What Are Some Historical Examples of Discrimination and Prejudice?
One historical example of prejudice and discrimination is the mass murder of the Jewish people committed by the Nazis during World War II. Other examples include slavery, sexism and other forms of racism and minority persecution, such as treaty violations confiscating Native American land, the Klu Klux Klan organization and the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.
During the 1800s, a prejudice against the Jewish people existed in Europe where many considered them an inferior race containing unique physical and personality traits. Some nations even considered Jewish people a foreign element in their culture, one that might cause contamination amongst the native population. This prevailing prejudice helped lead to the discrimination against Jews in Germany when the Nazis forced them to wear the Star of David, and it eventually forced them into concentration camps, killing millions.
Slavery is a discrimination against a certain race that has existed since early civilization. Babylon, ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome all used slave work to help build their societies. Slavery of African-American people existed in the United States until its abolition in 1853.
Prejudice and discrimination against African-Americans continued in the United States after the Civil War. The southern states established the discriminating Jim Crow laws which required African-Americans to have separate bathrooms, buses and schools, which were legal until the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case of Brown versus the Board of Education.
