Prejudice is an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought or reason. Prejudice may arise from many sources, including the views of family or peers, or it may come from strong identification with a particular group. From any source, prejudice is a problem that faces the American society today.

As I enter the second semester of my college career I am able to better visualize the problem of racial and ethnic discrimination as well as prejudice. Living in such a diverse atmosphere as a college dormitory, helps make this topic more personal and easier for me to grasp. I live in an environment where people from different social categories have come together. Living with and around people of all races and ethnic backgrounds illustrates that people hold rigid opinions of members of a different social category. Prejudice is personally relevant to me because I am surrounded by people who often make social prejudgments about others before they even get to know them.

I am examining the extent of prejudice through a survey of eleven questions designed to enable me to come to a general consensus about prejudice in today'

s society. By surveying twelve people of different gender, age range, and race, I wanted to find out society's universal perspective of prejudice, and its effects on society.

These ethnic groups are known as majority groups. A minority group is one in which a status is inferior to that of the majority group. Majority groups, holding more power than minority groups, establish a system of inequality. This system is then maintained and perpetuated through social forces.

I found that Caucasian women were the least likely to have been discriminated against. I also found that nine people indicated that they weren't prejudice in direct prejudice questions but five of them indicated that they were prejudice or stereotypical in non-direct or subtle prejudice questions. No trends in answers seemed to follow age groups.

After all of the surveys were completed, I took my time to carefully read and analyze each questionnaire thoroughly. My analysis relates, directly in some ways and indirectly in others, to the prior research done. A majority of the people surveyed said that prejudice is a large problem that needs an abundant amount of attention to change. My research also concluded that prejudice is a large problem with complex traits. The majority of the group also said that they have been discriminated against before which further proves that racial and ethnic inequality as well as prejudice still exists in today's society.

Racial and ethnic inequality and prejudice are slowly becoming less of an issue. Schools are now integrated with students of many races and ethnic backgrounds making children more integrated with each other at an early age. Many laws have been passed to maintain equality between races and ethnic backgrounds. If in the future we remain living in integrated societies than an inferior stereotype or prejudice will slowly fade away with generations.

In researching racial and ethnic inequality and prejudice, I was unable to find closely related previous studies or articles pertaining to my topic.

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Approximate Word count = 1502
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)