correction of the second exam

OPINION ESSAY

PREJUDICE & DISCRIMINATION

Prejudice and discrimination are a part of our everyday life. Not only our society but also the individual is affected. There are many opinions to this topic. In the following I will discuss this by looking at society and the individual and also at the counter measures.

Some people are thinking that foreigner people are mostly criminals, drug dealer or take the locals job away. These are prejudices partly based on the fear of everything different and foreign. In my opinion prejudice will be also supported by the media. One example for this is the reporting of a crime – if a foreigner is committed a crime, this would be pointed out in the media. Prejudice influences not only the individual but the whole society by the fact that they avoid that people are not open for new impressions. Because of this we did not notice the human being itself but only the colour of the skin and the cultural background.
Thereby we missed the opportunity to get to know someone better or learn from this person.
It is also interesting that people with prejudice are in foreign countries during their holydays more open minded as at home. They accept the locals and their culture.

A big problem is also that prejudices and discrimination could easily lead to hatred and violence. This is a huge danger for the individual but also for the whole society. Innocent people could be hurt or even killed. Terrorism is the fiercest kind of violence caused by prejudice and discrimination. In the recent part we had hardly learned this by the terrorist action in New York at the 11th of September.

In our everyday life it is also easier to blame the foreigner people for missing jobs than to look at oneself.

So the question is how we could solve the problems with prejudice and discrimination.
From my point of view we have to got up to each other and we have to be more open minded for foreign cultures. One way to do this is to create cultural events as for example “Kulinarischer Frühling” at Hohenems. But also in the media are have to change something – the reporting must be more neutral and without blaming foreign people.
However the foreign people have to do something against the prejudice and discrimination. They need the will to become integrated into the local culture. For me the most important measure that the foreign people learn germen in order to communicate with the locals.

Finally we could only prevent prejudice and discrimination by being ready to compromise and create areas to get to know each other.