What is prejudice?

We explain what a prejudice is and what are its possible causes. In addition, some examples of this thought.

1. What is prejudice?

A prejudice is a negative thought that someone emits about a person, thing or situation without having true knowledge about it. This attitude is a sign of rejection. The etymological origin of this term is attributed to the Greek praeiudicium, which we can interpret as a previous trial.

A very common prejudice is to say that the models are not very intelligent. Prejudice is normal in the human being , who always tends to make assumptions about something he does not know or fears , so he creates an illusion about something and spreads it, pretending that people also believe it.

We could say that throughout history there were several known prejudices, such as when the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus was made and his followers created misconceptions about Native Americans and their customs. These were prejudices, since they developed a stereotype about something they did not know, nor were they certain.

The elaboration of prejudice has evolved as society has changed . Before, for example, it was believed in witches and burned at the stake, now it is thought that blonde women are silly , it is also assumed that all gay men tend to be rather feminine or want to become women.

On the other hand, it can be affirmed that a person who has prejudices may not want to know the reality so that the evidence does not show him that he is wrong. When there is a prejudice there is discrimination , the person who prejudges feels superior to someone and points to it because of their physical or personality characteristics. The issuance of these thoughts is linked to past experiences or ideals that were set during their upbringing.

It is very likely that certain people have prejudices because their parents or grandparents have passed them on. We well know that children do not distinguish good from bad until a certain age, and until that moment they are absorbing everything that their parents (or those who substitute them) do, because they are their role model. For example, it may be that a child grows up being a racist, since his parents are discriminators and xenophobes.

Prejudice is something that is due to lack of education , therefore it would be important to teach children in school to tear them down and, above all, to teach them everything necessary so that they do not lack general culture and so directly never comment like that. For example, in Latin America it is very common to have prejudices regarding cultural differences, as happens in the United States with immigrants, it is often thought that they are drug traffickers, thieves, and so on.

At the time of issuing a prejudice, nobody starts thinking about how the person who is being labeled feels . The prejudice has in part to do with the lack of empathy, one judges because he does not have the slightest idea of ​​how things are on the other side of the wall, and because he believes that what he thinks is correct, and perhaps he has only seen or Heard a case that supports what he thinks. The lack of empathy is highlighted because there is talk without thinking a single minute on how a person who responds to the characteristics of my prejudice will feel.

For example, “ lesbian women dress as construction workers ” is a total lie, generalization is a prejudice and is stereotyping.  Not only is it wrong, but it also speaks very badly about the person issuing it. It is not bad for everyone to give their opinion, what is wrong is for one to speak without knowledge of cause, to speak ” just because he has a mouth, ” the saying would say.

The person who falls within the stereotype and who suffers prejudices, usually suffers from the inside because he cannot negotiate a thought with the one who issues that message, feels depressed and accumulates anger because they treat him for something he is not or that he may not even know. Let’s look at another example: The inhabitants of Spain are supposed to be ignorant, gross, clumsy people. The world sees them that way; However, it doesn’t have to be that way and, in fact, it isn’t.