Prejudice and Discrimination
Understand the impact of prejudice and discrimination on individuals and communities: treating people unfairly because of their identity causes real harm, and recognise their own responsibility to stand against it
What a learner can do afterwards
- Define prejudice and discrimination in their own words with examples
- Describe the emotional and social impact of discrimination on the person experiencing it
- Identify at least one action they can personally take to challenge unfair treatment
1 · Read
You already know a stereotype is an unfair idea about a whole group of people. Prejudice is what happens when someone believes a stereotype and lets it shape how they feel about a person before they even get to know them. Discrimination is what happens when someone acts on that unfair feeling: leaving a person out, treating them worse, or refusing them something because of their race, religion, disability, or another part of who they are.
Amara wears a hijab. At recess, a group of kids won't let her play because they say she 'looks different.' That is discrimination: they are treating her unfairly because of her religion, not because of anything she did.
Being left out or treated unfairly hurts. A person who faces discrimination often feels embarrassed, lonely, or like they don't belong, even somewhere they should feel safe. Over time, this can make someone afraid to speak up or join in, and it can make a whole group feel unwelcome.
You already learned that an upstander speaks up instead of standing by. If you see someone excluded or teased unfairly, you can invite them to join in, tell a trusted adult, or simply say 'that's not fair' out loud.
Prejudice is an unfair feeling about someone, discrimination is acting on it, and you can choose to stand against both.
More to read
6.1 Understanding Different Forms of Racism
Prejudice is judging someone before knowing them. Usually the judgment targets how they look, where their family comes from, or how they speak. Discrimination is prejudice turned into action: leaving them out, mocking them, blocking their turn. It harms hearts first: shame, fear, loneliness. Then it harms chances: missed games, missed roles, missed friends. Nobody deserves that weight for being themselves. Spot it. Name it. Refuse to carry it forward.
What is the role of young people in changing the system?
Big problems need young fixers. Unfair rules do not change by themselves. They change when kids speak. See someone mocked for their lunch? Sit beside them. Hear a joke about skin? Say it is not funny. Tell a teacher. Write it down. One voice starts, more join. History moves when ordinary kids refuse ordinary cruelty. Your school is your first country. Make its rules fair, and you practice fixing the world.
Responsibility and Compassion
Who are you responsible for? Yourself first. Then your circle. Then strangers you will never meet. Responsibility grows outward like rings. Compassion is its engine: feeling with someone, then acting. Learn one unfair story. A child barred from school. A team picked by skin. Let it land. Then ask: what is my ring here? Speak once. Share once. Stand once. Small duties, done daily, bend the world fair.
2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Optional connections
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.