Problem:
Many days in my life, while growing up as a young man, I was living in an environment where joking or making prejudiced statements to people was a normal thing. This issue of making crude jokes or prejudiced statements was so common among young people that it became a way of life. As I grew up and understood the social and psychological implications of prejudice, I started to distance myself from such acts. Prejudice, according to the American Psychological Association, is " an assumption or opinion about someone simply based on their association in a particular group or their physical appearance. " For me, the most recent prejudice or comment made against me was at a workplace. It happened 4 years ago when I was working in a group home. At that workplace, a colleague of mine from another culture and a different ethnicity made a statement that was very condescending because of my accent in a staff meeting, and no one was able to say anything about it. This statement was very offensive, and I nearly quit the job. As a person who has lived through such a condition before, I was able to control my emotions and keep my focus on the job until I was able to get another job and leave the agency. As a student of psychology who understands the social and psychological implications of making a prejudiced statement, my decision to stay mute was affected by my performance because I always had it at the back of my mind that I was not getting the level of respect I deserved because of my ethnicity and my accent. Many people in our society are prejudiced against people of a different race or ethnicity by using the scapegoat theory. This theory is a social psychological theory that explains how people channel their frustration and aggression at a problem they are facing onto a weaker vessel or group in society. With such a theory, it is abundantly clear that many people in our society who are very insecure use people of minority status as a source of their insecurity.
Respond to at least two colleagues' posts and use social psychology theory to explain what would lead someone to confront the person who made the offensive comment or joke, when doing so may likely make them the target of the joke teller's retaliation.
Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the social psychology theory and research. In addition to the Learning Resources, search the Walden Library and/or Internet for peer-reviewed articles to support your post and responses. Use proper APA format and citations, including those in the Learning Resources. Need Assignment Help?