Prejudice and Equality

Prejudice and Equality

1. Equality: being equal, and trested equally.

2. Community: the people living in a certain place, or a group of the same religious or cultural characteristics.

3. Prejudice: judging something or someone with no good reason, or without full knowledge of a situation.

   • Prejudice often has many causes, and is often the product of early influences.

4. Discrimination: unjust treatment, often resulting from prejudice.

   • Discrimination comes in many forms: individuals may discriminate by being violent and abusive; whole societies may discriminate by passing laws to prevent certain people doing certain things.

5. Stereotype: an oversimlified, generalised set of beliefs about an indivigual or group of people.

6. Some people are prejudice against anyone from a different cultural or religious background or simply because of the colour of their skin. This is known as racism.

   • Racism is often stereotypes leading to negative thoughts and actions.

7. In the UK in recent years there have been many instances of racial discrimination - usually the result of ignorance misunderstanding or segregation. At times these have culminated in rioting or murder.

   • Television and newspapers either educate or help fuel negative stereotypes.
   • More than 80% of all hate crime (crime driven by prejudice) is racially motivated.
     • These racist crimes lead to further segregation and increased hostility within communities.

8. Uk communities lack community cohesion as members find it hard to feel they have much in common due to our society being so multi-ethnic and multi-faith.

   • This is especially true for areas where there are lots of people from ethnic minorities.
   • The Government is trying to promote the idea of Britishness as something that goes beyond racial and cultural differences to help tie communities together.
     • The Race Relations Act (1976) is part of this. It makes it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of race, colour or nationality, or to publish anything likely to cause racial hatred.

9. In 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act was passed by Parliament making it illegal to discriminate against people on account of their gender (sexism) - especially in the fields of employment and education.

10. Up until the middle of the 20th century it was seen as the woman's role to stay at home and take care of the family - most societies were male dominated. During WWII women had to take on traditionally male roles and after the war many didn't want things to go back to the way they had been.