How Does Prejudice Affect People?
Prejudice affects people by limiting their lives, whether it is blatantly or subtly. According to Penn State University’s Daily Collegian, prejudice creates ignorance, allows the development of racism, denies opportunities to the victims of prejudice and limits the experiences and perspective of those showing the prejudice.
According to The Daily Collegian, prejudice is the act of generalizing and making assumptions about a person or community based on limited and biased understanding. Examples of prejudice include assuming that all African-American people are lazy or all Asian-American people are book smart. These stereotypes perpetuate prejudice because they are generalizations about communities of people who are all unique individuals. Prejudices such as these affect people’s lives because they must face them every day in society. For example, an African-American person may apply for a job; if the person hiring holds a prejudice against African-Americans, he or she may not hire the applicant based purely on race and preconceived notions.
According to Encyclopedia.com, prejudice can cause violence, crime and death when people express their prejudices through aggression. However, prejudice can also be more subtle, as when a female teacher favors female students or a white coach favors the white players on his team. When people act on their prejudices, it causes a widespread negative effect.
