Prejudice and Discrimination

• Stereotype – false or generalized beliefs about a group of people without regard for individual differences

• Prejudice – a set of opinions, attitudes and feelings that cast members in a negative light without legitimate reasons

• Discrimination – inequitable treatment of people based on race, gender, ethnicity, nationality, faith, sexual orientation

Types of Discrimination

• Systematic – institutionalized– discrimination supported by official or unofficial

laws– eg. Apartheid in South Africa

• Unofficial– individual groups or organizations who decide to

discriminate against others– eg. unfair hiring practices– ‘old boy’s club’

• Harassment• discrimination in the form of verbal or physical

abuse• eg. as ‘minor’ as name calling or as violent as

death

• Segregation– certain groups are forced to live, work, go to

school separately– 1950’s USA

• Expulsion – removal of a group/individual from society– eg. Japanese internment of WWII

• Genocide– widespread killing of members of a certain group,

often in the name of ‘progress’– eg. Nazi Germany – 6,000,000 Jews murdered– 1988 Iraq – Kurdish villagers subjected to poison

gas– Bosnian Serbs “ethnic cleansing” of Muslims

Systematic Discrimination up close

• during the late 1800’s, early 1900’s restrictions were placed on immigrants to Canada

• (still are today but for very different reasons)• 1939 – 907 Jewish refuges from Europe were

refused entry and sent back where most were eventually killed in concentration camps

• women were not granted the vote anywhere in Canada until 1915 in Manitoba, it wasn’t until 1929 before it was allowed in all of Canada

• Aboriginal people living in Canada were not granted the federal vote until 1962

• prisoners in federal institutions just recently regained the right to vote after a long absence

Stanford-Binet

• I.Q. Test• still used today despite being culturally loaded• for example: “categorize the following product

– Crisco”, is this a cooking product, a clothing product, a household item or a product for farm use

• How is this reflective of innate intelligence?

Circles of Prejudice

• approximately 15% of Canadians are overtly prejudice

• 15% of Canadians are free of racial bias• therefore 70% of Canadians have varying

degrees of prejudice– these prejudices are mostly based on colour or

facial features

• there are basically two circles• 1. economic• 2. psychological

• example of a circle, father speaks of or acts in a negative manner towards a certain racial group; son accepts that this behaviour is acceptable/normal; child behaves in a similar manner after they have passed their formative years

Explanations (Excuses?) for Prejudice

• studies have shown (in general) a correlation between higher education and tollerance or acceptance of differences

• in other words, prejudice has it’s roots in ignorance

• Ethnocentrism- a belief that one’s culture, ethnicity, or way of life is superior to others

• eg?????, Toronto?????

Racial Identity

• although the term ‘race’ is not biologically sound, we all have a ‘racial identity’ within ourselves and identify others in a general sense that way

• certain fears/misconceptions are tied to these

5 Causes of Prejudice

• A. Ignorance• i) Modelling – we copy attitudes and

actions we see, ie. at home, on television, books, papers, friends

• ii) Mere exposure – we tend to dislike groups of people that are unfamiliar to us– repeated exposure may change this

• iii) Behavioural conditioning – if prejudice actions are rewarded, we will continue

• B. Fear• iv) Memory availability – we tend to remember

vivid incidents of individuals and transfer those to the group that they are ‘associated’ with

• v) Inferiority – if we feel inferior we will put down others therefore, raising our self image

• Prejudice vs. preference - discuss

Hate Crimes

• September 2001• Belfast Northern Ireland• schoolgirls (ages 4-12) verbally harrassed and

had objects thrown at them by members of another religion (Catholics vs. Protestants)

• Holy Cross Girls Primary School, Ardoyne, Belfast, Northern Ireland. During the 30-year conflict known as The Troubles, Ardoyne had become segregated – Protestants lived in one area and Irish Catholics in another. This left Holy Cross—a Catholic primary school for girls—stuck in the middle of a Protestant area. In June 2001, Protestant loyalists began picketing the school, claiming that Catholics were regularly attacking their homes and denying them access to facilities. For weeks, hundreds of protesters tried to stop the schoolchildren and their parents from walking to school through their area. Some protesters shouted sectarian abuse and threw stones, bricks, fireworks, blast bombs and urine-filled balloons at the schoolchildren and their parents. Hundreds of riot police, backed-up by British soldiers, escorted them through the protest each day. The scenes of frightened Catholic schoolgirls running a gauntlet of abuse from loyalist protesters as they walked to school captured world headlines. Death threats were made against the parents and school staff by a loyalist paramilitary group called the Red Hand Defenders. The protest was condemned by politicians from both sides and by people from both the Catholic and Protestant communities. Some likened the protest to child abuse and compared the protesters to American white supremacists in 1950s Alabama.

• December 1989• Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal• Mark Lepine

• 1998 Central Texas• White teenagers dragged a black man around

town behind their pick up truck

• James Byrd, Jr. (May 2, 1949 – June 7, 1998) was an African-American who was murdered by three men, of whom at least two were white supremacists, in Jasper, Texas, on June 7, 1998. Shawn Berry, Lawrence Russell Brewer, and John King dragged Byrd behind a pick-up truck along an asphalt road. Byrd, who remained conscious throughout most of the ordeal, was killed when his body hit the edge of a culvert, severing his right arm and head. The murderers drove on for another mile before dumping his torso in front of an African-American cemetery in Jasper. Byrd's lynching-by-dragging gave impetus to passage of a Texas hate crimes law. It later led to the federal October 22, 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, commonly known as the Matthew Shepard Act. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on October 28, 2009.

• Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed by lethal injection for this crime by the state of Texas on September 21, 2011. King remains on Texas' death row while appeals are pending, while Berry was sentenced to life imprisonment.

• Laramie, Wyoming, 1998• Matthew Sheppard, beaten and tied to a fence

post in the dead of winter• Why?, because he was gay

• Shortly after midnight on October 7, 1998, Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson for the first time at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming. It was decided that McKinney and Henderson would give Shepard a ride home. McKinney and Henderson subsequently drove the car to a remote, rural area and proceeded to rob, pistol-whip, and torture Shepard, tying him to a fence and leaving him to die. According to their court testimony, McKinney and Henderson also discovered his address and intended to steal from his home. Still tied to the fence, Shepard, who was still alive but in a coma, was discovered 18 hours later by Aaron Kreifels, a cyclist who initially mistook Shepard for a scarecrow.

• Shepard had suffered fractures to the back of his head and in front of his right ear. He experienced severe brainstem damage, which affected his body's ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature, and other vital functions. There also were about a dozen small lacerations around his head, face, and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate. Shepard never regained consciousness and remained on full life support. While he lay in intensive care, candlelight vigils were held by the people of Laramie.

• Shepard was pronounced dead at 12:53 a.m. on October 12, 1998, at Poudre Valley Hospital, in Fort Collins, Colorado. He was 21 years old.

• Other famous hate crimes• Columbine High School in Colorado (1999)• World Trade Centre/Pentagon (2001)• Newtown Connecticut Elementary School

(2012)

Characteristics of Hate Crimes

• i) the hatred is intense and impersonal• not directed specifically at an individual but rather

directed at an individual that is representative of a group

• different from ‘crimes of passion’ whereby personal anger is the cause

• different from ‘felony crimes’ where personal gain is the motivation

• in the scenarios previously mentioned the victims were generally unknown to the perpetrators

• ii) the hatred is based on prejudice and power

• usually through excess numbers, surprise or superior weaponry

• iii) the hatred is directed at scapegoats for other frustrations

• failures in own life are blamed on certain groups and actually rationalized in perpetrators mind eg. Marc Lepine believed that women were the reason he was not admitted to engineering school

• these groups are easily identifiable minorities or at least groups

• crimes are committed in order to ‘keep someone in their place’ or prevent them from increasing their social station at the expense of the perpetrator

• **Genocide can be considered a National Systematic hate crime

• in fact, the UN prosecutes these under the heading of Crimes Against Humanity

Conformity and Alienation

• Reasons to conform:• List• Highway traffic Act• Religious beliefs• job security

Groups

• Definition of a basic group – 2 or more people who interact and are aware of having something in common

• eg. family, team, staff

Types of Groups

• Primary – small group• members have a personal, emotional

relationship• eg. include family, close friends• deal face to face• interested in most aspects of each others

personality and personal life

• Secondary – broader groups• more impersonal, formal• eg. typical high school population• interested in one particular aspect of certain

individuals• can accomplish complex tasks with large

groups of people

• Norms • expected behaviours by a group• vary depending the group that you are

associating with at the time• basic norms include: table manners, hygiene,

style of dress, type of greeting• failure to comply may/could cause suspicion

or hostility

• many norms arise from important group values associated with strong feelings of right and wrong – known as ‘mores’

• ethical and sexual behaviour is shaped drastically by these values

• Sanctions• used to encourage members to conform• rewards or punishments to encourage certain

behaviour• can be as simple as ignoring or rejecting

• Zimbardo prison experiment• showed how random individuals responded

and conformed to roles as inmates/prison guards when placed in this situation

• Milgram experiment• study to examine people’s willingness to resist

authority

Collective Behaviour

• Crowd• a group of people temporarily gathered

together• gather for many different reasons such as

basketball game, shopping, concert

• Casual Crowds• rarely interact with one another• however, there are circumstances when

individuals must decide whether or not to get involved in what is going on

• eg. Kitty Genovese, Reginald Denny

• Factors affecting involvement:• size of group• people with the bystander• whether someone else intervenes

• Acting Crowds• does some kind of physical activity, tries to

cause change, has goals, may act aggressively, may be affectionate

• these may be dangerous because:• often see things in black and white, right and

wrong• there is little room for compromise, discussion,

rational thinking

• can be swayed directly by an effective speaker• people may lose individuality and behave less

responsibly than if alone• active crowds can beome:• Mobs – show aggressive/anti-social behaviour,

may attack people and destroy property• Riots – caused by unorganized and aggressive

crowds, may consist of a number of mobs each pursuing its own path