Understanding Prejudice Essay Example for Free

Understanding Prejudice Essay What exactly is the meaning of prejudice, and what does being prejudiced mean? Prejudice is a big word with a very deep meaning. Indeed, a lot of people may not know the true sense of it and how it affects people in the society. People live in a world that is full of prejudice. It is considered as one of the negative social phenomenons and one of the main sources of problems in the world. Prejudice denotes making or predisposition to make a decision or judgment before one becomes aware of the relevant truth of a certain case or scenario. For instance, people may have heard others saying things about a certain group of individuals such as â€Å"all black people are†¦. ,† â€Å"all white people are†¦. ,† â€Å"people in third world countries are†¦,† etc. (Breen, 2006). People may think that prejudice only refers to racial prejudice that is usually directed towards people with light or dark skin. However, I have learned that prejudice has a deeper meaning than discrimination against people of a certain race or color. Rather, prejudice can also be a result of one’s gender and geographical, religious, and cultural backgrounds. Every person also has his or her own way of being prejudiced. For example, one can judge somebody by the way he or she dresses and talks or even by his or her appearance. Thus, prejudice can come from different sources such as peers, parents, school, and public organization. At the same time, it can also be directed to various types of people. There are also many different kinds of prejudice that exist in our society today. Some of them may be observed in school, at home, or even in the television. For this reason, discrimination, racism, sexism, and other forms of social problems exist in the world we live in. Hence, it is not fair and also very sad that prejudice is a widely pervasive phenomenon in the world. (Breen, 2006). It is always inevitable to become prejudiced. There are a lot of reasons why people become prejudiced. It is a fact that one can learn it from home; parents often do not recognize that they are being an example to their children. If parents are prejudiced, then it is most likely that the child will also become one because that is what he or she observes from his or her parents. Children may also become prejudiced if parents directly teach or tell the former to perceive somebody or some things in the society in a certain way. That is why at a very young age, many children start to become prejudiced already and start to judge people and things by what they believe and think of them. They also become prejudiced due to the environment that they grow up in, the school and the neighborhood that they get involved in or witnesses. The media also plays a role in influencing people to become prejudiced. The effect on prejudice of television shows and films is very substantial. There are just so many ways on how people can become prejudiced, and it is very alarming that it has become one common source of misunderstandings, fights, and disputes all over the world (Breen, 2006). It is very hard to stop prejudice; however, it can be lessened if people would try not to be judgmental on simple things that they see and observe in their environment. Proper or right education must be imposed to children especially at home and in school in order to stop prejudice and so that people will eventually look at one another without making negative judgments. On the other hand, it would be very difficult to stop this social phenomenon as prejudice has become already part of the society. In conclusion, prejudice is an attitude that is based on generalizations and stereotypes. It is very astounding how easy it is for an individual to become prejudiced on somebody or something. Nevertheless, prejudice is merely a kind of thinking or a feeling in an individual’s mind. While people will never abolish the existence of prejudice in the society, it can be lessened and prevented if everyone will just start to cooperate and make an effort in reducing it. I believe that working hand in hand toward a common objective or goal can bring different groups of people all together, regardless of their age, race and sex. Reference Breen, R. (2006). Real Life Issues: Prejudice. Great Britain: Trotman Company Limited.

Increase in Young Criminals :: Argumentative Persuasive Papers

Increase in Young Criminals Increased youth crime rate is caused largely by absent fathers as a result of divorce made too easy. Consider this chilling forecast. When we pass the year 2000, we will see two groups of working age adults emerging. One group will have received psychological, social, economic, educational and moral benefits and the other group will have been denied them all. The first group will have grown up with a father present in the house and the second group will have not had a father present. The groups will be roughly equal in size. In order to be divorced in my parent's era of the fifties, one mate had to be proven adulterous. Legally, one party was deemed guilty and one was innocent. That finding affected each party financially and socially enough so that most couples tried hard not to divorce. In Canada the rate of divorce in 1951 was one out of twenty couples. In the late sixties, the "sexual revolution" began and couples rebelled against the constraints of marriage. Movie makers and journalists became rich extolling the virtues of free love and liberation. The addition of more grounds for divorce and the elimination of the need to appear in court made it easier for couples to split. Now there are "no fault" divorces which further decrease the stigma. By 1987 one out of two couples divorced. Since then, the annual divorce rate has dipped slightly. The stigma is almost gone. Books are written about doing your own divorce. One can obtain a low budget quickie divorce by phone or fax to the Dominican Republic in about three days. There are "divorce parties". Even the Royal Family discusses its divorce dilemmas on t.v. The divorce picture is not all rosy. According to sociologist Lenore Weitzman, divorced women get by on about 64% of the income they had during marriage. For their children, this translates into less money for school activities, clothes, opportunities for traveling and learning, day care and sometimes food. Children can be called on to do adult tasks before they are ready, like caring for younger siblings. Older children may be required to work long hours at a job to help bring money to the family. As a result, they may fall behind in their school work. After a while, the child may feel it is hopeless to try to keep up and decide to quit school.

Salinity

Problems arise in the world due to salinity, as when the salt gets on to the top of the soil†¦.. it causes disaster to the plants and trees. Salt comes in many forms in the natural environment—calcium, magnesium, carbonate, sodium chloride, bicarbonate, and sulphate. Many landscapes are naturally saline, but secondary salinity isn’t so natural, occurring when salts from deep within the earth are dissolved and deposited into soil and water as a result of human activity. This can happen in one of two ways: Dryland salinity – from removal of deep-rooted plantsIn dry regions, deeply-rooted perennial plants, such as shrubs, trees, and grasses, play an important role in regulating groundwater levels. As water is applied to the soil, the plants drink it up and breath it out through a process called evapotranspiration. This ensures that the water table levels stay relatively stable. But this balance is thrown into chaos when farmers clear the land to gain more space for grazing animals and cultivating food crops. In doing so, they remove the deep-rooted plants and replace them with shallow-rooted annual crops.These plants do not take up as much water as once-plentiful native plants, and as a result, more water remains in the soil. Over time—up to 30 years—water accumulates in the land, causing the water table to rise. As it does so, it passes through layers of salt and dissolving the deposits that have existed in the land for centuries. The shallow-rooted plants can’t keep up with the rising water levels, which results in rising salt deposits in ever-increasing concentrations in topsoil. Irrigation salinity – from overirrigationMuch like dryland salinity, irrigation salinity results in a rising water table that brings deep deposits of salt upwards through soil layers. But instead of being caused by land clearing, it results from increased irrigation. As water soaks into the soil, it adds to existing water, raising t he water table, bringing salt along for the ride. During periods of irrigation, the water table will lower again, but salt will remain in surface soil, increasing the salt concentration with each irrigation cycle. What impact does it have? Contamination of ecosystems with excess saltBoth dryland and irrigation salinity result in similar environmental challenges: * Groundwater used for human consumption as well as agricultural and industrial applications becomes saline, making it unusable * Wetlands and bushland ecosystems are damaged, resulting in declines in wildlife biodiversity * Salt damages houses, pipelines, railways, buildings, roads, and water supply systems What has been done about it? Many conservation and regeneration options available There are many possible steps a community can take to prevent and/or reverse salinity: Identify areas where potential for biodiversity loss is significant due to salinity, setting targets to protect and bring back sensitive species * Protec ting key native vegetation species from being cleared and promoting reintroduction of these species in areas affected by salinity * Limit over-irrigation and the construction of dams in sensitive areas, such as wetlands and watercourses * Promote environmentally-sound property management planning * Educate farmers and the public about the risks of increasing salinity * Construct both surface and sub-surface drainage systems to prevent salinity that results from rising water levelsIs this action working? Reversing soil salinity a slow process – prevention is easier Progress in preventing and reversing the effects of salinization is slow and painstaking. Research is beginning to identify ways farmers can continue to cultivate their crops without increasing soil salinity. Planting salt tolerant, deep-rooted plants throughout agricultural lands in one way to see improvements, but like most solutions, it can be costly and requires by-in from farmers and communities alike. Further education of key stakeholders in communities at risk of salinization is required. Why is this? Effects of soil salinity take many years to appearIt can take up to 30 years for communities to begin to feel the effects of increasing salinity, making reversal of the problem equally time-consuming. It also requires significant funding. The Australian government, for instance, pledged to spend nearly $8 million on salinization remediation plans to 2008. Should it continue? On one side, there are those who are against Without remediation of soil salinity, great problems lie ahead Without long-sighted solutions, the problem of salinity, including loss of agricultural land, devastation of ecosystems, and the costs associated with damaged property, will continue to increase. In the US, it is estimated that 10 million hectares of land is lost to salinity every year. The challenge is equally serious in Australia.Environmentalists have been drawing attention to this growing crisis for years, an d only after seeing the effects of salinity are individuals and governments coming to terms with the magnitude of the problem. Failure to address salinity could result in widespread crop failures and even more devastating loss of biodiversity. Should it continue? On the other side, there are those who are all for it Hydro advocates oppose There are many who prefer to turn a blind eye to the problem of salinity, especially those with a vested interest in the industries responsible for the consequences. Salinity can increase in the presence of dams and other water reservoirs, making salinity an acceptable cost to advocates of large-scale hydro projects.The damming of the Colorado River, which flows into Mexico, has caused significant increases in the brackish (i. e. saline) quality of the water. Reversing these problems so that those down river can be supplied with high-quality water has been expensive for the US, resulting in costs upwards of several hundred million dollars every yea r. Farmers’ struggles Equally challenging is working with farmers who see the very long-range problem of salinity as minor compared to the desire to see short-term financial gains through over-irrigation of crops. Small and large-scale farmers alike struggle with the reality of spending money to prevent a problem that may not occur for decades.

A Comparison of the Depiction of Celies Struggle in...

A Comparison of the Depiction of Celies Struggle in Steven Spieldburgs The Color Purple and the Novel Innocence and naivety is portrayed instantly as the initial theme for â€Å"The Color Purple†, in both respects. Spielburg opens with the positive scene of the heroine, Celie, playing wistfully in the fields with her sister, Nettie. Similarly, the novel commences with the words, â€Å"I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl†. In both cases, the brief curiosity of youth is quickly driven out, as the reader and the audience are forced to realise†¦show more content†¦The novel elaborates on such events as the death of Celie’s mother, and the continuing abuse from her father. The reader also learns much more of the young girl’s naivety, influenced by explicit vocabulary of her developing pregnancy, and afterbirth with such statements like, â€Å"I got breasts full of milk running down myself†. Such detailed references were not supported in the film production of â€Å"The Color Purple†. Celie talks of her condition in a way by which the reader knows it is all first-hand experience, showing again her age and ingenuousness. Spielburg introduces the necessity and warmth of Celie’s relationship with her sister, Nettie in the opening scene, as the pair play carelessly in the sun. This initial showing of the sister’s closeness differs entirely from the novel’s interpretation. In the novel, the evident bond between the two is emphasised in an entirely sinister approach, â€Å"I see him looking at my little sister. She scared. But I say I’ll take care of you.† Walker and Spielburg have therefore instantly both aimed for very different approaches, when considering the introductory development of the relationship