Prejudices beyond skin color....?

Question

Besides racial ones, what prejudice(s) do you have? Have you ever tried to overcome them? If so, how? Were you successful?
If you've not tried to overcome them, would you consider it? Why or why not?
Just curious - and thanks in advance for your answers!

Nomad or anyone else who is from the UK, what is asbos? Thanks!

Answer 1

Going into high school education, I have had to work a lot with stereotypes and on finding hidden biases. Every single one of us has them, whether it be race, looks, weight, smell or personality traits. I know I am prejudice against jocks. It is something I had to work on. I even did a shadow study on a young jock who was being recruited by several colleges and he was an amazing person. I am very happy I got to spend so much time with him. I think I also may have a hidden bias against loud people.

Here is some interesting and sad info.
An obese child can walk up and down school hallways for an entire week without someone calling him by his name. Imagine how invisible you would feel.

Teachers/ people will learn the names of gorgeous people and people with disabilities within 1-2 days.

There might be a very serious reason that “the smelly kid” smells as bad as he does.

In math classes, girls defer to boys even if the girls are smarter.

Gorgeous people are asked to explain what they are doing far less often than ugly people.

This all is part of human nature and was just put into the context of school so teachers understand the extreme importance of letting go of their hidden biases.

We played this amazing game in one of my classes to show how school and many social situations are specifically designed in a manner that certain people are set up to succeed and others to fail. There were about 7 different colors of note cards on a table,
1 looks (gorgeous to butt-ugly)
2 parental status (lesbians, divorced, grandparents, homeless)
3 special talents (math, sports, none etc.)
4 religion (including atheist and Jehovah Witnesses)
5 gender
6 Random (pregnant, abused, gay, racist, homophobic, southern accent, English accent)
7 Race (this was very specific)

Anyway, we stood at the base of a hill. I think I was a butt-ugly Asian atheist with no skills. The teacher read off every day events, and based on who or what you are, you got to take between 1-2 steps forward or back. It was amazing to watch how it all played out. I believe the loser was an ugly, single, pregnant girl who was homeless and lived in a van. It seems extreme, but these students exist.

It was an amazing experiment and I fully plan on working with it so I can incorporate it into my classroom. I will have to tweak it because some students may not be mature enough to handle it and I don’t want to single anyone out, but I think the concepts are somethling everyone should experience.

As usual, I have rambled far too much, but what can I say; I was inspired.
:)
~*~*~*~*

LOL to finish answering your question (since I went off into my own little world) YES, I would recommend getting over it. The key to compassion is remembering that you have one thing in common with every single person on this great, big planet... We all want to be happy.

We sometimes do things counter to this goal, but we usually believe that these things we do will make us happy. We all have a beautiful person inside of us who is waiting to be found. I am glad I got to know an incredibly nice and smart young jock. :)
Too tacky?

EDIT- Oh yeah, I have prejudices against customers who make messes and don't clean up after themselves. Yes, they are the the customer and deserve a pleasant experience, but I think cleaning up after yourself is just common decency.
:)

Answer 2

To be honest i am prejudiced against what we call in the UK chavs. This term seems to mean at present people of a low IQ that all hang around together wearing the same poor fashion choice. They also have a tendency to collect asbos and like to happy slap old ladies.

I have not tried to overcome this prejudice and i will never try.These are the sort of low lives that should be irradiated from our once green and pleasant land(UK). It is my right to hate these people, i know it is a strong word but i believe it justified.

It may be a generalisation about chavs but they all make a careers out of the benefit system or they sell drugs. They are scum!

Answer 3

sounds like a homework assignment-i am a psy student i know a homework assignment from my field i done one just like this

i have very few prejudices because my mother was obese (430) and everyone made fun of her i do not judge books by there cover- she was also bipolar so i do not judge people by there disablities

i worked in a job where people would automatically judge you as a bad person i didn't like being judged so i do not judge

i only judge one type of person harshly even though i could fairly have room to judge two. I judge woman beaters harshly and i do not plan on changing. Sorry no reason or excuse for them. I should judge child molestors harshly since i was molested however i now understand and see that they are sick and there is no help for them. Why waste my time being a hater.

Answer 4

I prejudice against low class people and obese people. I know it's bad, but I just cant help feeling/having negative feelings and attitude towards them. I did a presentation on class system of America few months back. Some of it had to do with racial problems in the US, but it also had alot to do with "Individual Choice". Every individual has a CHOICE here in America to be either successful or not successful. Successful doesnt necessarily mean like 1million dollar income and like a huge mansion; but rather, belonging in the middle class and having an average happy life. Many low income people tend to be high school dropouts, they dont even try, they cause crimes.. etc. As for obese people, they chose to eat like that. It has to do with some mental problems as well, but losing their control is what lead to mental problems. I can go on forever with these 2 topics, but im gonna end up writing a book!

Answer 5

It's hard to know what prejudices one holds oneself. One I'm aware I hold is towards people with some certain right-wing political views - for some reason, this really lowers people in my estimation, even though I do, of course, feel they should have freedom to hold whatever political standpoint they see fit. I would like to overcome this one, as I don't think it's very fair to overlook people because of their political persuasion. :)

One I have absolutely no intention of getting past is a prejudice towards that certain breed of teenagers. You know, the sort who dye their hair blonde with dark roots, who seem to only be able to discuss clothes, hair, and sex, who base their opinions of people on what they wear, and don't see anything wrong with spreading gossip and rumours. The 'Plastics', if you will. :) I don't think there's any reason to overcome this prejudice, simply because no person I've ever met who's fitted this description has given me any reason to change my views of them as superficial and severely lacking in ambition or insight. Perhaps this sounds very harsh -- perhaps, being a high school student, I just have to deal with far too many at the moment! :P

Answer 6

I try very hard to have no prejudices. My teenager, however, has prejudice with people who are lower income and make bad choices. This is a very common prejudice. I try to remind her that there will always be people who are higher income, and lower income. We are not better than anyone. So much of life depends on our choices and circumstances. If we are higher income, we can help those who are in bad lives to become better people and make better choices.

Answer 7

I guess I'm somewhat prejudiced against smokers. It infuriates me when people smoke around me because I don't want their secondhand smoke, and I don't want to smell bad. I would never date a man who smoked, and I actually don't have any friends that smoke either. I just don't like it.

Answer 8

nothing really !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!