Mass Shootings Based On Radical Thinking - 1919 Words

The United States and much of the western world likes to pride themselves on being forward thinking, as well as being an open minded and an understanding place to live. However a quick look at the news and the media will show otherwise. Today in the US we have a popular presidential candidate who is very open about his blunt racism and willingness to openly discriminate against certain races. Every other day there seems to be a mention of police shooting linked to race, racial tension in universities and mass shootings based on radical thinking. If you were to take a snapshot of the American media today, you would receive a mixture of stereotypes and bias from television, and the anger and outrage on social media outlets. In this society,†¦show more content†¦The United States is viewed as the melting pot of the world, it s where multiple cultures collide. This provides people with the chance to encounter diversity that they would otherwise not get to experience, although no t everyone is welcoming of these encounters. There are those who use these encounters to fuel their own unjustified hatred and rage based on nothing more than preconceived prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination. According to Saul McLeod (2008) prejudice is defined as having an unjustified or an incorrect negative attitude and pre-judging someone negatively due to them belonging to a certain group. Discrimination is defined as the unfair treatment that usually entails negative or harmful behavior towards members of a particular group. While according to Sabrina Keene (2010) â€Å"stereotyping is the application of an individual’s own thoughts, beliefs, and expectations onto other individuals without first obtaining factual knowledge about the individual(s).† The problem with prejudice and stereotyping is that they are misconceptions that are easy to learn. And once we have that opinion in our head that we wholeheartedly believe it becomes a schema or heuristics, w hich then becomes a default response for us. Prejudice’s are also easy to pick us as children, our environment and the people around us definitely influence our way of thinking, although not all prejudice learned as a child are maintained. The reasons that it is difficult to combat because