Prejudice as the Root Cause of the Discrimination Research Paper

Hate crimes are said to occur when the offender targets his victim owing to his membership in a social division such as race, religion, sexual preference, ethnicity, nationalist, are or political affiliation. In general hate crimes can come from two categories. The first involves actual crimes, like murder, assault and rape that are motivated by the fact that the victim belongs to one of the social divisions mentioned above. The other is called hate speech. Hate speech itself is highly controversial since it can be disguised as a mere practice of one’s freedom of speech.

While hate crimes are an unwelcome truth it is possible to change prejudicial attitudes towards people. This is because many of the social divisions stated above are often arbitrary or artificial distinctions. For example, when the Irish first came to America in the 19^th century they were discriminated against just because they came from Ireland. Yet for the most part they spoke English like most Americans and had the same customs and culture as most other English-speaking people. In the case of the Hutus and Tutsis of Rwanda only they could tell the difference between each other.

Removing prejudice begins with addressing the root cause of the prejudice. For example, African Americans are seen as ‘hoodlums’ or ‘thugs’ because this is how they are portrayed in the media. Yet not all Blacks are like that. Just as not all Arabs are terrorists. It is important to show that stereotypes are not correct, that people belonging to a hated or discriminated group can be decent, peaceful individuals themselves. Much prejudice comes from lack of awareness about a group leading to formation of all sorts of misconceptions and false beliefs about that group.

At the heart of discrimination is prejudice which is in turn rooted in ignorance and ignorant views about the group being discriminated against. For example when people look down on Indians for stealing all the tech support jobs by being willing to work for so little, the people who say that don’t realize that even if they are paid a fraction of their American counterparts those same Indians are some of the highest-paid for their level of expertise. If people were aware of the rough conditions that the Indians endured perhaps they would be less wrathful next time they call tech support.

As mentioned, prejudicial attitudes are the root of discriminatory behavior. If people were taught to drop their prejudices then they would be less inclined to discriminate against others. It is enshrined in the Constitution that “All men are created free and equal” so to discriminate against others for imaginary or immaterial reasons would make a mockery of the Democracy our nation enjoys. People should see that regardless of race, color or creed all men are born with equal fundamental rights.

Regrettably, for as long as there is prejudice they will always be hate crimes. Since the beginning of time one group or another has asserted its, perceived, superiority at the expense of others. For as long as there is no true and meaningful equality then there will always be some group that thinks it is disenfranchised or another that thinks others should be put in their proper place. There is equality under law and this is an aspiration found in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Yet in reality largely immaterial factors like the color of one’s skin, gender preference or religious conviction remain barriers for some. At the same time those who suffer discrimination eventually band together and discriminate against those who do the same to them. In more advanced societies like ours hate crimes are often limited to hate speech that discriminates against others. But in other less ‘enlightened’ places people are still killed just for being on the wrong side of a discriminatory line. Perhaps in the distant future where the divisions of today become truly immaterial, there can finally be an end to hate crimes.

Works Cited

1. Stolzer, Rebecca. “Comparison of Hate Crime Rates Across Protected and Unprotected Groups. 2007. Williams Institute.
2. Bureau of Justice Assistance. “A Policy Makers Guide to Hate Crimes”. US Department of Justice. 1999. Web.
3. Stotzer, R.: Comparison of Hate Crime Rates Across Protected and Unprotected Groups, Williams Institute, 2007.