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Forms of prejudice and discrimination
 Prejudice:
- where is it? inside a person
- prejudgements not based on knowledge or reason
- bias in favor of or against a group of people
or person
- emotions, attitudes or feelings that involve stereotypes
- expectations that people will automatically behave in stereotypical
ways
- conscious or unconscious
- overt (open) or covert (concealed)
 Discrimination:
- where is it? outside people, in society
- actions that deny equal access or equality of opportunity
- historical: based on a pattern of exclusion experienced by a
group over a long period of time
Two forms of discrimination**
**Remember: this distinction is made according to
who or what is doing the discrimination, not who or what is affected!
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Individual discrimination: the harmful action is
done by one person or a small group
- intentional: actions done on purpose to restrict
someone's equal status
- unintentional: actions done without the perpetrator(s)
being aware that their actions are harmful
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Institutional discrimination: the harmful action
is a stable, ongoing part of society
The problem may be caused by:
- policies or rules within institutions (e.g., governmental,
business, educational)
- invisible, unwritten codes of behavior
- routine, informal patterns in the way people treat each
other from day to day
Possible forms:
- intentional - done with the purpose of harming
or excluding people
- unintentional - indirect forms of discrimination
caused when standards or policies are created for reasons
that seem fair and reasonable but they have unforeseen,
harmful consequences for targeted groups and individuals
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 Legal issues:
courts use the following sorts of considerations to determine whether
discrimination is present
- have irrelevant criteria been used?
- has strict scrutiny been complied with?
Criteria used to make judgments about people are usually institutionally
based:
- the criteria are set by people who have institutional power
and who meet the criteria themselves
- the criteria encourage the success of people who meet them because
of their cultural background, not individual merit
- the criteria discourage the accomplishments of people who do
not meet them not because of lack of individual merit but because
of their cultural background
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