Why is Prejudice OK but racism is not?

Question

I am by NO means advocating racism, but it seems to many uneducated people don't realize Racism is a form of prejudices. Now racism is not tolerated in todays society but other forums of prejudices is, such as hight, and weight, age, and social standing, why is one not ok and others are?

Answer 1

Prejudice seems to represent an attitude, while racism denotes action (exclusionary behaviour).  We cannot control people's attitude, since prejudice is a form of in-group bias, and everyone demonstrates this to a certain extent (we like members of our own group rather than another, regardless of the arbitrariness of the groupings).  

Moreover, racism is such a hot button topic, and is steeped in historical atrocities and injustices.  It is the pendulum swinging the other way to correct this.

Answer 2

Have you recollection of these phrases?  The finest wines are from the vineyards of France. Debeers diamonds for the discriminating collector of the finest gemstones. Sir, I have no intention of prejudice in asking this question, but...and then, anarchy and racisim are unacceptable in a civilized world, we must hold dear the best and highest traditions of.......

Educated people are at times mis-educated in their choice of words, but have no ill intent to impose a duty or black tax on anyone. As you see, the context in how the words are used make for acceptable language that distinguishes an object or an ideal from better to best.  

I would have to politely disagree with you, racism is tolerated and alive and well.  Racism has the profile of stress. Stress is a silent killer, it goes un-noticed and un-assumed, steadily working it's deadly constriction around the heart and brain. Racism is so often the evil twin of stress.

I will say that everyone should have a healthy dose of prejudice for purpose of standards, a baseline for expectations and results. On the other hand prejudice should not be used to inflict judgement and a human being's worth for the purpose of eliminating him/her from achieving a hard earned goal.

Answer 3

Prejudice is just a general word

Racism and a racist are specific types / labels.

So in other words, you can't outlaw being prejudice.  You can be prejudice and not be offensive or rude.  

Also don't knock on uneducated people, then follow it up with those language skills.  

Answer 4

Racism is disliking a person based on Race. Not Good right.

Prejudice simply means you want to associate with people who are more like you. Has nothing to do with race, color, creed, etc...

For example I am prejudiced against cowboys fans 'cause I dont like the cowboys.

I am prejudiced for the Army because I served 9 years.

Prejudice is one of those neutral words that only have an impact when put into different contexts.

Answer 5

To have Racism the majority of people of that race must be Racisist! That is where the Race part of Racism comes in. Prejudices, everyone has them they are also callled choices. You like red more that you like blue, you like race cars over suv's. If you think about, they are totally different things.

Answer 6

Barring people who are equally qualified for something due to their characteristics is never right, whether it be height, race, gender, weight, etc.  

However, there is a difference between prejudice and discrimination.  If there is a role in which persons with certain characteristics may perform better than others, and there is something at stake to the outcome, then it is actually a good thing to discriminate.  

For instance: if you have a person who runs slow and a person who runs fast, and you must select one of the two to represent you in a race, it is good to select the one who is fast.  Or you might choose a friend you know who is better at math to help you with your calculations, versus your friend who seems better at English.  The same can sometimes happen with weight, gender, appearance, etc: sometimes people use the law of averages to make decisions for best fit, when more information cannot or should not be acquired in the situation.  

In these instances, sometimes qualified candidates are overlooked, which is a bad thing, but sometimes cannot or should not be helped.  For instance: if seeking a qualified candidate for an engineering position, you overlook persons without an engineering degree.  Perhaps, amongst those non-degree applicants, there is a qualified person, or even a more qualified person, for the job; however, spending resources seeking out that person - who may or may not exist - could actually be more expensive than not filling the position at all, or could reduce the gains made by selecting a person out of the field of obviously qualified applicants.

Answer 7

While both words have negative connotations, racism is the worse of the two, and with few exceptions can never be tolerated.

Prejudice is completely natural and life couldn't be lived functionally without it: You should pre-judge certain people and certain situations. But in fair and functional and productive and utilitarian ways.