Prejudice and Discrimination
What’s in a Word or Symbol?

Racism is a negative behaviour based on
an incorrect assumption that one race is
inherently superior to others.

Discrimination is unfair actions directed
against people based on their race,
gender, ethnicity, nationality, language or
sexual orientation.

Discrimination and racism are very
strong words and yet people throw
them around as if they were not so
emotional.
Prejudice, Discrimination and Power

Issues of prejudice and discrimination involve people
outside of power and authority.

Stereotypes are beliefs people form about groups when
they take in information, these stereotypes become
problematic when people apply these stereotypes to
individuals. (Blond jokes, become ideas we apply to
blond individuals as a basis for promotions)

Stereotypes are problematic in both their positive and
negative forms.

Prejudice forms when stereotypes are negative and are
not changed in the face of contrary evidence.

Discrimination occurs when people transfer prejudice
into action and create out-groups who suffer from their
deteriorated status.
Understanding Prejudice and
Discrimination

Perception of the world is key to
understanding the development
of prejudice.

Sensory Information->becomes
an image -> that is processed
through a paradigm.

When a person perceives they
take that reality and incorporate
it into their understanding of the
world.

People do not perceive things as
they actually exist in the world.
Understanding Prejudice and
Discrimination

An example is when a child gets close to a
glowing burner and recognizes it as hot.

Every time they see a glowing burner, no
matter how bright, they always now associate
it as hot.

This is how discrimination has evolved to
protect the human species, (hot not safecool safe). It works with objects, but not with
people.

An image of reality can, therefore, differ from
person to person.

If the image of a certain group is negative,
possibly affected by negative stereotypes,
then they will act badly towards that person
which is discrimination.
Understanding Prejudice and
Discrimination

When you add the concept of paradigm to the equation it shows how
differences in perceived images occur. A paradigm is a person’s stored
rules and conditions that they use to understand sensory experiences.

Ex. One person sees a stranger and wants to run and another sees
them as another passerby, it depends on the paradigm people judge
the situation with.
Systemic Discrimination


Systematic Discrimination is discrimination practiced by
corporations, public institutions or entire countries.
Sexism or Racism become part of the whole company or
institution.
Systemic Discrimination Examples

Immigration greatly favoured white Europeans for
most of the nineteenth century.

In 1939 the ship the St Louis carrying 907 Jewish
Refugees was forced to return to Nazi camps
because Canada’s government would not allow for
many Jewish refugees.

Women were not identified as persons until 1929.

During the Second World War Japanese were put
into internment camps.

Aboriginal people were not given full voting rights
until 1962.

Many in Canada are still disenfranchised by
employers, including aboriginals.
IQ Testing and Discrimination

Standard IQ tests were first created by French
Psychologist Theodore Simon.

The Stanford-Binet Test has replaced this test and has
become widely used.

The problem is that the test is set up to judge the IQ
of the white majority.

Many have tried to make the case that some groups
are smarter than others based upon these tests.

Canadian education psychologist Robert Samuda has
made the case that IQ tests use language and
ideas of the majority so success on these tests
depends on how well a group has assimilated
these cultural ideas.

Culturally-fair tests are starting to replace the old
Stanford-Binet tests in Canada.
Genocide

Genocide is the ultimate form of
discrimination.

Occurs when those in power try to
eliminate an entire race of people.

Hitler is best known for the
Holocaust against Jewish People, but
Serbia, Rwanda, Indonesia have all
been places where genocides have
occurred.

Under the United Nations leaders
who create genocide are tried for
war crimes.
“Do Aboriginal People in Canada Face
Genocide?”
Prejudice, Discrimination and Self Esteem

In 1959 a white Texan named Howard
Griffin temporarily changed his skin
colour to find out people’s reactions,
he reported that he was denied things
he had been allowed as a white man
and even faced acts of violence.

Psychologists have long known that
children judge their self worth on how
others value them; hurtful words can
diminish a person’s self perception.