“Prejudice is a disease we can never get rid of.” Discuss.

Prejudice is holding a biased view against someone or someone’s way of life. It’s a detrimental hindrance to the development of society and the way we think. It mostly arises because of common stereotypes, with upbringing and the community often being important contributors as well.

Disease is a most apt word to describe prejudice with. Like a foul infection it pollutes the minds and actions of people toward others. Due to prejudice, many people are discriminated against, for example, minority races in schools, hospitals, housing and the law. They are given fewer opportunities, and some never get to realize their full potential because of this. It affects the way we treat people, for example thinking others are inferior to you simply because of their upbringing, their class, their race or their religion.

Despite our efforts to overcome it, prejudice is inherently present in our thoughts, even though the majority of us don’t translate such thoughts into action. This doesn’t mean it doesn’t count however. An example would be growing up as a majority race, in a community where people use derogatory terms without realizing their offensive nature. Even though the person eventually learns the true meanings of such words, and avoids using them, the mindset is already there, and that’s the hardest thing to get rid of. Our subconscious thoughts are powerful indeed, and we may end up acting according to our ‘pre-programmed’ concept of whatever, since it has been accepted as the norm since childhood. The only way to eliminate this, we have to go to the root of the problem, which basically encompasses convincing every single person to eliminate all traces of prejudice, discrimination and bias from their minds. Clearly this is not a feasible plan of action, simply because it’s impossible to change everyone, and educate them on more proper social norms instead.

Other reasons why prejudice is so rampant is due to herd behaviour, and the belief of strength in numbers. Once many people start being prejudiced, it becomes accepted as a norm, and the cycle continues. Stereotypes play a big role as well, for insults, prejudice, and discrimination are often directed not to a single person, but to a preconceived image of the entire race/religion/gender/etc. To further complicate things, stereotypes are equally as hard to eliminate. Just enter any bathroom in a shopping center, and chances are it’ll be either purple or variations of pink for the ladies, and blue or black for the gents. Whoever decided that girls liked pink and boys liked blue? Surely someone didn’t just sit down one day and decide the colour preferences of the genders in one fell swoop. And since stereotypes, the basis of most prejudice, are hard to eradicate, it in turn means prejudice itself is hard to get rid of. Hence, I agree that prejudice is a disease we can never get rid of.






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deviating from the proper or expectant course; atypical

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