What Is Prejudice?

There's a lot of people talking about it, but the term itself seems to be subject to "interpretation" any time an advocate for "social justice" wants to make an argument. I've noticed that advocates from pretty much any perspective are guilty of hypocritically twisting the definition for their own purposes, so I think it's time to nail this "prejudice" thing down once and for all.  This is very important, because without a very clear description for what prejudice is and how it is applied, people can claim it is or isn't whatever they want to simply derail from whatever the real point is and instead, make it a long, nonsensical debate about rhetoric, definitions and application of terms.

So, here's the deal. I'm going to broadly and specifically delineate the meaning and application of the word "prejudice" in a way which I believe everybody can pretty much universally agree on.  I'm pretty comfortable that this should be adequate for most things, while not so horribly convoluted as to be unusable, but if you have any suggestions, feel free to leave comments.

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Prejudice is...

Unfair Personal Judgement (UPJ):

1. the assumptive judgement of a person based on the judgement of a different person or persons
2. the assumptive judgement of a person based on the unfair judgement of a group or demographic
3. the assumptive judgement of a person based on statistical data (or any fact which is not accurate for every member) of that person's group or demographic
4. the assumptive judgement of a person based on emotional preconception, instead of factual evidence
5. the assumptive judgement of a person based on personal, cultural, physical, or behavioral differences which are not directly relevant

 

Unfair Group Judgement (UGJ):

1. the assumptive judgement of a group or demographic based on the judgement of a person or persons who are not the entirety of the group or demographic
2. the assumptive judgement of a group based on the judgement of a different group or demographic
3. the assumptive judgement of a group or demographic based on statistical data (or any fact which is not accurate for every member) of that group or demographic
4. the assumptive judgement of a group or demographic based on emotional preconception, instead of factual evidence
5. the assumptive judgement of a group or demographic based on personal, cultural, physical, or behavioral differences which are not directly relevant

 

Unfair Personal Responsibility (UPR):

1. holding a person responsible for the actions of a different person or persons
2. holding a person responsible for the actions of a group (including a demographic) they do not have control over
3. holding a person responsible for statistical data (or any other fact) they do not have control over
4. holding a person responsible for something based on emotional preconception, instead of factual evidence of involvement
5. holding a person responsible for something based on personal, cultural, physical, or behavioral differences which are not directly relevant

 

Unfair Group Responsibility (UGR):

1. holding a group or demographic responsible for the actions of a person or persons who are not the entirety of the group or demographic
2. holding a group or demographic responsible for the actions of a different group or demographic
3. holding a group or demographic responsible for statistical data or for actions which are not performed by every member of that group or demographic
4. holding a group or demographic responsible for something based on emotional preconception, instead of factual evidence of involvement
5. holding a group or demographic responsible for something based on personal, cultural, physical, or behavioral differences which are not directly relevant

Unfair Treatment (UT):

1. behaving differently toward a person, group, or demographic based on UPJ, UGJ, UPR, UGR, or UAS
2. giving or allowing different opportunities, considerations or interactions to a person, group, or demographic based on UPJ, UGJ, UPR, UGR, or UAS

Unfair Application of Standards (UAS):

1. the assertion that any form of prejudice is not prejudice when applied to a specific person, group, or demographic
2. the assertion that prejudice is more or less acceptable depending on which person, group, or demographic it is being applied to
3. the assertion that any person, group, or demographic deserves to be subjected to prejudice, or that it may be beneficial to them
4. the assertion that different people, groups, or demographics should be held to or judged by different standards based on UPJ, UGJ, UPR, UGR, UT or UAS
5. the assertion that a person, group, or demographic should be subject to UT based on personal, cultural, physical, or behavioral differences which are not directly relevant

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Again, this is not a debate about where anything applies to a specific group or within a specific argument, but whether this is prejudice. If you need specific hypothetical applications, imagine an argument applying any of these against the group you are defending. (male/female, white/black/asian/latin, MRM or Feminism, etc.)