Intolerance Within Society

History has been riddled with crimes caused by prejudice. The scale of these events ranges from decade long seizes, such as the Crusades, to more contained incidents, such as the murder of Matthew Shepard. Though such intolerance can be blamed on several different outlets, the main problem is a biased education that had been enforced from a young age. In order to greatly reduce the level of prejudices within society, the public must be introduced to an open-minded, bias free educational system.

Prejudices can manifest itself in a number of ways, ranging in severity. In Gordon Allport's The Nature of Prejudice, he states that there are five degrees of prejudices: antilocution, avoidance, discrimination, physical attack, and extermination (14). Most people rarely venture past the level of antilocution, which is simply the act of speaking harshly about a disfavored group to others that share a common opinion. However, once a prejudice is allowed to continue and manifest, it can progress into the more severe stages. There is hardly an excuse for prejudices, and why they arise is a highly complex subject. For example, simply blaming the Jewish genocide on Germans being uneducated or evil is completely fallacious. In fact, University students throughout Germany were a large part of the pre-World War II antisemitic problem. Many Universities, backed by their students, had adopted “Aryan paragraphs,” clauses that proposed the exclusion of Jews from many organizations, if not the University itself (Holdhagen 83). These students were obviously educated, though the disposition of their educators are in question. This shows how years of antisemitism can evolve into Gordon Allport's third stage of prejudice, discrimination. Several decades after these clauses were implemented, the final stage, extermination, was carried out.

Teachers play a vital role in reducing the level of prejudice within society. Besides parents, teachers are the most influential figures in a young person's life. Because of this, they cannot be allowed to enforce their prejudicial views upon their pupils, no matter how common the idea is. Teachers are often viewed as wiser, much more experienced beings whose opinions should be held in high esteem. Because of this, their students are highly vulnerable to such comments. A problem arose in early 20th Century Germany of this nature, where “Many schools had gone so far as to declare themselves openly and proudly to be antisemitic... many teachers continued to preach aspects of antisemitic litany, which included the foundational notion that a 'Jewish Problem' existed in Germany, with all of its implicit and explicit warnings of the danger that Jews posed to the well-being of Germans” (Goldhagen 82). This demonstrates what can occur when a prejudicial, though highly common, view is expressed within schools. German youths had antisemitic ideals implemented in through school at a very young age. Because of their teachers' actions, German students blindly followed the stereotypes. They were robbed of ever formulating their own opinions about individuals within the religion.

Social studies classes play a major roll in preventing and reducing the prejudices within society. If students are more aware to the events surrounding them and the circumstances that caused it, their opinions will be well defined and much more informed. After the September 11th attacks, many Muslim Americans felt very discriminated against. Many Americans knew very little about their religion and culture, and the thought that all Muslims were terrorists became a common misconception. In fact, the vast majority of American Muslims said they were concerned with the rising Islamic extremism in the world; 51 said they were very concerned, and 21 saying they were somewhat concerned. These statistics support the fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, nor do the majority of them support those that are. During the same survey, Muslim Americans were asked what the main obstacle facing them was. Discrimination and prejudice topped the list. 53 said that the September 11th attacks made it harder to be a Muslim American within the United States (Muslim Americans 41). Countless media stories have covered the attacks of Muslim Americans, Muslim American businesses, and even religious centers (such as Mosques). This example of prejudice generally extends from fear, and if society were more aware of the Muslim religion and culture, their prejudices would most likely be less severe.

It's not just racial or religious tolerance that needs to be implemented within schools, but also that dealing with mental matters. One of the most controversial subjects within American society today has to do with homosexuality. In politics, its importance ranks as high as the abortion debates. The question over whether gay marriage is appropriate is absolutely ludicrous, and shows how deeply prejudice are rooted within American society. In certain areas, the intolerance is nearly unbearable to live under, especially if one is homosexual. In Laramie, Wyoming, Matthew Shepard, a 22 year old college student, was brutally beaten and murdered. The state was hardly accepting towards homosexuality before the incident. By the year 2000 the state with less than 500,000 inhabitants still lacked a single gay bar, bookstore, or public gathering place. However, the murder sparked a debate that tore the country in two. While the Casper Star-Tribune did receive letters of support for Matthew, it also received many that produced rants, exclaiming, “We are sick and tired of the whoopla surrounding a homosexual's death,” and Wyoming “is not San Francisco” (Loffreda 64). These reactions highlight the intolerance homosexuals face each day.

Schools must do their part to combat prejudice against alternative sexual orientations. Health and English classes have a pivotal role, as both have subject matter that could be molded to incorporate tolerance towards sexual orientation. English classes could integrate books that deal with such subject matters into their curriculum, causing students to put themselves in positions they never had thought of before. Perhaps once they learn about the struggles homosexuals endure every day, they will become more sympathetic to the subject. Health classes could cover the myths about homosexuality, bisexuality, and the like. Much of the anti-gay population, for example, try to circulate a rumor claiming a gay male is more likely to molest or rape someone than a heterosexual male. This is entirely false. Another common myth is that those that identify themselves as bisexual are only doing so for attention, and are all highly promiscuous. This, again, is an exaggerated generalization. These seemingly outrageous claims do cause great harm and contribute greatly to the thought of alternative sexual orientations as being evil or wrong. If schools put a stronger effort into ridding their pupils of these myths, they could do a great deal of help.

Educational institutions have a great deal to do with the prejudices in the world. In many of the above cases, ignorance breeds prejudice. In order to reduce the amount of prejudices within the world, schools and educators cannot enforce their own prejudicial values upon its pupils, as it will likely do much more damage than good. Schools must strive for their students to become more aware, sympathetic human beings. There will likely always be some form of prejudice within the world, but with the help of educational institutions, it can be drastically reduced.

--

Works Cited

Allport, Gordon W. The Nature of Prejudice. United States of America: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company Inc., 1954.

Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans the the Holocaust. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1996.

Loffreda, Beth. Losing Matt Shepard. United States of America: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream. Richard Morin Ed. The Pew Research Center. May 22nd, 2007. The Pew Research Center. December 10th, 2007. /assets/pdf/muslim-americans.pdf