We now face a global pandemic affecting almost every individual many of whom do not even realise they are infected, and if they do, they often deny that their thoughts, viewpoints or actions are justified. Prejudice can be subtle when concealed in the mind, but can be evidently violent and spread like wild fire when exercised. The word prejudice comes from a Medieval Latin word praeiudicium, which can mean “prejudgment”, “poor judgement” or “injustice”. Little wonder, then, that people who are prejudiced towards others usually prejudge them which in turn affects their expectations and behaviour towards them. In fact, one can say that wherever there are people, there is prejudice!
Since prejudice is related to people’s inner thoughts and emotions, it is often difficult to curb. According to Awake! No 3, 2020, “Many governments pass laws to fight racism and other forms of prejudice. Nevertheless, prejudice continues. Why? Because those laws only address a person’s actions. They cannot control a person’s thoughts and feelings”. Much cumbersome also are the efforts put into defining the problem, even researchers who are considered more knowledgeable also struggle to define prejudice. Some say it is “a negative attitude or feeling toward an individual based solely on that individual’s membership in a certain group.” Others say that this attitude is based on “insufficient information,” which leads to the “prejudgment of members of a group.” Whichever the case, what is sure is that prejudices can be formed against another person due to his race, weight, gender, language, social status, religion, ethnic group and virtually any perceived difference that a person has or exhibits.
As the origin of the word suggests, more often than not, when prejudice surfaces, it is usually based on misinformation or even outright lies. For example, in medieval Europe, Jews were falsely accused of poisoning wells and spreading diseases. During Nazi rule, Jews were again slandered. But this time they were accused of causing the economic crisis in Germany. Both cases resulted in the Jews becoming victims of extreme prejudice, some of which is still evident today. Sadly, people who believed the myths that led to the displacement and death of these misunderstood souls pointed out to some alleged claims that support their biases, and thought. And quite egotistically, they believed that everyone who disapproved of their erroneous mentality was ignorant. A vivid example of one such individual is the former dictator leader of Germany named Adolf Hitler, he shed the blood of millions of people, most of whom were victims of nothing but a misconception—prejudice.
However, due to the high level of civilization and advancement across the globe today, one may be moved to ask: is prejudice really still a problem on our hand? Am I really affected? The purpose of this article is to explore your curiosity and see how prejudice affects you as an individual, directly or indirectly, and how the effects of this social problem can be ameliorated in society.
When escalated, the emotional damage occasioned by incessant prejudicial experiences can affect the mental health of the sufferer, with consequences such as anxiety, depression, and stress due to constant exposure to discrimination. After the assassination of the civil right activist, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jane Elliott, an American educator and school teacher, conducted her now famous “Blue eyes/Brown eyes” exercise with her third grade class, and this lasted for a couple of days. She did this by separating the class into two groups based on eye colour. She told one group that they were superior and had special privileges. However, she told the other group they were inferior and refrained from giving the same praise and privileges as the superior group. Eventually, the kids who were ‘superior’ became more confident and felt they were smarter. On the other hand, the kids in the ‘inferior’ group started making mistakes that they would not normally make and became timid and angry. This experiment shows that when people experience prejudice, they may feel unimportant and when this continues for a long period of time, it can take a ‘dangerous’ toll on their mental health.
The very first impact of prejudice is that it damages the emotions of the victim allowing feelings of rejection, inferiority, and low self-esteem to set in. The experience of a Korean-American published in the June 1, 2013 issue of the Watchtower, brings the impact of prejudice on people’s emotions to the fore. Jonathan was a victim of racial prejudice as a child. As he grew up, he searched for a place where people would not prejudge him based on his facial features or racial background. He became a medical doctor in a town in northern Alaska, U.S.A., where his physical appearance was similar to that of many of his patients. He hoped that perhaps there, amid the cold winds of the Arctic Circle, he had finally escaped the even colder winds of prejudice. Any such hope was shattered when he provided medical assistance to a 25-year-old woman. As the patient came out of a coma, she looked at Jonathan’s face and uttered a taunt with an expletive, revealing her deep-seated disdain for Koreans. For Jonathan, the incident was a painful reminder that all his efforts to move and to blend in could not provide him with an escape from prejudice. Prejudice seems to create a black hole—you keep giving, it keeps taking, but no impact, no end in sight.
The culmination of emotional and mental consequences resulting from recurrent experiences of prejudice can also increase the risk of physical health problems due to stress and societal exclusion. An American Sociologist, W.E.B. Du Bois, wrote that “the Negro death rate and sickness are largely matters of condition and not due to racial traits and tendencies.” This observational deduction shows that the disdain and discrimination resulting from prejudice can damage the physical well-being of the victim, and this may not necessarily occur due to the susceptibility of the individual since the most physically fit and healthy could bend under the yoke of prejudice. After all, “a joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit saps one’s strength” (Proverbs 17:22). According to the article: “Health Consequences of Prejudice and Discrimination” published on Wiley Online Library, “discrimination and prejudice have substantial adverse consequences for the health and well-being of discrimination targets. Three major mechanisms through which discrimination and prejudice undermine health include the direct effects of unequal resource distribution and healthcare quality, the stress-related physiological consequences of encountering discrimination or prejudice, and the health-undermining behavioural responses to discrimination or prejudice. Simply put, inequity, discrimination and the attitude of the victim towards the unbecoming experiences or aftermath of prejudicial actions or even phenomenons can result in a damaged physical, social and emotional well-being.
Another effect of prejudice is in the social impact, whereby the victim struggles in his efforts to form meaningful relationships and overcome societal isolation. In most cases, the social life of the victim is stifled since prejudice leads to social division and increased polarisation and conflict within communities. This can create stigmatisation or a feeling of shame and lessened value, especially when the victim meets someone from a group in which he is prejudiced against, or worst still, segregated from. An example of this is the decades-long Apartheid regime in South Africa, a policy enforced by an all-white party (National Party), whereby the whites and the blacks were separated from each other—they could not mix—it was even a criminal act under the Apartheid law for the whites to marry the natives (the blacks). Other areas in which the people were separated included education, use of public facilities, movement, housing and so on. We may be quick to judge the apartheid in South Africa as too bad, but looking inwards may help us detect socially prejudicial attitude or behavior, even in ourselves. Ask yourself: do I tend to avoid living with or even mixing with people of a certain tribe, race or nationality? Do I treat them based on a preconceived idea that may lack solid bases, evidence or facts? Do I tend to view certain people as lesser human or less important than I am? These soul-searching questions, when honestly considered and answered, can help us root out elements of social prejudice buried deep in our minds, especially those we may never thought we had or would ever exhibit.
Now that we have seen the effects of prejudice on the most important aspects of our lives—emotional, health-wise and social—how then do we deal with prejudice? One way we do this is to consider the facts. Before you form your next opinion about a person or a group, or nurse hasty generalisation or even take in what you are told about them, get the facts clear! We are less likely to believe common but false assumptions about people if we know the facts about them.
Another effective way to deal with prejudice is to associate with people whom we know too little about or we tend to form prejudicial ideas against, and be empathetic towards them. By being empathetic, the similarities we share with these dear ones will be revealed, which in turn will help us view them as they truthfully are—a people that is worth our respect, dignity and even love. We will see each one we meet as an important part of the human race. When we are empathetic, we will also be more likely to show respect towards the so-called “lower caste” or “the untouchables” whom the Indians refer to as the “Dalits”, meaning “scattered” or “broken”. An example of showing respect towards these disadvantaged individuals is found in Anne-Marie’s experience in the Awake! No 3, 2024 published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. As a Senegalese, she once looked down on people who came from so-called lower castes, but how did empathy help her? She said: “When I saw the hardships suffered by those who belonged to lower castes, I asked myself how I would feel in their position. This moved me to question the validity of my supposed higher status—one that I had neither chosen nor earned.” Truly, none of us would feel more important than others nor view them as lesser humans if we put ourselves in their shoes and pictured our lives in their situations.
Also, we need to advocate against all forms of prejudice. This does not necessarily mean we have to go radical, really, the change should start in our hearts, it should be evident in our thoughts and actions that we are not prey to prejudice and all other forms of discrimination. Seemingly little things we do each day like giving up our seat on public transportation for an elderly person from a minority group, making friends with those who are different from us and treating them a little more kindly, helping a new immigrant find his way, being patient when people from other background and culture act in ways we do not understand and other ways of showing love, empathy and patience can make a difference and do a lot of good in combating prejudice in our communities, societies and the world at large.
In conclusion, if not curbed, prejudice can have a corrosive influence on all aspects of our lives—emotionally, physically, socially and even financially, and truth be told, it is already at work. Without our realising it, prejudice, in all the forms it may appear or operate, can corrupt our mind and negatively affect our thinking and actions. Therefore, this is a call to action against prejudice we all should heed, irrespective of our race, gender, religion, social status and nationality. We need to always look inwards to see if we are being affected by this anomaly and try to keep our pride and ego in check. We all have roles to play in reducing prejudice and creating an inclusive society in which all people can thrive without any form of discrimination or stereotype.
Written By: Tunde Ojerinola
