Tuesday 25 January 2011

Blog prompt: Perpertrators and victims of prejudice

Have you ever been in the company of a group of which you clearly were not included? Describe the circumstances. How did you act? How did the situation / event affect you?

Yes, I have been in a group which I was clearly not included. When I was in P5, I had an art project that we were supposed to do, and the groups were assigned to us. I remember that time that I was in a group of people that I was not very familiar with, as they were from the GEP class of P5K and L.

At that time, we were supposed to make a decision on what we were going to make, what types of design our final product should be. The decision was made and agreed by everyone. However, only one person could work on the project at any one time, as such, I was the fourth in line. After buying the materials I needed to use for the project, I waited for my turn to do it. To my horror, I discovered only on the day they passed the work to me that the made an anonymous decision to change the design of the product, and hence wanted me to do a different part of it.

I was shocked as I was not informed of anything until then. They never told me anything about this. The materials I bought earlier were of no use. What I did was a waste of time and money. I was frustrated, but I could do nothing, the work has already progressed thus far, I could not abort it and say that I wanted it my way. There was nothing to do but do as I was told.

After that incident, I learnt that leaders as well as all members of the group, must be responsible and respectful. What they showed in this project was nothing but disrespect for me. They did not even bother to ask for my opinion, they just thrust the work at me. As humans, we deserve the same amount of respect. We all should be treated equally. That would be Utopia. However as we know it, this world is everything but fair, and I am sure that this was just a trivial matter in this unfair world.

2 comments:

  1. According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the word prejudice means: (1): a preconceived judgment or opinion or (2): an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge. Instead of saying that you were a victim of prejudice, why not say that they were irresponsible and disrespectful, like what you mentioned in the last paragraph?

    If I am not wrong, there is no mention of the assumptions or "preconceived judgement" of you by the other group members. Instead, they could have left you out due to some other reasons like for the sake of convenience or that they did not treat you like a fellow group member. Did you clarify why they had not informed you of the sudden change in plans?

    Prejudice goes further than leaving somebody out of things. It involves other aspects too, like physical and verbal abuse or taking rights away from someone, which are ways of showing discrimination.

    I am not saying that they were not wrong but rather, the example of prejudice you had given is not quite specific and adequate.

    Hope you will understand what I mean. :)

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  2. Well, I know that this example would not be too specific as to the definition of prejudice, but you nust also understand that these people from the GEP class were quite unwilling to befriend anybody other than GEP people as they prejudged them to be "less smart", therefore they treated me with "disrespect" as you said.

    Yeah well, this is why I think it would be considered as prejudiced, but thanks anyway for your comment. :D

    Nicholas 2i122

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