Everyone has certain prejudices . We have likes and dislikes about things such as foods, styles of dress, speech patterns, ways of spending summer vacations, and methods of relating to others. Typically, our likes and dislikes are based on our own limited experiences; usually they reflect what we have been comfortable with from our earliest years. We can feel very strongly about our beliefs and viewpoints even to the point of holding them in the face of firm evidence to the contrary.
Three Characteristics of Prejudice
When directed toward groups of people, prejudice means more than likes and dislikes. This use of the term prejudice involves at least three characteristics that together harm both those who are victims of prejudice and those who are prejudiced.
1. Stereotyping
Stereotyping is an attempt to make things “fit” into an often over-simplified category. Making generalizations is both natural and a helpful use of human intelligence; at times it is even very beneficial and can preserve us from harm (don't go down that dark alley downtown because bad people are out there). But we have to be careful with this normal and healthy human skill, especially when it comes to people. We must always guard against viewing individuals strictly through the “category” we place them in . A true picture of life is always much richer and more complex than stereotype-thinking suggests; and lumping people together by categories can become a very harmful exercise of injustice that can have tremendously negative results.
Give Examples:
Name a stereotype relating to each of these groups:
1. blondes: 3. senior citizens:
2. athletes: 4. hispanics:
If one of these stereotypes applied to you, how would you feel? What’s unjust about each of these?
2. Close-mindedness
If we say “People on welfare are lazy” and hold firmly to that belief despite the studies and statistics that prove otherwise, then we would be close-minded. Other examples of close-mindedness are:
 A man observes a car make a right turn, while its left turn signals are blinking. He immediately says, “Of course! It’s a woman driver.” This is the close-mindedness of sexism .

A white woman watching television for two hours remarks when a black couple is portrayed in a thirty-second commercial, “All you see on TV any more is black people.” This is the close-mindedness of racism .
In both cases, the observers are closed to all the information except that which supports their prejudice. In the first example, the man is closed to the facts that some men are poor drivers and that most women are good drivers. In the second example, the woman is closed to the fact that most people on TV are white.
While we can work only from our own experiences of other people, it is also important to realize that our base of experience is limited. We practice prejudicial thinking when we close ourselves off from new information about other people and groups, other ideas, other possibilities.
3. Fear
Fear is the main characteristic, the source, of prejudice. Prejudice is about hatred and anger, and hatred and anger are about fear.
Prejudice is not just a matter of likes and dislikes in relation to people. It becomes, in the end, a matter of hatred toward persons or groups of people. For example, we may dismiss acts of violence committed by members of our own social group but react strongly to similar acts by members of a different group. The slogan “My country right or wrong” illustrates such prejudicial thinking.
With the intensity of feelings, prejudice divides people into “us” and “them,” insiders and outsiders. Prejudiced people hate others simply because of what they look like, where they come from, or what they believe. Such a reaction is unreasonable and contrary to our Christian faith. While all of us find comfort and security through identifying with our particular group, that doesn’t give us the right to hate other groups.
In the 1800s in the United States, four particular groups singled out as outsiders by dominant powers were blacks (African
Americans), Indians (Native Americans), Catholics, and Jews. Classic examples of “us” and “them” thinking in the twentieth century were the Nazis in Germany, the Japanese in their treatment of Koreans prior to World War II, and apartheid (racial discrimination) in South Africa. Then more recently, following 9/11/01 terrorist attacks, some people in the U.S. who either were or appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent suffered terrible prejudicial treatment. Numerous international conflicts today are

fueled by the Aryan Nation, and other hate groups fear and hate non-white people and people of religious backgrounds other than
Protestant. They view others as a threat to their “power” and way of life. Indeed, hate groups support violence against anyone who happens to be a member of a group that is disliked.
So, it is fear, not toughness or superiority which ultimately creates prejudice. The key is to root out the fear.
The Roots of Prejudice
Where does prejudice come from? The roots of prejudice often begin in early childhood experiences. We are not born with prejudice; we are taught it; it is adults who teach us.
However, we cannot blame others if we continue to be prejudiced as we grow older; it is a choice. The fear behind prejudice is often the fear of anything different, the fear of anyone “different” from us. If we are insecure, we may feel threatened by others who are different from us. When we feel secure, we can be open to other people and groups, to new ideas, to new ways of looking at things and new ways of doing things. Certainly there are things in life about which we need to be cautious, but it is not skin color or religion or ethnicity that needs to be feared; God created everyone with equal dignity. Prejudice defies and denies that human dignity.
Thus, the defeat of prejudice cannot begin in mere tolerance: “You do your thing, and I’ll do mine” – actions that wound humanity cannot be tolerated in the name of being “unprejudiced” (for example, letting a serial killer “do his thing” while I do mine). Rather, the defeat of prejudice comes by actively seeking to learn about, feel connected to, and care about those who are different from us; all of whom are God’s children. In a word, the defeat of prejudice comes through love of neighbor.
Fighting Prejudice
Read pages 120-122 in Pennock's Learning and Living Justice . List the three stages of prejudice.
Read pages 151-152 in Pennock's Learning and Living Justice. List a few minimal ways that we as Catholic Christians can
“call both individuals and societies to racial justice.”
Prejudice --- Causes and Cures
In many ways, prejudice is a sickness. As with any illness, we can cure it only when we treat underlying causes. Here are three explanations social scientists give for why people develop and hold onto racial and other types of prejudices.
For each underlying cause, name two antidotes that might counteract this sickness and lead to a cure.
1. Socialization . Many prejudices are passed along from parents to children or, more generally, from an older generation to a younger one within a community. The media can contribute to this handing-on of prejudices. Sometimes people end up holding prejudices against groups of people whom they have never actually met.
Antidotes:
2. Social benefits.
Sharing prejudices helps people feel as though they belong. Expressing anger and telling negative jokes or stories aimed against another group foster a common bond, a sense of belonging that is hard to break. A person who refuses to participate in prejudices held in his family or community of friends can feel alienated.
Antidotes:
3. Psychological benefits.
Prejudice can diminish anxiety by reducing problems to overly simplified explanations. (Those people are the source of my problems.”) Prejudice can also puff up a person’s ego, helping someone --- usually with a shaky or vulnerable ego --- feel superior to some others.
Antidotes: