Everyday Prejudice

A few years ago, my teacher asked my class to ponder this question, “Are you prejudice?” Of course everyone in the class wanted to respond with a “No.” This is simply because our society uses the word ‘prejudice’ with a negative connotation. People always assume that if someone is prejudice, that that person is a bad person. Each person in my class was asked to raise their hand if they thought that they themselves were prejudice. No hands were raised. And finally, my teacher explained that each one of us was wrong in saying we weren’t prejudice. Being prejudice can be something as simple as choosing between two shirts in the morning, which show you want to watch on TV, or if you want cereal or a bagel for breakfast.

Dictionary.com defines prejudice as “an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.” These opinions aren’t necessarily racial or religious as many people have perceived them to be. Prejudice has become an interest in our society very recently. With the singing show The Voice, the main point is that the judges are choosing the voices that they like the best. But appearance always seems to come into play in these decisions, which is why the judges’ chairs are not facing the stage where the contestants perform. I personally find this concept to be very interesting. What if other things were judged based on their content and not on their appearance?

I wonder if President Obama would have been elected president if only the ideologies of all the candidates had been known and nobody had known that he was African-American. I wonder also, if the decisions in other elections would have been different if these changes had occurred. What would music be like if we never knew what the artists looked like? If people could choose their friends based on their character and interests before even meeting them, would they be surprised by the group of friends they would receive? If there are two jobs, and one seems more exciting than the other, but the other job will have more benefits to your future, which one would you choose? These questions are so strange because they can really affect how peoples’ lives and experiences will happen.

In today’s world, men are still paid more than women, but what if employers hired employees without even knowing their gender? If these changes were made, maybe peoples’ lives would be better. Maybe gender ratios would be different in schools, companies, cities, and countries. Music might be different, as well as the government, and television. Maybe people should pay more attention to their options, opinions, and choices. The world might not be the same place.

The saying “Never judge a book by its cover” would be completely changed if we never saw book covers. If every book had a black cover, our eyes couldn’t be drawn by colors and excitement. Just something to think about for the day. Maybe you will think more about making decisions that you make on an impulse everyday. Here’s a little test that I found: http://www.understandingprejudice.org/iat/noflash.htm

~BCB~