissing, damaging, or otherwise affecting a legal interest or demand.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English  < Old French  < Latin praejūdicium  prejudgment, orig. preliminary or previous judicial inquiry, equivalent to prae- pre-  + jūdicium  legal proceedings, judging ( jūdic-,  stem of jūdex judge  + -ium -ium)

dis·crim·i·na·tion

[dih-skrim-uh-ney-shuhn] 

noun

1.an act or instance of discriminating.

2.treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit: racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.

3.the power of making fine distinctions; discriminating  judgment: She chose the colors with great discrimination.

4.Archaic . something that serves to differentiate.

Origin:
1640–50;  < Latin discrīminātiōn-  (stem of discrīminātiō ) a distinguishing. See discriminate, -ion

ster·e·o·type

[ster-ee-uh-tahyp, steer-], noun, verb, ster·e·o·typed, ster·e·o·typ·ing.

noun

1.a process, now often replaced by more advanced methods, for making metal printing plates by taking a mold of composed type or the like in papier-mâché or other material and then taking from this mold a cast in type metal.

2.a plate made by this process.

3.a set form; convention.

4.Sociology . a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group: The cowboy and Indian are American stereotypes.

verb (used with object)

5.to make a stereotype of.

6.to characterize or regard as a stereotype: The actor has been stereotyped as a villain.

7.to give a fixed form to.

Origin:
1790–1800; stereo-  + -type

 

 

Alright, that's done. 

 

I include the dictionary definition simply because I think it's important that all the meanings of each word are apparent and easy to refer back to. These words are often used interchangeably even thought they mean different things (much like robbery and burglary). So, a quick explanation that's as much for me as for anyone: Prejudices are based on feelings, discrimination is based on action and stereotypes are based on beliefs. Stereotypes may feed into the development of prejudices. You can have prejudice without discrimination. You can't have discrimination without prejudice.  Stereotypes don't have to be negative and just because they're stereotypes doesn't mean that they aren't also true. The issue is in accepting that even if they apply to 99% of the group, they won't work 100% of the time. There are ALWAYS outliers. 

 

The following videos present pretty good examples of these three forces in action, but each presents the scenario in an interesting way.  

 

Here the woman holds certain beliefs (stereotypes) about the fact that black men are something to be feared (though it could be said that the fear is not specifically black men but rather all men-- though the purse thing is probably more race specific). Her beliefs foster negative feelings for the man sharing the elevator (prejudice) and prompt her to alter her behavior (discrimination) as she shifts her body and her belongings away from the perceived threat and into a more protected space*.

In this video, the same type of process is occurring, but the reasoning behind the prejudice is reversed. The man in the ball cap holds certain beliefs about the man in the suit (stereotypes), these beliefs create a basis for his feelings (prejudice) which motivate his action (discrimination). In this example the prejudice is against people that the man in the ball cap perceives as being "too good" for him because he perceives them as "acting too white".

To be fair, the narrator of each video is not blameless. He makes broad assertions about groups of people based on his interactions with a sample of each group, but this is often a hazard of being a part of humanity. 

I suppose that the point isn't that we stop doing it, so much as we become more aware of the fact that we do it at all. Perhaps by being more aware of our patterns of thought and behavior, we can hope to curb some of the less advantageous aspects of each. 

*That's a sort of separate rant all together, that women (and men to a certain extent) exist in a constant state of fear and the fact that society continues to perpetuate victim blaming and fear mongering attitudes, choosing to espouse the idea that people shouldn't put themselves in a position of encouraging rape rather than encouraging people to JUST NOT RAPE!)