Colour:
You will find that many people will look at ones appearance and decide that they don’t like that person because of their skin colour. The skin’s colour is a way in which the body can protect itself against the sun’s harmful rays. People should not judge others by it, it tells us no more than our hair’s colour.
In 1948, when South Africa’s Nationalist Party came to party, Apartheid became an official policy. The policy was to exclude the majority of blacks from voting and participating in central government because of their skin colour.
Apartheid divides people into groups among racial lines legally, such as division doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. The Apartheid divides people by their skin colour, but it must have been a difficult task as there were dark skinned whites and very pale skinned blacks.
The Apartheid policy does not exist anymore and now everyone is equal in Africa, no matter what their skin colour is. But unfortunately, there are still some people who have disliked against people with different colour skin.
Religion:
Many people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs, a prime example of this is Northern Ireland where many Catholics and Protestants are being shot, bombed, killed or wounded. The Catholics in Northern Ireland want to become a part of Ireland, whilst the Protestants want to stay as part of the United Kingdom.
The conflicts between the two religions have been resulted in a twenty-five years of violence. Although all religions condemn the use of violence, it is a sad fact that some politicians and power-crazed individuals have used and manipulated religious differences for political ends.
Minority:
Minority groups often face prejudice and rejection from larger groups because they are different or hold different views.
Gypsies are a minority group. They prefer to be called Rom because it means ‘Romany’ and it identifies them as part of the International Romany Community. Non-Romanies are called ‘Gadjo’ by the Roms.
There are around four million Rom in Europe. Rom have a better way of life in the Eastern Europe and Russia because of their language, identity, culture, family patterns, lifestyle and art are accepted and respected. All Rom are offered decent houses and education. They are not harassed, partly because there are more Rom in these countries but also their way of life doesn’t appear to be such a threat to the rest of the society.
There are around fifty thousand Rom in Britain and they are usually very poor and ill treated by the British.
Rom do not like being told what to do or work for someone else. They like to live and survive independently and to come and go as they please. To keep their identity as Rom and not to be ashamed for whom they are, they keep their identity as free people.
It is difficult to live the way they want in the society so they are forced into petty crime, they steal food to keep alive and not starve. Prejudice people who dislike and fear their way of life attack them.
Many people think that gypsies are thieves, shoplifters and pickpockets and their speciality is petty crime. Because they are quick, clever and deft, they are not often caught, they are accused for not only their own crimes but for others as well. Gypsies have to steal and cheat others to stay alive because people in their society are prejudice against them, so they have to flee in terror but they also hold their pride. Although they are poor, they still fight for their freedom and their way of life.
Handicap:
Handicapped people are often ignored and receive the littlest help. A handicap refers to the relationship between the lack of bodily function and the environment.
Some handicap is not visible, although it seriously impairs the intellectual capacity of the person.
Often ‘normal’ people have a hard time looking after mentally handicapped people and frequently confuse mental handicap with mental illness.
In the past, handicapped people were shut away in homes, hospitals or asylums and this did little to break down people’s prejudices and fears about them.
Now, people are more aware that handicapped people have lots to give and can develop within the community and more are taking their place in community life.
Gender:
Men have dominated society for hundred of years. They have wielded the power, controlled the wealth, formed the leading ideas and treated us, woman, as second-class citizens. Men think that women are less able in most ways than men, but these days, men and women are equal.
In 1984, at an American Women’s Right Convention, the speakers listed the wrongs that ere being committed against women. The women were concerned that they would have no legal right or equality in court.
In 1903, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Christobel and Sylvia, created the Women’s Social and Political Union.
In 1913, there was a Suffragette Demonstration.
Until the end of the 19th century, British women had few legal rights. They were seen as pieces of ‘properties’, first belonging to their father and then to their husbands. Women could not vote or own property and it was difficult for them to live an independent life.
Many people felt that the situation of women could be improved but it is much more worse worldwide. Women in the developing may have to do domestic work, childcare and exhausting work on the land.
Until the middle of the 20th Century, it was widely accepted that women should give up work when she was married, and then become a housewife and devote her time to look after and care for her husband and children.
Today, there are more women doing jobs that in the past were done by men, and more men staying at home whilst more women are earning for the family.
Slavery:
Slavery means owning people to work for you, just as you would own a car. In ancient civilisations, people captured in the war were often made into slaves, and poor people sometimes
sold their children as slaves.
From the 1500s, the Spanish took people from Africa as slaves for colonies in America. By the 1770s, British ships were carrying slaves to America. Hundreds were packed tightly into ships. Conditions were terrible and many slaves dies on the way. Britain abolished the slave trade in 1808. Slavery ended in the USA, after the Civil War. But racial discrimination continued even after Civil Rights laws were passed to guarantee equal rights for black people.
Martin Luther King:
Martin Luther King (1929-1968) was an American civil rights leader who worked for racial justice through peaceful means. It was in Montgomery, Alabama, where he was pastor, that he began his Civil Rights crusade. One of Martin’s first actions was to organise a boycott of buses in Montgomery in 1956 as a protest against fair treatment of black passengers. During the next ten years, he had led many peaceful demonstrations and meetings all over the country. Success came when Congress passed Civil Rights laws in 1964 and 1965.
In 1964, Martin won the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaign for non-violence. At the age in 39, in 1968, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1963, Martin Luther King made a famous speech. He was speaking to a crowd of two hundred thousand of people who had come to Washington D.C to march for civil rights for all people. In his speech he said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the sort of person they are.
“I have a dream that one day…all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing the words of the black people’s old song, ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last.’”
When Martin Luther King died, on his gravestone were written these words:
‘FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST
THANK GOD ALMIGHTY
I’M FREE AT LAST.’
I don’t think that prejudice can be stopped totally, it is buried deeply in our history and our background. Prejudice is one of the everyday things that cannot be stopped and must continue as an ever-going cycle. We can probably change peoples’ views about racism or we can give them a new point of view, and hope that they would change their opinions.
As far as I’m concerned, prejudice isn’t funny, isn’t clever and isn’t smart, it is horrible and cruel. Those who are prejudiced against others are blind to see what’s in front of them, a human being with feelings and senses just like them.
