Do We Need to Care about Prejudice, Discrimination and Racism?

As the dawn near the 21st century nears, prejudice, racism and discrimination are the most persistent social problem in this society today. The concept of prejudice, racism and discrimination is related directly to the moral philosophy. Prejudice means having a hostile attitude or behavior towards a person or a group of people based on negative preconceived notions about them. It is a cultural attitude and bias that rests on negative stereotypes about individuals or groups based on the cultural, religious, racial, or ethnic background. Meanwhile, discrimination is the active denial of desired goals from a category of persons which can be based on sex, ethnicity, nationality, religion, language, limited knowledge, social status or class. More recently, discrimination is also included those based on gender, age, marital status, pregnancy and physical disabilities.

When judging whether actions or attitudes constitute prejudiced and discriminatory behavior, there are various ethical questions for us to consider. These include such issues as whether the behaviors and opinions violate moral principles such as fairness, respect, equality for the dignity of others in the society, treating everyone as an equal and not taking advantage of an individual’s weaknesses or vulnerabilities. Discriminatory behaviors can be isolated, or performed by a single individual based on personal prejudices. Also, it can also be institutional, where it becomes the routine behaviors of an institutionalized group based on the prejudices of the group towards others. Likewise, discriminatory behavior can also be intentional, performed deliberately, or unintentional, where actions are performed unwittingly based on blind acceptance and adherence to prevalent stereotypes and prejudices or to institutionalized practice or corporate culture. In all of these cases, prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory behaviors are considered illegal and fall under the category of unethical and immoral behavior.

 In light of such a common human condition, prejudicial attitudes most often lead directly to negative behaviors and it will caused to the tragedy for the human in this society. For example, prejudicial attitudes against the Jews in Germany resulted in hate campaigns, loss of rights and social inequality for Jews, many acts of discrimination and ultimately the Holocaust (the Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime). Other instances of discriminatory behavior based on prejudice that fly in the face of ethical behavior are the denial of housing rights to blacks and Hispanics in the United States, the underpayment of women in the workforce, the denial of employment to disabled individuals, the treatment of someone unfavorably because of his or her race or color and other such activities.Racism, prejudices, discrimination, and stereotypes were fueled by the practice of slavery.  The effects of slavery are still present in today's society.

Modern philosophical ethics uses two traditional approaches to determine the ethical character of behaviors. The first tradition, called teleological ethics, states that actions acquire their moral status from their consequences but have no intrinsic ethical value on their own. Based on a school of thought called Utilitarianism, actions are deemed ethical or unethical, or morally good or bad, according to the extent that they result in the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Thus behaviors that help people are viewed as ethical and actions that harm people are considered unethical. The second tradition is deontological ethics. This approach argues that actions have inherent moral value. That is, they are intrinsically right or wrong. Thus respecting the rights of others, telling the truth and being honest in the business are considered good or ethical, while lying, cheating, stealing, coercing and manipulating are thought of as bad or unethical. According to this approach, even if lying or cheating results in some good, the behavior can never be moral.

Practically, then, evaluating whether behavior is prejudiced or discriminatory involves considering both of these ethical approaches. Although they appear to conflict at the theoretical level, in practice they complement each other and cover an array of factors motivating human behavior.

Is Racism Human Nature or Learned Behavior?

Racism is a broad topic that can be generally described as the prejudicial of a group on the basis of its common physical characteristics sociologically associated with undesirable behaviors according to the accepted social norms and values of a majority. The physical traits which serve to catalyze racist phenomena include skin color and hair color as well as the shape of specific features including the head, eyes, nose and mouth.

The racism with which most are familiar is the skin color based racism that has permeated the United States in the second half of the 20th century along with such countries as South Africa. In the United States, the social and legal restrictions that blacks experienced first as slaves and later as freedmen until the civil rights era of the 1960s subjugated them to second-class citizens. Blacks were restricted and unable to rise socially or professionally. The poverty that has traditionally characterized the black community has led many in the white majority to view blacks as an inferior social element relegated to performing menial, low-paying jobs while living in the dangerous ghetto neighborhoods of inner cities. These social dynamics resulted in the widespread stereotypes of blacks as being naturally criminal and anti-social. 

The research surrounding the sociological and psychological bases for racism and racist tendencies in individuals is vast, seeking to understand whether racism occurs naturally in individuals or if it is a behavior learned through time and social interaction. Racism is a behavior which is learned from a young age and developed in response to variables that include, but are not limited to witnessing how people of different races relate to one another, how the media portray individuals of a specific race and, most important, how racial attitudes are expressed at home.

As a result, education is a most crucial key for the young generation to amend or get to learn the good behaviors and develop healthy perspectives towards the society. Peoples should believe that a good fruit which has a good seed with it could bear another good fruit. This theory is same goes to the society where peoples with good behaviors and attitudes among each others will create a harmony and peaceful homeland.