So I'm trying to figure good prejudices to have for characters overall, when I search it up online it comes up with things like racism, sexism, classism and all the more extreme side of things for shittier characters but I'm wondering if there is any common prejudices that any average person could have? The only thing that I can think of is how a character might believe certain things about different races or misconceptions about said races but I feel like I can go deeper….
I mean, I used to have a very racist “oh, they’re just like us.” approach to POC if that helps? I know better now but like, being well intentioned can be just as harmful as not giving a damn.
any common prejudices that any average person could have?
I remember somebody who wasn't diagnosed as autistic until adulthood, and recalling the bullies at school, said that now those bullies declare that they never had anything against physically or mentally disabled people…and that might even be true. But, wow, did those schoolyard bullies hate weirdness.
There's also somebody who pretends to be allergic to peanuts only because nobody believes her when she says that she doesn't like peanut butter (but she loves peanut m&m's). So if somebody doesn't like eggs or something, a bad host at a party will insist that they've never tried these deviled eggs…and then cue being pressured to take a bite only to involuntarily vomit on the obnoxious host's shoes… Yeah it actually would have been better to lie and say, "I'm allergic to eggs," because apparently most people don't respect somebody's personal life experiences about their own dietary preferences.
There are also class markers. People appreciate "generosity" if the value being given satisfies them…but rarely think about if somebody's being so generous because they can afford to be generous. Like, maybe there's somebody out there with a generous spirit who shows by giving, but gets shunned because what they offer "looks cheap" or is offensive to gift any middle class person who is used to a higher standard of living. But nobody would outright say they hate poor people, because the image of "hating poor people" is probably something like hunting homeless people down to harvest their ears and wear those ears as a necklace (or something).
It's not considered "hating poor people" to pass them over for employment because their clothes were a shabby fit and slightly moth-eaten…because they couldn't afford any better clothes…which was why they showed up for a job interview…but, it is kind of hatred.
There's concern-trolling ("you're too promiscuous and I Worry About You" after going on three dates in two years, before 2020), anybody occupying a liminality between the hegemony and the least acceptable image of the opposite-of-hegemony ("passing privileges"), and contradictory feedback like people punishing you for being honest after constantly complaining that you're fake.
There's plenty of other small things: subculture, music genre preferences, celebrity admiration, academic or career accomplishments, accents (whether having a native language other than English, or being hard-of-hearing since birth, or having grown up in New Zealand before moving to the States), fandom ships (whewww some shipper wars can get vicious), if somebody cusses, smokes, drinks alcohol, if somebody is a "cat person or a dog person" or dislikes animals at all or would try to pet a bear because they love all animals equally even if it kills them, if somebody is open about their religion, if somebody has an extended family or single parent or stepparents or siblings or no siblings or a twin sibling—those all carry stereotypes.
I have a prejudice against people who are smarter than me. I hate them. It's a raging jealously.
Honestly my first thought was the kind of nonsense people get into about soggy vs crunchy cereal, pouring the milk in first, pineapple on pizza, fries in a milkshake, rare vs well-done steak, is a hotdog a sandwich, and other first world problems. People get so serious about it!
Also consider - prejudice against people chewing too loud, using filler words like "like", ending their statements in a rising pitch/question tone, prejudice against people who can't figure out the correct form of their/they're/there, prejudice against people who still use chatspeak like "ur", prejudice against people who think wearing all black counts as fashion (it doesn't =__=), prejudice against people who talk too loud in public/think taking phone calls on the train is okay, and other such jazz.
I went with "possible casual ableism" from one character (a strength athlete) and "internalized ableism" from another (a disabled veteran). I swear I am not giving ableists a free pass. 😓
Also people hate slang and text speech.
But also. People are racist and sexist and classist. Sorry to get serious on your post but most people are. You probably are a little bit. Most people don’t mean to be but are anyways.