Sep 11 2008
Ignorance, Prejudice, and Fear… Hand in Hand? (PERIOD 3)
Share your observations about ignorance, prejudice, and fear and how they contribute to, create, or control social and political circumstances. Cite some modern or current examples from global, national, local, or even personal sources. Are they inextricably linked?
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22 responses so far
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Ignorance, predjudice, and fear are all interconnected. In current events, they are all linked through many ordeals, such as the upcoming presidential election. Predjudice and fear are especially rampant in this election as the nation will have to choose either a black president or a female vice president. These are choices America has never had to make before thus leading people to base a portion of their vote on their preferred race and gender. Many Americans fear the outcome due to this predjudice because the effect it has may cause more problems for this country. Ignorance joins predjudice and fear in issues of racism. My friend’s grandfather saw a statistic about how many African-Americans are in prison in comparison to white people and automatically assumed that they were all bad, and so he was afraid of everyone he met at the supermarket. He completely ignored the fact that many are respectable members of society, and that anyone could be bad, skin color an irrelevant factor in the equation.
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Ignorance, Prejudice, and Fear can be intertwined or not. It depends on how one looks at the topic. If one is subject to fear, they will have ignorance on the certain topic, leading to a prejudice towards that one part of their lives. Now it can be switched and said that ignorance leads to prejudice which in turn leads to the fear of the one they do not know of. The prejudice that others have can attach to more people they influence. That prejudice can make them fear that they are prejudiced against or make them ignorant towards it, always ending in both, whichever came first. All of America is seen to be prejudiced at some point or another. Even I have been prejudiced against some people, but after losing my ignorance on the subject no longer had a prejudice against those people, but the fear remained etched into my mind. Taking the example of elections from Marco, I believe that they will lead to some prejudice. In my opinion, those that fear the country being in an African American’s hands or partly in a woman’s hands will be prejudiced as they are ignorant that all human beings are equal. Without the sense of equality, everyone will live with prejudice, fear, and most of all, ignorance.
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Ignorance, prejudice, and fear are intertwined. Whether one knows it or not and makes the connection is up to her or himself to reflect upon. I will take myself for an example, but first I would like to say this isn’t some hate blog and if you find it funny please feel free to laugh. My nationality is Mexican. I hear so many racial slurs about Mexicans that many times I have come home with so many tears cascading down my face and anger boiling within me. Ignorance comes in play when I hear “grass cutter, taco eater, dirty, stupid, and of course- creepy.” Not all Mexican’s are grass cutters or taco lovers or dirty and all of which I have named. I will speak for myself when I say I hate the smell of fresh cut grass, I dislike tacos (though for some odd reason, the school’s are pretty good) I take a shower at least once a day, I am not stupid (people are actually surprised when I tell them I am taking an academic class this year due to tech school) and last time I checked I was not creepy, in fact people actually call out my name and smile at me. Ignorance literally means not knowing. Because some people don’t know about Mexicans and that they really are (gasp) decent people they get lumped together into a group of creepy people. I hear this many times,” Oh Carmen, I didn’t mean you, I mean your not really all that Mexican.” Can I ask what the heck that is supposed to mean? Mexican is a nationality. Not a separate subject.
Prejudice is not liking somebody for one specific reason. And most of those times it is for one reason they cannot help. Such as being a woman, or being Catholic or being a nationality. A person is born that way and cannot change who they are I have received many looks and I have seen looks being given out to people who are Mexican. Looks that say, You are a Mexican, and because you are one of them, I have decided not to like you. Oh and usually with that look comes “Ole! Ole!” That person who has decided not to like me because he/she is prejudice is also ignorant because he or she doesn’t Know me. That person does not know I am funny, smart, loves to laugh, artistic, and am not an Illegal Alien!!! Jeez. So that concludes us to…fear. Let me ask a question and please answer honestly. Lets say you see oh a group of Mexicans together and they are coming towards you. What would you do? Umm..run? What if they were just going to ask for directions? But you didn’t know that because of ignorance and prejudice. What if you saw a Mexican running? Would the first thought that popped in your head be jail break?..vandalism?..drugs?…Or…running to help someone? I think that ignorance, prejudice, and fear all come hand in hand. I didn’t write this blog as a hate one or to put people down and shame them. I wrote this because it is what I know. I am not angry or even a hater. I think that if the world can overcome one of these one at the time, the world can overcome all three of these and the world would be a better place.
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It is my strong belief that ignorance, fear, and prejudice are all variables in a rickety equation. Ignorance can breed fear, and this fear is what breeds prejudice. It is only when one becomes less ignorant and more educated that fear is naturally eliminated and prejudice thus loses its primary impetus. A perfect example (and the once that jumps to the front of my mind quickest) is the current presidential election. Members of both the democratic and republican parties have shown prejudice- a brand that often emerges in politics, especially those at such a level. Many people display a prejudice against Barack Obama and largely it is not because of his skin color, but because he is young and comparatively inexperienced in the Washington scene. These people who hold something against him do so largely because they are ignorant as to his character and his history of leadership. Because he is quite young as candidates go and the public didn’t know much about him at the outset, some people fear him and what kind of president he would be, and therefore have an unexplainable prejudice against him. Likewise, republican VP candidate Sarah Palin is extremely new to politics and inexperienced as governor of Alaska and is, further, even younger than Obama. Because many peoples knew nothing about her when McCain announced her as his running mate, they quickly resorted to taking umbrage with her and, again, showing a prejudice borne out of lack of knowledge and fear of the unknown.
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The concepts of ignorance, prejudice, and fear go hand in hand due to the way that certain issues are handled socially and politically. From the most important controversies in the political world to the smaller, less heard of stories in remote towns, these three concepts are found in problems dealing with minorities such as African Americans or women running for office, or misjudgements and accusations made by people to crush someone’s hope. For example, recently on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines”, there was a story about the world’s most valuable baseball card of Honus Wagner, and they showed the possible people who held this card which was believed to be worth millions of dollars. They discussed about two African American men who shared this card and claimed it to be the real original Honus Wagner card. Many people ignored their proposal and suggested that it had to be a fake, resembling the ignorance found in this hobby. One man who took their side was interviewed and said if they both had light hair and blue eyes there would be no controversy. The show went on to admit that baseball card collecting was a dominantly rich white man’s hobby and the prejudice and disbelief of the men was due to this, revealing the reality that their color brought more doubt to their credibility in the collecting business. Many collectors feared that these mens’ card was the original piece and on their message board many people sent threatening messages insulting them and accusing them of being in for the money and advertising a “fake” card, even though solid evidence was not apparent. Overall, these concepts not only are found in the highly spoken of political world, but they are common in the social world when people are mistreated and accused to be wrong because of their skin color.
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Ignorance, fear, and prejudice are all emotions that are unfortunately driving most of society today. Ignorance is when people don’t know about a minority, religion or political party. Fear is when people don’t know about minority, religion or political party and because they don’t know what they are or what they do they become scared that they are bad. Prejudice is when people don’t know about minority, religion or political party and because they don’t know what they are or what they do they become scared that they are bad, and from that they form a hatred for those types of people or groups. These words are ones that help feed the fire of wars, racism, and political extremities. Even in our local area of Montgomery County there is ignorance, fear, and prejudice. If a person were to ask a student at Upper Merion about Norristown they would immediately say that it’s a bad area where a lot of poor people live, they might say that it’s a trash town, or that it’s dirty. But this is not true, I myself can say I had my opinions about Norristown, but when I actually drove through the area I saw that it was really no different than my school. The houses were nice and the school was clean, my judgment or prejudice on that area was completely built on the ideas that were put in my head by fear because I was ignorant about the area. Now I can fully understand that ignorance and fear really do form prejudice, so people should not judge others or others ideas before they really know about them because they could turn out to be the complete opposite of what you thought.
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Ignorance, prejudice, and fear are very big issues in any country, state, and society. They are emotions and feelings that everyone is consumed by, know matter who you are. In social circumstances for example many people think that Arabs are automatically terrorists when that is not true at all. They are not linked to terrorists yet people show ignorance towards them placing them in a situation where they do not belong. In political circumstances fear was created after 9/11 occurred. George Bush was put into a fragile position and had to take extreme caution in airports, and in the mjor cities. This created a lot tension and people were arrested for looking like terrorists or sharing the same culture. Should we be able to judge what happened as if these people should not have been treated this way? Yes, but in the same case know one knew what to do because we were all afraid. Ignorance is not bliss, ignoring the issues at hand is wrong and you should stand up for what you believe in. Prejudice is racism, not knowing someone and judging them by their looks is wrong.
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Ignorance, Prejudice, and Fear are very big cpncepts that are going on now and have affected people all over the world. People used these as emotions or ways of expressing how they feel towards something or someone. Prejudice has been apart of our world for as long as history been written. People have mistreated other people just because of their race or way of life. Prejudice is also playing a role in the upcoming election. It may be the first time that a black president is elected. This also could bring fear to citizens because we never had a black president. Do we know what kind of things he will do? I know that some people think that he may favor african americans. Racism also played a role during the early 1900s in sports. Jackie Robinson had to prove to people that he was good enough to play in the Major League dispite his african american race. teenagers and students go through all three of these everyday in school and on the streets. Some people may be joking around but some may take it serious. These are just some of the many ways and events that Ignorance, Prejudice, and fear have affected.
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Ignorance, prejudice, fear. What do these three words mean in modern society? What do these words affect, and why do they affect people so greatly? What is the first thing that comes to mind when these words are brought up?
“Ignorance is bliss.”
The timeless saying that gives the uninformed, a chance at an excuse. This statement, however convenient, is almost always wrong. Being ignorant is not something to aspire to. As a child it is perceived that being ignorant is “okay”, but as one grows up through being a teenager and finally onto being an adult, being ignorant is most definitely not “okay”. For instance, when a group of friends are all sitting down having a good debate about politics and someone says an ignorant comment, about race or gender (for instance), the feeling of shock and even fear overcome the mind. Shocked because you wonder how someone can become an adult and survive in our urban society and still act this way. Fear because you start to throw around the idea that maybe there are more people like this; so unaware of the constantly changing world that they could say such a blatantly rude comment.
“Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart.”
This is a quote said by the Countess of Blessington who was a writer in the mid-1800’s. The idea that prejudice intertwines with ignorance is not a new concept. The common idea that the ignorant man is the man stricken with prejudice is an idea based upon the thought that, he knows no better. Prejudice has rotted away at the core of our existence since the beginning of time. The idea that one man is greater than the other because of certain physical attributes has caused; wars, clans, and genocides. Why was World War II started? Because one group of people believed that they were better than all the other people on the planet. The ignorance that comes with that belief is what causes the two to be thought of as a pair instead of separate ideas.
“The most destructive element in the human mind is fear. Fear creates aggressiveness.”
Dorothy Thompson, a journalist in the 1960s and one of the most influential women in America, according to Time Magazine, has been quoted about many ideas of fear and how it plays at the human psyche. Although I would love to give more, the quote stated above is the most relevant to our topic. Fear plays into every single thing man does. Why didn’t I ask that girl out last year at the football game? Because I was afraid. Why did the row of S.W.A.T. members gun down the psychotic man with a knife by George’s Pizza? Because they were afraid. It drives us to act or to hold back upon. It is said that fear causes ignorance. The fear of realizing what is actually happening around you. The prejudiced K.K.K. member hates all people that are not of Caucasian decent because he is afraid of what, in many cases, not hating them will do. Fear drives at our minds and creates a barrier, whether it be a prejudicial barrier or a barrier shielding the mind from reality.
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Have you ever ignored or tried to avoid a handicapped person because you were afraid you would offend them? The answer is probably yes. People are afraid of what they do not know, then leading to ignorance. Many people do not know how to talk to a disabled person. Here some advice from the real world; just because a person is disabled does not make them any different. People become ignorant and assume that they have to talk differently to a person in a wheelchair.
People are also prejudice against many disabled. Students in school say, “Oh, here comes the clown train” as the group of mentally disabled students walk down the hallway. Many students are also ignorant to what is wrong with them. The main reason why they are disabled is because of Autism. What is Autism? All it is a disease that takes over your mental stage. Mr. Funk, a teacher down in the middle school, used to do talks about the group of kids walking down the hallway, but that speech is long gone, which leaves students ignorant to it, thinking “retards” because they are slow and calling them a bunch of “clowns” because they look funny going down the hallway. Also, if one of the students comes over and tries to talk to you, are you too scared and run away or back off slowly? I know I felt that way before, when I was in Kindergarten, because they were weird and scary, until my mom explained why they acted so unusually.
Also in the political world, these events take place. Barak Obama! He is black, his father left him, and he was mainly raised by his grandparents. We fear that his background will not make him a good president. Just thinking that, we are being prejudice because we are judging his background on something that being raised by you grandparents or you race has nothing to do with the subject on hand. We are ignorant to who he really is. He is a father, a husband, a son, a grandson, a neighbor, a person. What makes him different from the rest of us? Nothing only what he believes in, and that should be the only things we should be judging him on come Election Day.
Ignorance, fear, and prejudice all link hand in hand because if you see someone “different” you might me afraid of what to do around them, hence leaving them out of a basketball game or just making fun of them because you are ignorant to who they really are. Always remember we were all created equal and we are all real people, only what is on the inside counts.
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I think that ignorance, prejudice and fear are all intertwined and all lead to each other. Ignorance helps develop fear and eventually it can lead to prejudice. We see it in our world today with social and political issues. For example, the incident at Virginia Tech made people a little more hesitant about going to Virginia Tech and also there was some prejudice going on with Asian people as being “bad”. This also can go hand in hand with 9/11/2001. After that, our country was prejudice against any people that were of Middle Eastern ethnicity. We fear and therefore we become ignorant and it leads to us being prejudice, whether we realize it or its subconscious thought. Many times, we fear what we don’t know. We made harsh judgments on a group of people that we may no nothing about. We only hear one side or part of a story and already have passed judgments. With Virginia Tech, people started telling stories of what they “heard” and most of it was probably untrue. This was out of fear because we were unable to foresee that this was going to happen. We also have the tendency as humans to fear the future, and the unknown. The things we can’t control we tend to fear and we create ignorance for ourselves and end up making prejudice comments. Stereotyping is prejudice as well as racism and any other type of blanket statement about groups of people. Who are we to judge and make comments that are considered prejudice? What gives us that right? Nothing and no one. We judge judge judge to try to make it seem like we are better then everyone else and we know more when really we are just conforming to the ways of our society. Ignorance, prejudice and fear, no doubt are all linked because they both go hand in hand with one another. As we can see in our world today as well as the past, there will always be the never ending cycle that ends up leading to prejudice.
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Ignorance, or the lack of knowledge, prejudice, or premature judgment, fear, or being afraid of the unknown. These concepts contribute and control society by intertwining themselves into the lives of everyday people. Unfortunately each of these concepts thrive on the other making it nearly impossible to experience one without the other. Most often a domino effect is created. Humans are afraid of what they are not accustomed to, their ignorance forces them to make judgments before they are fully aware of the situation. Racism or sexism are both excellent examples. Racism and sexism began long ago, before people realized how childishly incorrect their previous assumptions were. Though decades have passed and advances have been made there are still circumstances where ignorance prevails and people who are no different that anyone else are subject to harsh cruelty because of their gender or color of their skin. Perhaps without fear, there would be no ignorance. Perhaps without ignorance there would be no prejudice. Perhaps in a perfect world this would be reality. Although fear, ignorance and prejudice are indeed the principles that control society I believe that the lack of cooperation in the world contributes as much if not more to the problems facing our society today. If humans do fear others, instead of making the attempts to learn and accept it is easier for them to judge and continue to live in the dark.
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Ignorance, predjudice and fear are abundant in all aspects of society. They appear in social and political circumstances every day. These three things are all connected to eachother as well and when one is present usually the other two follow. For example ignorance leads to predjudice and fear because when people do not know or feel the same they begin to fear and criticize. These three things can be seen in all levels of modern society whether it be local, national or even international. The clearest example today is occuring right before our eyes with the presidential election. Predjudice and ignorance are causing people to fear that either a black president or a woman vice president will take office, when these people could be more qualified then anyone else in the country. That is why these three aspects of society will always appear and follow one another.
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Ignorance is to fear as fear is to prejudice. Ignorance means not knowing. Fear is an emotion which can occur in times of ignorance. Prejudice is an unreasonable opinion based on the fear one feels due to ignorance. These meanings all have one thing in common, the lack of knowledge or familiarity with the subject matter. These three terms link together in our world today both politically and socially.
From the political point of view, what is happening in our country at this time with the election pending is a great example. Some people fear the ideas of a woman running the country. Therefore, they would vote for Obama before they would vote for Clinton as the Democratic candidate. I feel that McCain intentionally chose a woman as his running mate to even out the fact that his opponent is African American. I think that many may cast their vote based on fear due to ignorance rather than on facts. If this happens then our country will not be run by the best choice for president, but by the person the general population fears the least.
From a social aspect an example might be that some people think those who are shy and quiet can be considered to be stuck up. In actuality, once they get to know them, they can find things in common with that person. Again, it is people who are ignorant.
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There is no law or guide that states that ignorance, prejudice and fear must be linked. Certainly, they can easily be associated with one another. If you look into the past, an ignorance of the masses made it quite difficult for the few who were not ignorant to convince others. People would just shrug it all off, and judge it to be false before they truly knew, the very definition of prejudice. Most likely, other people were afraid to learn the truth because it meant that they were smaller and less significant than they thought. The time I’m talking about is when Aristotelian thought about the heavens was being challenged by people such as Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. It was the end of the dark ages, a time in which, because of a fear and prejudice about knowledge by the upper classes, we were set back hundreds of years technologically than what we could have been at today. Thus, ignorance took hold and was embraced. These three ideas are as much a part of humanity as joy and companionship. They will be around forever in one way or another and have been around for as long as there has been consciousness. The links will at times be apparent, hard to find, or at other times, won’t exist. This is just how things work and how things will always work.
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I believe that ignorance, prejudice, and fear are all intertwined. They all stem from the same problem of not understanding something. If one does not understand something, they fear it. If they do not understand they are also either ignorant of it or prejudice against it because they don’t know anything about it so they are left with assumptions. This intertwines with our presidential election coming up. A lot of people are prejudice against either Barrack Obama or Sarah Palin because they are inexperienced and they are a black man and a woman. The public does not know what would happen yet because this is a new experience that has never happened before, and they do not know enough about it. The way to overcome all of this prejudice and fear is to take a chance and learn firsthand what happens once it is understood, it will not be feared, people will not be ignorant, and no one will have a prejudice.
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Ignorance;lacking education or knowledge, prejudice;an instance of such judgment or opinion and fear;concern or anxiety. When defining those three words, will people understand what they exactly mean, I don’t think so. Many people who think they know it all are the ones that are ignorant. Being ignorant means talking and bragging about something you think you know but actually you are fooling yourself. Prejudice runs all over the world, you can judge someone by the moment you see them. Fear is beginining to get scared of your mistakes or ignorance.
I agree with everyone else that all these three words are intertwined and personally I think that all these three words are like a stage in todays society, you can start out however, being ignorant, prejudice or fearing. These words affect our world both socially and politically, I don’t think that this situation will ever get erased in ourlives no matter how much little children are being taught not to do those things, it will always be in the world. These words will never and shall never bring people as one. Therefore these three aspects of life will present people in a childish manner, lacking the right amount of knowledge.
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I strongly beliveve that ignoarcnce is the key to fear and prejudice. Those that don’t understand a culture or a person make uneducated assupmtions. This ignorance then leads to fear because when one doesn’t know what something is one starts to panice. its a fear that something is better the you, that something will hurt you. Anything unfamiliar imediatly creates a fear inside a person. Once a fear is created a person forms a prejudice against the unknown. For example as a girl, I have noticed that a boy never wants a girl on their team. Because of many guy’s assumption that girls are unathletic or just not as good as boys they create a prejudice. Also because many guys are afraid to be beaten by a woman in anything. Whether it be sports or politics they create their own opinions. Sure there are plenty of women that aren’t athletic but there are also many men who aren’t as well. The only way to eliminate such prejudices like this one is to eliminate ignorance by educating people. Sure once you understand something you are titled to your own opinion, but before that one should not create an unjust judgment on something or someone different.
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Ignorance, fear, and prejudice can be viewed as a cycle. Picture two groups: they can be societies, parties, groups, tribes, even people. Ignorance is the beginning; when these two parties, come together and do not communicate correctly, ignorance is born. This may be ignorance of customs, culture, feelings, or gestures. As these two parties develop around one another (as all interaction yields), this ignorance grows like a cancer. Prejudice is the concrete result of this, as the beliefs are imbued into the progeny of these theoretical parties. This prejudice goes so far as to shape these parties, making scapegoats out of one another when tensions arise. When such an incident occurs, the scars of the ensuing menace (or, regrettably more often, violence) leaves the cold mark of fear ingrained upon both the parties. This fear inflicts a wound of blindness, in which new ignorance is free to fester. There is evidence of this everywhere: households, gangs, states, nations, continents, eventually planets (assuming we last that long) all succumb to prejudice. In this lies humanity’s greatest strength and weakness–we are free to choose differently than our neighbors. That breeds hatred, our vice, and diversity, our virtue.
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Ignorance, fear, and prejudice are all weaknesses that everyone has to deal with. Ignorance stems from the lack of knowledge, and since no one can know all about everything, everyone is ignorant. From this ignorance, comes the fear of what we don’t know. No one is comfortable around what the do not know. Finally, prejudice is a result of people not being able to deal with that fear. We make assumptions and create our own reality so we can feel as if we know about the unknown. Its a vicious circle.
The entire process can be seen in stories such as Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” “The Crucible is the story of the witch trials that occurred in Salem in the 1700s. The people of Salem were confused by what had happened to the reverend’s daughter, who had dropped unconscious when found dancing in the woods. People became scared and began to place the blame on witchcraft. First, one person was accused of bewitching the reverend’s daughter, then every little thing that someone did that was different was explained in no other way than with witchcraft.
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I believe that fear, ignorance, and prejudice are intertwined because they all seam to have similar outcomes. Ignorance, leads to prejudice thoughts, and eventually those prejudice thoughts become fear for those who are being separated from the rest of society. These three things contribute to social and political circumstances because those who are ignorant persuade others to be prejudice about people around them. This instills fear, pain, and loneliness in someone’s life. There are many ignorant people in our world. I believe that those who do not give others the right to make their own decisions are ignorant, and that makes them prejudice to those who think differently then they do. They may know both sides and an argument, and display themselves well, but I not think that they show much respect for themselves by saying that someone does not have the right to choose what they want to do with their life. With this reoccurring topic, happening now more then ever through the upcoming election more and more people are fearful for their own happiness. If a women is raped and has to follow through with having the child, or if a man wants to marry another man their chances are slowly slipping away slim to none. The fear that, which could possibly be happening in our country, is something that everyone should definitely fear.
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Fear, prejudice, ignorance, and how they are intertwined can be found almost anywhere. A fear of something that is unknown could later lead to prejudices or ignorance of that subject.
In social settings, people who are different from others may be picked on because of those differences that separate them from the “normal”. This ignorance toward another person is because they do not know about the differences, possibly because of a fear of change.
The fear of not knowing creates prejudices against the individual and if others join in, other people will spread the ignorance of the original person who did not take time to figure out what was going on with the person who had the difference. Once the vicious circle of fear starts, it takes a long time to get over. It is spread until someone realizes it’s really not that bad to have that difference. Other examples of this would be Nazi Germany. One persons prejudice of a certain type of people instilled fear in others causing ignorance towards the Jewish people. Finally people began to fight back against this insane way of thinking and ended the circle of fear, prejudice, and ignorance.
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