First Exam Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

First Exam - Essay Example In addition, peoples understanding of minority groups is often based on the experience of minority males, and the experience of minority females are much less known and recorded(21). Though both minorities have been hushed, those of female minorities are the worst affected as they have been totally silenced. Prejudice involves an individual thinking negatively of other groups in negative ways, attaches negative emotions, and prejudges individuals based on their group memberships. Every form of prejudice, even the most ancient, started at some point in history. A common factor that is critical in the origin of prejudice is a contest between groups (23). Prejudice originates in the center of that competition and is used to justify and rationalize the advantaged class of the winning set. History gives examples of one group dominating and takes resources from, or eliminates a threat from some other group that becomes a minority group. Prejudice helps mobilize emotional energy for the contest; justify rejection and attack as well as rationalizes the structures of domination such as slavery or segregation. Groups react to the competition and all threats presented by other groups. The link between prejudice and competition has been exhibited in differing settings and circumstances that range f rom labor strikes to the international war. In 1950s, an experiment was conducted to illustrate group competition and prejudice. It was conducted on 11 and 12 years old boys at a summer camp called Robber’s cave. The boys were split into two factions classified as the Rattlers and the eagles and lived in separate cabins. They were frequently pitted beside each other in various activities based on a competitive basis. The boys from each group developed and expressed damaging feelings towards the other group. The strength of this is that it helps to mobilize feelings and justify

Gun control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Gun control - Essay Example This paper will argue that there is a need for national laws regulating the sale of fire arms in gun shows, flea markets, and conventions. The controversy between gun control and gun rights advocates starts with the gun casualty statistics in America. Gun control proponents cite spiraling casualties as the reason for government intervention, while gun rights proponents downplay the carnage. For instance, since the 1990s, statistics compiled that each day in the United States, a person dies by gunshot every eighteen minutes, totaling nearly 30,000 deaths per year: about half of these are suicides, another 11,000 are murders, and about 1,500 are gunshot accidents. (Crooker, p. 1) The Violence Policy Center has reported the following figures on firearms deaths and injuries: Firearms are the second leading cause of traumatic death to a consumer product in the United States and are the second most frequent cause of death overall for Americans ages 15 to 24. Since 1960, more than a million Americans have died in firearm suicide, homiides and unintentional injuries. (cited in Crooker, p. 2) Critics of gun control argue that a rather large empirical literature has failed to establish a consistent, statistically significant link between gun ownership and crime. According to William Shughart, it was even reported that there is a negative relationship (i.e., that gun ownership deters crime), (p. 157) The consensus finding – no statistically significant link – seems consistent with ordinary common sense: Criminals can use guns to prey on law-abiding citizens, but if guns were legal. Law-abiding citizens can also use guns to defend themselves from the criminal elements. It is possible, Harry Wilson (2006) wrote, that all citizens benefit from those who own guns if criminals are deterred because they think a potential victim might be armed. (p. 74) Indeed, there is probably no stopping the individual who is intent upon killing another