Reflection Paper10

The most important thing I have learned is that instead of looking at the victims of the crimes we should be looking at the ones doing the acts. When we look at the victims of a certain crime we are looking at the type of people who are likely to be victimized by a certain crime and not those that are causing the problems. I understand that prejudices come from many different elements in a child’s life when growing up that contributes to the source. The main source I think that contributes the most in where prejudice comes from is in the child’s home environment. As we are growing up our parents teach us things like our culture and whatnot, we gain insights of how we will think in the future from our families I think. We do what we are told and we listen to just about everything our parents, grandparents, etc say and we pick up on things, especially prejudices, as we are starting to develop. When we see the world as we are growing older some choose to remain with what their parents have inputted into us while others tend to see the world and cultivate ideas and opinions through their own eyes. Also I think the groups of people we associate with beyond family members have a large impact on developing prejudices as well. If you desperately want to fit in with a certain group we adapt to their customs and how they feel about certain things. Whether you completely agree with them or not you still follow their lead and where you didn’t think of something a certain before your opinion changes naturally to match with the groups. Even the mass media, I think, has a large impact on prejudices and such. If we see our favorite idol, or whoever, doing something a certain way, says something, or expresses his or her own opinion about something naturally their followers will start to do the same. People with high celebrity status have the power to help change things such as prejudice but instead I think they are doing the opposite. To me, I think celebrities are just adding “fuel to the fire” and making matters worse especially for the young and upcoming youth instead of trying to make a huge difference.