Guantanamo Bay

The purpose of this paper is to examine how being part of a stigmatized group contributes to prejudice and discrimination.

The situation of the Guantanamo Bay detainees is being used to look at this issue. Global Security, an organization based in Virginia, issued a recent report in February 2006 indicating that there are currently 329 detainees being held there. The report goes on further to explain that ever since 2001, over 100 have been released, meaning they pose no threat to the United States. Furthermore, the prisoners have included two men in their late 80s and 90s, a 12 year old boy, and several other young teenagers. Detainees were originally held because of some suspected link between them and al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups. Since then, over many who have been detained for several years have been sent back to their homeland, proving their innocence. What would lead the United State's troops to capture so many people that are obviously innocent?

In recent years there has been a stigma surrounding Muslims and middle-easterners here in the United States, and the United States' forces fighting the War on Terror may be mindful of this stigma when holding these people as detainees on Guantanamo Bay. Researchers have said that stigmatized groups "frequently are targets of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination."(Jones, 2002, p. 16). Furthermore, according to Fox (as cited in Jones, 2002), people are naturally predisposed to "rapid fire reasoning" to help people make decisions in unsure circumstances about a person of an out-group (p.19). In this case, it would be the people of middle-eastern descent, who are stigmatized already. That may help to explain why U.S. forces and other troops may be so quick to capture innocent middle easterners, who also may be Muslim, without paying attention to any other factor other than they are part of the stigmatized group.

In conclusion, we find that being a member of a stigmatized group may lead people to judge and react to those members in terms of their stigma. In this case, it is too easy for the troops and soldiers to choose people who just look like they pose a threat, instead of choosing those who actually do. The rapid fire reasoning that they are predisposed to leads them to capture detainees in split second decisions. The stigma that is associated with a certain group can, in this situation, lead to prejudice