– Written by Kinga Csorba
iv) Prejudices
Prejudice is an opinion or view about a stranger, person or group. Prejudice can be positive or negative. Prejudices are mostly fixed during the socialisation process and are very difficult to change.
Preconceptions and stereotypes actually simplify the world for us, “helping” us to quickly complete our knowledge.
v) Ethnocentrism
The idea of ethnocentrism is based on the principle that a culture is superior to others and that therefore the culture, traditions, history and customs of others are incompatible with their own.
Our opinions, evaluations and self-justifications are strongly influenced by our entocentrism. That is, we live in the belief that what we think is right and what we think is wrong. We feel that the fault lies with the other person for not seeing the same things in the same way as we do. In many cases, we see only what we want to see and are not willing to see the world from a different perspective.
e) The effects of images
vi) Discrimination
Discrimination is in fact the practice of putting prejudice into practice, those who are discriminated against are stigmatised, discriminated against, isolated, deprived of their rights.
Although there is no single definition of discrimination, all the definitions in human rights documents include the following elements:
– discrimination on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, etc.
– there are acts that constitute discrimination, such as rejection, restriction or exclusion of a group. The phenomenon ranges from genocide, slavery, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution to the process of exclusion.
– Discrimination also has consequences that prevent individuals from enjoying the rights to which they are entitled.
Segregation is an extreme form of discrimination, where certain ethnic groups are forced into segregation by law or local custom. Examples include the confinement of Jews to ghettos and the forcing of Roma into peripheral areas. Discrimination can be direct, for example when immigrants are not allowed to live in housing, or indirect, when it is the result of a rule or measure, for example when a shop’s policy excludes certain minority groups (a supermarket refuses to employ people wearing long skirts and headscarves).
Some countries have introduced positive discrimination, or affirmative action, to combat discrimination. This means that in certain situations they deliberately favour a particular group that has been subject to negative discrimination for a long time (university admissions favouring people from groups that have not been admitted to universities before). The aim is to counterbalance the effects of hidden discrimination and to tackle inequalities between social groups.
vii) Xenophobia
Xenophobia is a Greek word meaning xenophobia. Like discrimination, xenophobia is rooted in prejudice, “I am afraid of those I do not know, I do not know them because I am afraid of them”. It’s like the squirrel wheel, you never get rid of it. This fear of others often turns into hatred.
viii) Intolerance
Intolerance, a lack of respect for difference, is mainly shown when we do not accept someone who has a different belief or opinion, but pressure them to think, feel and act in a similar way to us. It is also intolerance when we reject or exclude someone because of their religious, sexual, etc. beliefs.