PREJUDICE AND HATRED

Every person in the world has, at one time or another, witnessed prejudice and hatred. A lot of people have been victims of these, and many people have been the ones who perform those hateful acts. But whether or not you are witnessing them or being a victim of them, everyone deals with them in different ways. I think the two biggest examples of prejudice and hatred were the Holocaust and the conflict between African Americans and whites. Both of these two things ended because of support and courage from different countries, people, and the victims themselves. But neither example had a true fairy tale ending. The actions that took place before peace was reached in these conflicts took a huge toll on every one of the victims. The sadness, tragedy, and remembrance of the acts of hatred and prejudice will live on with the victims forever. Most people think that it all could have been prevented, and I agree with that. But unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world, and there will always be people who get an idea in their heads that they are better or need to treat people badly if they don't agree with or like something about a certain person. I think that a major amount of prejudice and hatred takes place in schools. I think this is because of all the peer pressure that kids face everyday all year long. I agree that it is very hard to say "no" to your friends, especially when you want people to like or accept you, but it's not impossible. Most of the time when I see kids making fun of other kids, I think the easiest thing to do is to not say anything at all. But that's not necessarily the best thing to do. I think that the best thing to do is also the hardest. Sometimes, you just have to speak up. Most likely kids will quit making fun of someone when their peers let them know that what they're doing isn't funny. I don't think it's right when kids make themselves look good by making someone else look bad.

Although it seems like we will never get through to all of the people who make prejudice and hatred part of their lifestyle, I don't believe that it is a lost cause. Everyday more and more people are speaking out and standing up for what they believe. I think that slowly but steadily the number of people whose lives are based on prejudice and hatred is getting smaller and smaller