Prejudice in The World Today

How can this be solved?  I believe that the root of the problem lies with men, who are unwilling to see women as equals, let alone superior. The way to counter that is to implement legislation, ensuring that a certain percentage of company staff is women. In addition, women could step up and obtain seats in government, so as to inspire others to follow suit and break through the “glass ceiling”.

Let us move on to prejudice against the aged.  Prejudice against the aged refers to the mentality that old people are less efficient, and are a burden to society. This is probably due to the fact that old people are seen to be less mobile, slower in thought, and require medical treatment. As a result, people often treat old people like second-class citizens, by employers and sadly, by their children.

The continual stereotyping of elderly folk as useless and inefficient affects their self-esteem, and makes them feel like they are a burden to society. Studies have shown that the performance and memory of elderly folk are affected when they consistently hear such. It is thus necessary to solve the problem of prejudice against the elderly.

How should this problem be tackled then? I believe that we should hold public education campaigns through the mass media to educate the public on why elderly people are valuable. Also, activities can be run to allow elderly people to interact with young people. Ultimately, through these activities, it is hoped that the mindset of people will be changed to accept old people as assets to our society. Only then can the prejudice be actually removed.

In conclusion, prejudice appears in many forms and exists in almost all societies. No matter how it manifests itself, it should not be allowed to fester as it leads to unequal treatment for some members of society. Efforts should be made to eradicate such negative attitudes as not doing so could lead to social disequilibrium e.g. racial riots, acts of terrorism. For a society to exist peacefully, its constituent groups must treat each other with fairness, as far as possible. Therefore let us do all it takes, to solve the problem of prejudice.