Prejudice and Discrimination

1. Prejudice and Discrimination Sociology

2. Learning Prejudice • Prejudice vs. Discrimination • Discrimination: An act of unfair treatment directed against an individual or group • Racism: Prejudice and discrimination on the basis of race. • Prejudice: An attitude or prejudging, usually in a negative way.

3. Learning Prejudice • We learn prejudice from the people around us • People can be prejudiced against people they have never met – even against groups that do not exist. • People can be prejudiced against their own groups • Ex: Both white and black subjects associate positive words with whites and negative words with blacks on the Implicit Association test.

4. Individual & Institutional Discrimination • Individual Discrimination: The negative treatment of one person by another on the basis of that person’s perceived characteristics. • Institutional Discrimination: The negative treatment of a minority group that is built into society’s institutions.

5. Individual & Institutional Discrimination • Examples of Institutional Discrimination in U.S. • Home Mortgages and Car Loans • African Americans and Latinos are 60% more likely than whites to be rejected for loans when applicants were relative equal in their credit histories. • African Americans are likely to be charged more than whites for their car loans and mortgages than whites • Health Care • Both black and white doctors are more likely to offer preventative care to whites