The Impact of Prejudice and Discrimination Research Paper

The Impact of Prejudice and Discrimination - Research Paper Example prejudgment or wrong perceptions and a tendency to generalize everyone belonging to that particular group as having a personal trait, characteristic, behavior, or feature that is indicative of the minority group. People can sometimes be blind to the truth even if actual observation belies their mis-perceptions due to a consistent refusal to see that some people can be very different from what they make them out to be in real life. Slavery in America during its early years is a good example of how prejudice or discrimination can have long-lasting consequences if perpetrated by a larger group. Racism arising from ignorance, bias, prejudice, and discrimination results in exclusion of a minority group from the political, economic, and social spheres of society. Its effects usually are negative especially if racism is committed systematically and embedded in the psyche of the general population which in turn helps to perpetuate the wrong ideas and wrong perceptions of a minority group such that it becomes almost a permanent feature of a society, carried from one generation to the next generation. Its ill effects can be felt or seen in lower incomes for the group and exclusion from opportunities usually accorded to members of the general population. Biased treatment of minority groups also reflect badly on the whole society because it is indicative of its own intolerance and inflexibility towards other people who many not share the same beliefs. There were cases in the past in which discrimination was well documented because it was made official policy and there are also recent cases in which discrimination is not so blatant or overt but still results in the systematic exclusion of a minority group. All cases have negative impacts on the minority people discriminated against. It is the aim of this brief paper to discuss one event of discrimination and prejudice in the past and then discuss a more recent similar event in contemporary times. Both events (past and