The Never Ending Cycle of Prejudice and Discrimination

          A common thought that people across the nation have is that discrimination and that people being prejudice is dead. Many compare present times to history when our nation was completely against equality between one another, which although things may be better, these issues are still seen quite frequently in today's society. Discrimination is defined as "unequal treatment of various categories of people" (Macionis, 2014, p.401). This is clearly still seen everyday in our society whether it be in schools, work places, or even homes. Many people are discriminated against each day whether its for their personality, physical appearance, or their interests. For example, people of many races are discriminated against just because their skin appears to be a different color. Along with discrimination, prejudice is seen quite often as well. The book defines prejudice as a "rigid and unfair generalization about an entire category of people" (p.398). Some examples of this are assuming that all athletes are unintelligent, every member if the Asian race is good at school, and that everyone that associates themselves with theater is a nerd. What most people don't understand is that not only do these assumptions take place everyday, but that there is a never ending cycle between the two.
       As stated above, prejudice and discrimination go hand in hand. On page 402 in the text book, there is a figure of "The Vicious Circle" which shows how prejudice and discrimination seems to be never ending. The cycle begins at stage 1 which is where the prejudice and discrimination begins. Although it is usually meant as a joke, this fires people up and makes them feel extremely hurt. As a result of this, stage 2 comes about and the minority who was discriminated against is socially disadvantaged. The minority then takes some type of revenge and becomes prejudice of the group of people that made them feel that way which is stage 3 and leads right back into stage 1 where the cycle then continues to repeat itself.
        One example that hit the media of discrimination and prejudice is Paula Deen's case. The celebrity chef that many people know and love was accused of being racist and discriminating against people of the African American race. It is said that one of her old managers had heard her using racial slurs such as the "n" word and was then questioned on a live interview as to whether or not she had used that word in her vocabulary. Although she said she had only used it during a robbery or under her breath, she still admitted to using such a derogatory word (cnn.com). This caused her fans to feel discriminated against and hurt meaning they would have new feelings about Paula Deen, which could lead to retaliation, causing the discrimination cycle to start over once again.
        What people need to begin to understand is that these words and assumptions are hurtful to people and people handle their feelings in different ways. Some choose to come back with just as harsh words, while others choose to harm themselves instead. There are ways to decrease these issues and hopefully make the amount of discrimination decrease. According to goodtherapy.org, there are different therapies for discrimination. Some examples of this are overcoming stereotypes that lead to this behavior, learning how to ask for forgiveness, and learning different ways to make relationships that don't involve any of these negative behaviors. All of these different examples are fairly easy to do, meaning the amount of people who are prejudice could potentially decline if they would take the opportunity to better themselves.
       Overall, the act of being prejudice and discriminating against a group of people is still seen today in the media and in many's personal lives. These harsh comments and assumptions are causing even more people to join in on the negativity and creating a circle of discrimination across the country. There are different ways to improve oneself so that there are less discriminatory people, but until society realizes how to do that and takes that step I don't see the cycle ending.

                                                         

 External Websites: http://www.goodtherapy.org/therapy-for-prejudice-discrimination.html#
                             
                              http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/26/showbiz/paula-deen/index.html