by Bob Trowbridge

Created on: February 15, 2009

Prejudice is a complex issue and not subject to easy answers. Still, some causes of prejudice are not hard to understand. Most prejudice comes from our family and the community in which we live. If we grow up with certain ideas about other races, religions, economic classes, or even other countries, we are likely to hold those prejudices until our own personal experiences or emotional maturation change them.

I don't believe that babies have prejudices. Prejudice doesn't enter into a child's life until they are old enough to understand their parents' attitudes toward others. At an early age, we assume that our parents' attitudes are correct. If they think poorly of a certain group or class of people, there must be good reasons. These attitudes are not held intellectually. They are emotional responses, though most people will try to support their prejudices with intellectual arguments.

The second big cause of prejudice is the larger society. Prejudice infiltrates our consciousness through the media and through the people around us. Stereotypes are presented as simple facts. The negative beliefs about certain groups or classes become self-evident.

One of the things that human beings are superbly capable of is separating out conflicting beliefs within themselves. We can compartmentalize our attitudes so successfully that we can hold absolutely opposing beliefs and never recognize it. Because of this, responding to prejudice with rational arguments is a waste of time. Prejudices are emotional, not rational. Nevertheless, they will always be rationalized.

What we know is that prejudice is ubiquitous. It seems to have existed from primitive times to the present. Families held prejudices against families, tribes against tribes, kingdoms against kingdoms, and nations against nations. Many have grown up with prejudices without having any personal contact with the object of their prejudice.

Abraham Lincoln was not opposed to slavery. His focus was on preserving the Union. He essentially said that if keeping slavery intact would save the Union, he would support slavery. He even entertained the idea of sending all of the slaves back to Africa.

What changed Lincoln's mind about "negroes" or "coloreds" was a personal relationship with one of the most famous abolitionists of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass. Douglass pushed Lincoln to allow blacks to fight on the side of the Union. This finally came to pass after the Emancipation Proclamation. Douglass also pushed for equality

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