Key Terms
Prejudice - pre-judging, an attitude of mind, judging someone before we have enough evidence.
Discrimination - action, treating someone unfairly because of a prejudice – mostly negative.
Stereotyping - forming crude mental images of a group of people, e.g. all Jews have hooked noses.
Scapegoating - a word that comes from the bible - see Leviticus 16:7-22 – describing how groups in society (e.g. black people) are always blamed for society’s problems like unemployment and crime.
Equality - This means everyone having the same chances to do what they can. Some people may need extra help to get the same chances.
Examples of discrimination include:
- •many women are paid less than men for the same kind of work.
- clever children from poorer families do less well at school.
- disabled people are a lot more likely to have no job.
- people of different races find it harder to get a job.
- many lesbian and gay people are worried about asking the police for help in case they are treated unfairly.
- many people who have changed their sex do not use public services like swimming pools because they think they will not be treated well.
