Question

Compare and contrast prejudice and discrimination, offering one to two similarities (comparisons) and one to two differences (contrasts). Robert Merton's diagram about prejudice and discrimination contains four cells: active bigot, timid bigot, fair-weather liberal, all-weather liberal. For each cell, define and give an example of a person who fits the category. In your view, which type is the most dangerous for society, and why?

Answer 1

Prejudice an attitude that is incorrect and unjustified towards a person which is based on the person membership towards a certain group. On the other hand, discrimination is an action or behavior towards a person or a group based solely on their race/sex/culture/etc.

Both prejudice and discrimination is a negative opinion of a certain group of people. In addition, the difference between prejudice and discrimination is that prejudice is a negative attitude towards a person and discrimination is unfair behavior towards certain people or groups. Prejudice is mostly non-conscious; however, discrimination is both conscious and non-conscious.

Robert Merton’s Patterns of Prejudice and Discrimination are as follows:

1. Active Bigot: Prejudiced and openly discriminates against others. For example; Some people believe that brown people cannot talk English and laugh at their accents
2. Timid Bigot: Prejudiced but is afraid to discriminate because of societal pressure. For example, Some Hindu leaders are prejudiced about Muslims but will not act in public.
3. Fair weather: Not prejudiced but discriminates anyway because of societal pressure. For example, Higher class people discriminate people from lower class
4. All-weather: Not prejudiced and does not discriminate. Example, Groups that allow all cultures to participate and get to know each other

The active bigot is the most dangerous to the society because they involve in both prejudice and discrimination. They are the ones who have stereotypes about a certain group of people and thinks that everybody in the group acts or behave the same way which is not always the case. This type of people can be harmful to the society.