Ethnocentrism, Stereotyping, and Prejudice Essay

Ive spent most of the week searching and reading internet blogs, journals and electronic articles thumbed through various dictionaries available at the library scrutinized various metropolitan newspapers, to try to have a better understanding about ethnocentrism (1), stereotyping (2) and outrage (3), and their meanings. I admit to this day, I walk away still conf personad. Why? After reading the definitions of severally of these words, Ive come to realize that their individual meanings be so near to that of racism (4) , profiling (5), or distinction (6) it is difficult to tell them apart.I decided to go back to a book that I read several months ago written by Dr. Mike S. Adams, Criminal Justice Professor at the University of North Carolina (Adams) . I have been perplexed by the difficulty that many academics have with the proper use of such simple terms as racism, parti pris, discrimination, and stereotyping. They atomic number 18 always getting them confused, while the term s are really quite simple. Dr. Adams says one needs to understand, variantiate between the three terms describing it as diffuse as learning your ABCs A stands for attitude, B stands for behaviour, and C stands for cognition. Prejudice deals with negate attitudes discrimination deals with negate behaviors. Though I must admit that after re-reading Dr. Adams book, I walk away with the aesthesis that these three words, ultimately still have same meaning discrimination. However, Dr. Adams logic regarding the ABC method does pose some sense. Using his analogy, I considered recent events which took place in our t make involving several police officers and an unconscious criminal suspect (Sims) .Though a jury determined that the officers were not guilty, it was evident from the various burgeon forth footages shown, the suspect was thrown, from his vehicle and was unconscious when the five officers arrived on the scene and proceeded to beat him. Despite the suspects colour or statu s, I, along with many other viewers of different races, sects, etc. , felt that the officers violate the suspects civil rights. In my eyes, this was a blatant case of stereotyping, prejudice, and racism.I even try to apply the ABC rule A being that the officers in pursuit of the suspect witnessed one of their own being nearly hit during the chase. They (police) immediately demonstrated their white and authoritative powers. The officers had the attitude, that all black suspects are possibly armed and dangerous. Weve a long way to go to remove labels and retrain peoples way of thinking regarding the accepting of others without consideration to their ethnic, cultural or social status. Works Cited Adams, Mike S. Dr. delicious To The Ivory Tower of Babel Confessions of a Conservative Professor.2004. 16 February 2011 . Sims, Bob. Birmingham News Blog. 20 May 2009. 17 February 2011 . Encarta dictionary (1) Ethnocentrism a belief in or assumption of the superiority of the social or cul tural stem that a person belongs to. (2) Stereotyping to categorize individuals or groups according to an oversimplified standardized image or idea.(3) Prejudice an uncivilised hatred, fear, or mistrust of a person or group, especially one of a particular religion, ethnicity, nationality, inner preference, or social status. (4) Profiling classification of persons based on personal information such as ethnicity, political view or behavioral patterns. (5) Racism the belief that people of different races have different qualities and abilities, and that some races are inherently superior or inferior. (6) Discrimination treating people differently through prejudice unfair treatment of one person or group, usually because of prejudice about race, gender, age, religion or ethnicity.