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Sarah
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causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
October 28, 2006 - 12:26 PM
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Is intolerance caused by fear of the other? Throughout my schooling, I've been told that racism and discrimination spring from "fear of the other", "fear of difference". However, it seems like a simplistic explanation to me that ignores all the other possible cognitive reasons/motivations for discrimination. But maybe we do automatically and subconsciously feel threatened by anything unfamiliar. Could discrimination and fear of difference be hard-wired into our brains? If fear is the cause of discrimination and intolerance, what kind of fear is it? It is an instinctive fear of the other as such or is a fear that the other will take something from us?
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Nickybol
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
October 28, 2006 - 02:23 PM
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People fear what they are ignorant about. Many people know nothing about other religions, other races and other cultures. Many people have never met a black man or a Muslim in their entire lives. I continuously see that the fear, and the prejudices, discrimination and intolerence disappears when they meet other religions, races and cultures, when they talk to people.
I have a beautiful quote about this from professor Kevin Clements from Australia. Reach out to those you fear
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Sarah
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
October 28, 2006 - 03:21 PM
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But we don' t fear everything that we are ignorant about. The unknown is not scary in and of itself. We're not scared every time we meet a new person or do something new. So why would someone be scared of encountering some people and not others?
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Nickybol
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
October 28, 2006 - 04:13 PM
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Sarah-H wrote:
But we don' t fear everything that we are ignorant about. The unknown is not scary in and of itself. We're not scared every time we meet a new person or do something new. So why would someone be scared of encountering some people and not others?
We`re not scared every time we meet a new person that is similar to us. Meeting a new person that speaks the same language, is of the same race, and is of the same age is much less scary to many people. People fear many things they are ignorant about. Death is the biggest mystery we have. Look at how succesful religions are...
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Pétala Calestini Mendes
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Also...
October 29, 2006 - 12:55 AM
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Ofcourse, not only lack of information about what's happening and how things are somewhere else will turn some one into a hate-macine, but it plays a big role on the matter... I'd say that more than fear of what is unknown, the intollerance comes from what whe don't find within ourselves and were tought to dislike by whatever or whoever we are subjected to. For example, a kid who's parents are racists will have this as right, such as a kid brought up in a place where homosexualism is against law will become, at least up to some level, homophobic. If someone doesn't see anything similar between those 'worlds' they seem to find apart, they will lwt go and assume that what other people think is right.
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cynthia
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
October 29, 2006 - 02:37 PM
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I think that your brain has neuronal connections between the "sensation" fear, something unknown, prejudices etc. In a way you must think of the context you live in, traditions, nacionalisms and all those things that they taught you in school your parents, your teachers...all this knowledge exists in your head and you constantly contrastate it with the world outside your brain. This is simply the way you see the world...let´s say you been brought up to believe that inmigrants are "others", "The enemy", "people that take your job away", etc. when you see an inmigrant the fist thought that pops into you mind is the one you've been used to, the one that representes all the things i mentioned above. So in a way prejudice, discrimination and intolerance are common images to protect you of "other" type of thoughts. It´s hard to explain, I´ve been working and investigating on this issue (connections between neuronal processes and cultural issues, like the "representation" of the "other" , so i´ve got a lot of info regarding why prejudices happen and if you want me to explain the process further just tig me or i´ll elaborate it further in this forum-
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Alan Thomas
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I agree with Pety...
November 1, 2006 - 08:45 AM
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Cultural upbringing definately plays a role in how prejudice a person is. We often find that those who are prejudice against a certain other cultures have often been raised in an isolated area free of people that they're prejudice against, don't exactly know much about what they're prejudice against, and often claim to "hate" that which they prejudge when asked why they haven't tried to talk to or learn more about whatever it is.
The fear part in this equation often doesn't come from the prejudist person fearing that which he or she 'hates'. It comes from those people fearing that they'll be tossed from, or rejected by, the society in which they were raised. They fear being hated by their mothers because they have gay friends, fear being hated by their neighbors because they associate with a certain race, and often fear that they'll be rejected from their churches because they've spoken with or agreed with a member of another religion's views. Unfortuantely, the only way that this kind of fear can be solved is by entire members of the prejudice society responsible for the person's upbringing to became just as accepting...
This post was edited on: 2006-11-01 at 08:46 AM by: convivial
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Kristin Lawson
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
November 9, 2006 - 12:05 PM
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Causes of prejudice, disrimination, and intolerance? Easy-humans. We are the cause of all tthese things as are the social institutions we create, religion being the prime suspect. If we were not here, these things would not exist. And no, I am not advocating destruction of the human race, although it would make the world a better place.
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Sarah TOUMI
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
November 10, 2006 - 09:59 AM
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xphilechef wrote:
Causes of prejudice, disrimination, and intolerance? Easy-humans. We are the cause of all tthese things as are the social institutions we create, religion being the prime suspect. If we were not here, these things would not exist. And no, I am not advocating destruction of the human race, although it would make the world a better place.
lol, yes for sure, world would probably be a better place for all others creatures if we where not here...
so sad and mad is this world, because of humans...
Sarah H, very interesting subject but I have still not found the answer, even if I am asking myself since a lot of time about this...answer could be the ignorance...probably the ignorance...but not sure...answer could simply be this : causes of prejudice, discrimination and intolerance is the twisted human's reason ...
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mnopq
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
November 10, 2006 - 12:16 PM
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xphilechef wrote:
Causes of prejudice, disrimination, and intolerance? Easy-humans. We are the cause of all tthese things as are the social institutions we create, religion being the prime suspect. If we were not here, these things would not exist. And no, I am not advocating destruction of the human race, although it would make the world a better place.
I would go even further and not constrain myself with humans only.
These kind of things happen to all the animals and the higher their intelligence the more accentuated and impact-having such prejudices, discrimination, and intolerance are.
Common chimps fight over territories, females, and food spoils. Chimp males are as much intollerant about other chimp males as humans are.
Sometimes wolfs and lions kill each other and rape their females for no good reason.
In brief, consequences of these negative treats are seen and reflected all over the animal world. The only difference between humans and these animals is in degree. Moreover, humans now possess technologies that can make far greater impact on a world-scale than any animal could make, were they to act according to their prejudices and stereotypes.
But then again, these traits are inherent in all forms of life to one degree or another. We have to live with that or try to change/tame/modify as much as possible for it is in general impossible to eliminate such treats alltogether.
This post was edited on: 2006-11-10 at 12:18 PM by: mnopq
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Kristin Lawson
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
November 10, 2006 - 12:43 PM
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mnopq:
I agree with what you are saying. You are right, the difference between the species is that humans have the ability to change how we think. Because of the contruction of our brains, we cannot help but to categorize things we encounter into groups. In general, this is an efficient tool for humans and it makes living and thinking a whole lot easier. On the flip side, this can lead to prejudice which in turn leads to in-group, out-group phenomena. However, we do have the ability to consciously think differently about groups as long as we have the motivation. The problem is that many people do not have the motivation to do so.
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That guy
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
November 11, 2006 - 02:29 PM
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Everyone is pretty much right about the fear that springs from people who are not understood.
However, you left out ego. All racism is really about your race being better than another. Jews? Greedy. Gays? Perverts. Curiously, Nazis were definitely greedy (Hitler wanted entire world under his control), and recent news reports indicate that some of the famous bashers of homosexuals are rather perverted themselves. Sigmund Freud would love this: it seems that people are projecting their own negative qualities onto other groups to make themselves feel better!
Then you have simple sadism. Some people like hurting other people, which is why you get lynch mobs and other really senseless and wild acts of violence.
Humanity seems to be in serious need of cheap mass psychiatry.
The comments in the second paragraph are examples of what some people say about racial/cultural groups, and I have tried to make sure they are used in a constructive way to better understand and defeat those views. Needless to say, these negative views about Jews and homosexuals are not mine. Moderators. please, do not delete this post!
This post was edited on: 2006-11-11 at 02:31 PM by: wvanbokk
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Amanda Kefalas
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
November 15, 2006 - 12:37 PM
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Racism and prejudice is sometimes started as jealousy people have seen from that race. For example some people become racist because african americans get better scholarships than white people. I understand people get jealous, but why they become racist is a new idea for me. Thank goodness our generation is supposed to be the most understanding and accepting generation to come! Maybe some things in this world can actually change that people will actually be taught at younger ages to respect one another.
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Cicero
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
December 10, 2006 - 08:21 AM
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We have evoluted from Primates.. .. and animals have always been "protective" of their property/territory.. We might no longer do that now, but we still keep the sentiment embdded deep in our self.
So when "never-before-seen" & "Oh-my-soo-different", person settles near you.. or REALLY-CLOSE-TO-YOU, some people (well some dont), start to feel that old old feeling that property/territory is endangered and it must be protected..
and then its that small part of the part named, that takes things further from just a "feeling"
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Reality
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Re: causes of prejudice, discrimination, and intolerance?
December 16, 2006 - 11:27 AM
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Prejudice,discrimination and Intolerance can be caused by fear of another. But, what really brings about this fear for somebody is the problem. People generally,fear or hate what they don't understand. Hence,misuderstanding is at the root of most cases of prejudice,discrimination and intolerance. At the end of the day,most things we tend to fear or hate become acceptable when we become familiar with those things or people. To overcome the problems of Prejudice,discrimination and Intolerance, people should make a genuine effort to understand things or people before passing their judgements about such things or people.
This post was edited on: 2006-12-16 at 11:34 AM by: desiyke
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