{"id":2621,"date":"2016-08-24T00:05:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T00:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.uncc.edu\/aaron-toscano\/?page_id=2621"},"modified":"2017-08-20T22:19:15","modified_gmt":"2017-08-20T22:19:15","slug":"prejudice","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/engl4182-5182fall2017\/engl4182-5182august28\/prejudice\/","title":{"rendered":"Prejudice and Rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"

Constructed Meaning<\/h2>\n

Don’t feel bad when I tell you that you are all prejudiced because I don’t mean you’re evil (at least, not all of you…). We all have preconceived feelings related to events, persons, and concepts, and we don’t necessarily have control over those judgments. Prejudice <\/a><\/strong>does denote negative feelings as the Oxford English Dictionary<\/em><\/a><\/strong> defines the word, so maybe prejudgment<\/a><\/strong> is more accurate because our conversation focuses on preconceived ideas or assumptions related to professional experience that do not necessarily imply rash, negative feelings. Normally, as the OED defines it, “prejudice” is used for prejudgments based on race, class, ethnicity, etc.<\/p>\n

However, before we address professional contexts, let’s discuss some more familiar situations. Below are statements that, because of one’s perception, you probably have made assumptions about the speakers based on what they say and who you think they are. There are no right or wrong answers, but let’s consider our assumptions just on the statements. Obviously, this isn’t objective, and there’s definitely room for ambiguity, but I think we might have some consensus.<\/p>\n

Statements with Audience<\/span>: Break into discussion by rows…<\/p>\n

Row 1<\/p>\n