Incidents of prejudice and discrimination occur every day. Prejudice is pre-judging; it is an attitude or opinion about a person or group simply because the person belongs to a specific religion, race, nationality, or other group. Discrimination is defined as the unequal treatment of others. When people act out their prejudices or stereotypes, they are discriminating. Discrimination means putting other people down and not allowing them to participate in activities, confining them to live in certain neighborhoods, and denying them something they are entitled to by right and law. Discrimination is expressed in overt behavior, while prejudice is expressed in attitude, as well as action.
Some people are called hurtful names and are excluded from participating in events; others are unfairly excluded from jobs, neighborhoods, bank loans, educational opportunities, social events and clubs. For example, a person who thinks, "I don't want (name of group) living in my neighborhood," is expressing a prejudice. The victims are attacked and beaten; their homes, places of worship, or cemeteries are vandalized; and a number of people are unfairly paid less than others for doing equal work. These instances of discrimination are far from rare. .
Some people make judgments about a whole group of people without knowing very much about them. Sometimes people are afraid of those who seem different from them and, unfortunately, they express their ignorance by name-calling and negative .
treatment. When people grow up with these ideas, sometimes it's hard to get rid of them. .
In the beginning of "Working for the Dream," Maya Angelou proves to be prejudiced toward white people. Angelou usually spent her two hour break between jobs at the Melrose Record Shop, partly owned by Louise Cox, a white woman. One day, Cox approaches Angelou with a job offer to work in her music store since she spent a lot of time there and listened to most of the records.