Prejudice is a preconceived opinion about a person, a fact or a situation. It originates in a value judgment that is determined without reflection or knowledge of the subject and, for that reason, it has no foundation.
This opinion about something or someone is almost always based on a negative stereotype.
There are different types of prejudice, such as:
- the racial;
- the social;
- gender (misogyny);
- the religious;
- the cultural;
- the linguistic and,
- regarding sexual orientation.
All have deep historical roots for their development, which reflect negatively on society and on the lives of individuals up to the present day.
Prejudice can cause psychological and even physical harm to its victims. Therefore, currently there are movements and laws against different types of intolerance.
1. Racial prejudice
Racial prejudice is the idea that people of a certain race or ethnicity are superior to others.
This type of prejudice is mainly configured the racism. One of the most common forms of manifestation of this prejudice is in relation to black people, who are historically marginalized and stereotyped by whites.
In several countries, such as in Brazil itself, this type of prejudice is already considered a crime.
Here are some important moments in the fight against prejudice and racism and learn more about Racial prejudice and Xenophobia.
2. Social prejudice
Also called social class prejudice, it is related to the bad treatment or negative stereotype given to a person about their status Social.
It is a prejudice that usually appears due to differences in life and social privileges between rich and poor. However, it can also occur between people who belong to the same social class.
Social prejudice can be related to several aspects, such as:
- education level;
- social standard of living;
- wage income;
- quantity of goods;
- professional positions;
- access to culture;
- place of residence, among other aspects related to social position.
Like other prejudiced manifestations, social prejudice is usually motivated by a feeling of superiority of one person in relation to another.
This type of prejudice, like others, can manifest itself through intolerance and difficulty in living with individuals who do not have the same social status and financial privileges.
3. Religious prejudice (religious intolerance)
Prejudice towards different religions happens when there is a feeling of contempt, devaluation or a feeling of superiority of a person in relation to another who has a different religion, faith or set of beliefs.
Religious prejudice also manifests itself through attitudes of intolerance and attempts to invalidate other people's beliefs, religion and religious rituals. It is commonly known as religious intolerance.
This type of prejudice, depending on the intensity that happens, can generate violent demonstrations, persecution and wars.
Conflict situations occurred in ancient periods, such as the Middle Ages, and even more current events, such as the Holocaust of the Jews in Germany (1933 - 1945), are examples of prejudice. religious.
In several countries, including Brazil, religious intolerance is a crime.
4. sexual orientation prejudice
Prejudice regarding sexual orientation is judgment and intolerance towards people belonging to the LGBTQI+ community.
This group includes people:
- lesbians;
- gays;
- bisexuals;
- transsexuals (or transgenders) and transvestites;
- queers;
- intersexuals, among others.
Prejudice regarding sexual orientation, also called homophobia, is the feeling of disgust or aversion to homosexual people.
They can often be religiously or culturally motivated and result in acts of intolerance and violence against homosexuals.
Crimes motivated by sexual orientation prejudice are considered a violation (disrespect) of human rights.
To help combat this prejudice, the United Nations (UN) created the International Day against Homophobia, marked on May 17th.
Learn more about the meaning of Homophobia.
5. Gender prejudice (misogyny)
Gender prejudice, on the other hand, is the idea that a person, by belonging to a certain gender, has less values or capabilities than others.
This kind of prejudice is very common in relation to women, being specifically called misogyny.
Misogyny is the feeling of hatred or contempt towards women, based on the idea that women have inferior capabilities to men's abilities, whether at work or any other aspect of daily life.
Misogyny is responsible for a large part of femicide crimes, which is the criminal nomenclature given to homicides in which the victims are women.
Femicide is qualified in this way when there is evidence that the causes that motivated the crime are related to the status of women or other issues related to gender.
Read more about Misogyny and femicide.
6. linguistic prejudice
Linguistic prejudice is defined as prejudice between people who speak the same language, but with differences, that
Linguistic prejudice is defined as prejudice between people who speak the same language, but with differences that may exist for different reasons, such as different regions or local groups.
Linguistic prejudice can manifest itself as a disrespect for accent, the way the language is articulated, grammatical errors or the use of regional expressions.
Brazil, for example, due to its territorial extension, has numerous accents and ways of speaking, due to different regionalities.
However, can't say that the Portuguese spoken in one region is more correct than another. Only regional differences are considered.
It is important to know that all languages have variations among the people who speak them, whether due to region, social group, type of education or age.
These differences must be considered and understood and do not necessarily represent that there is a predominance of one linguistic format over another.
According to the linguist Marcos Bagno, who wrote the book Linguistic Prejudice: what it is, how it is done, this prejudice motivates the increase of social exclusion.
Read more about the Linguistic Prejudice.
7. cultural prejudice
Cultural prejudice occurs with the discrimination of a person's cultural origin, where one individual's culture is considered better than another.
The prejudice suffered by foreigners who reside in a country other than their place of birth (immigrants) is considered a type of cultural prejudice, called xenophobia.
In this case, cultural prejudice is based on discriminating against people or even countries that have a different culture, experience and customs.
Here are some important moments in the fight against prejudice and racism and learn more about Racial prejudice and Xenophobia.