Prejudice: Activity 2. Unit 4.2

Activity 1

1.    Item A illustrates prejudice as it evidences how Hitler pre-judged Jews irrationally —excusing his antisemitic behaviour by saying he was "fighting for the work of the Lord".

    Item B's cartoons display Jews behaving immorally and portrays a whole ethnic group as evil, based on the German dictator's  own prejudice of them being "subhuman".

2.    This prejudice is irrational as "100.000 German Jews had fought and died alongside non-Jews in the German army". This means that Jew intolerance was totally unfounded, as historical evidence shows that Jews were as patriotic as Aryan Germans. Moreover, the cartoons are not accurate, as they are mere drawings which lack factual evidence.

3.     These sources are not credible as they are influenced by the author's own antisemitism and intolerance. The cartoons display exaggerated and non-realistic situations of Jews performing perverse acts. 

Activity 2

1.     Language used in item A clearly indicates bias; adjectives such as "mad dogs", "brainwashed" and "ruthless" used to describe Iraqis, deeply contrast with The Guardian's depiction of Englishmen —who were professional, confident heroes. In addition, negative vocabulary is used strategically to describe a war situation —while the allied missiles just caused "colateral damage", Iraq's caused "civilian casualties". 

       On the other hand, item B describes Saddam Hussein as a "demented monster", which seems to enjoy holding a gun and being at war.

2.     These sources are biased to the point of absurdity. Both item A and B show such unilateral views that they end up losing credibility.