Literature Review Paper

Discrimination in society 1

Discrimination in society 6

Discrimination in Society

Advanced General Psychology

Tony Williams

Argosy University

Lisa Unger

Discrimination in Society

ABSTRACT

While racial discrimination has become a more pertinent issue in society, racial discrimination is far most the worst. While there have been a lot of issues affecting the American Society, racial discrimination has caused more harm and caused chaos in the recent years in the wake of the recent police shooting of the black people in the community. According to Christine Hauser of New York Times (Hauser, 2016), “It spurred no organized street protests; no viral hashtags; no movement like Black Lives Matter, which was sparked by anger and despair over a wave of killings of African-Americans by law enforcement officials”. In the past discrimination was more widespread in most if not all states of America but in the recent years, though existent, it has come with less outcry and in a more hidden way. Racial discrimination has been quite evident in sectors like housing and employment among others. Others include the healthcare, housing, credit markets and consumer interactions. Discrimination is commonly defined as the unfair treatment to or against a person, based on their social class, wealth, popularity, racial origins, and ethnicity among many other religion (Blank, 2004).

INTRODUCTION

Racial discrimination according to the review done by Mary Blank and her associates can be measured through many ways. One of them may be laboratory tests and the other may be field-based experiments. Other methods may be a statistical inference, surveys, and records of experiences. These measures are used to measure discrimination that occurs at specific time frames. If a closer look is taken on the forms of discrimination that happen over time, a whole lot of issues can be sorted out. For example, generational discrimination may not adversely affect the current generation than it can affect the next. Through mistakes committed in the past like gender discrimination, racial discrimination in health, education, wealth and societal classes, opportunities for the future generation are limited. If poor health becomes an issue, then the future kids will struggle with limited resources (Blank, 2004).

LITERATURE REVIEW

The other reasons tend to cut across various institution based on various factors. Discrimination in places like elementary schools and grade school may affect a child’s academic performance in the college. This is due to the fact that discrimination affects the sub-conscience of a human being. This also happens in employment places and this means that certain opportunities are stifled and due to it. Another reason may be discrimination across independent organizations but yet in the long run connected by special factors. Measuring discrimination can be quite had as the timing is difficult to trace as well as the extent. Therefore accuracy can’t be guaranteed and the impacts of the situation can be quite wide and severe. At first, cumulative discrimination makes small changes in the beginning. These changes grow over time and cause future problems (Blank, 2004).

Looking at the human rights watch, various contributors’ research suggests the same analogies as Mary Blank. There is an acknowledgment that discrimination makes it hard for the affected members to develop socially and economically as the people who don’t face the same issues. There is a limitation of resources and the struggle to make the resources available be beneficial to the people affected. There is a suggestion that there is a need for the private sectors and the government to breach the gap so as to be able to overcome the social and economic needs of the marginalized by the discrimination issues. There is acknowledgement that even though measures have been taken by Universal Declaration of human rights (UDHR), International covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR), and the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights (ICESCR) among many other non-profit organizational entities by prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, opinion, language, sex, origin or status, the problem is very much real to date. The discriminated seem to be struggling economically, living in the rural areas and surviving on limited resources (Resigl, 2001).

The problems are as real then as they are now. Looking at the racial discrimination based on ethnicity in Rwanda as the genocide showed, the Dalits in Bangladesh India still have a lot of difficulty being regarded as dust. Poor communities in Korea, japan, Portugal and Roma Slovenian. Developed countries like the US, the relationship between discrimination and poverty is quite clear with the Africans Americans and Latinos occupying areas where poverty and less of resources is evident. The number arrests made over the years are highly populated with African Americans followed by Latinos with a significantly low population of the white people, something that Mullainathan of The New York Times reports on (MullaiNathan, 2015). There need to be additional laws made and amendments made on existing laws against direct and indirect discrimination by government and the private sectors. People and organizations need to push for agendas that alienate discrimination and push for social and economic development for the people to promote healing and integration. There is a need to push away feelings that promote discrimination in the name of Aids. Though efforts have been made, more still has to be done to rid of the menace that is discrimination (Resigl, 2001).

Reasons researched suggests and recommend on areas of improvement that are necessary to be done for steps in the right direction to be made. Not only do the individuals who face discrimination directly or indirectly, but the community as well. Racism is taught and decays social, moral and economic status of any country. There is a suggestion that even with the end and abolition of slavery, discrimination still had roots that went way deep in society. Simple commentaries could result in a big revolution. Discrimination found its way in voting rights, socialization, sexual relations, marriages, education and even entertainment. It’s so far gone that not only is it a matter of psychological threat but physical deaths as people are being murdered. States legalized discrimination up to the late 1960s and some stuck to the 21st century (Easton, 2016).

There is a lot of misconception and lack of understanding to the deeper issues. By promoting discrimination of whatever category strains any country from developing socially and economically and thus no efforts to promote discrimination are actually helpful to any country. There is a clear show that the contributor doesn’t support that the legislative arm of any government is solely responsible for dealing with discrimination, the contributor makes it clear that although the law is part of the solution, humanity is a greater solution to the problem. Humanity gets to the core of any human being and if there was a consideration for the well-being of another person, then a lot of issues contributed to by discrimination would be non-existent. The contributor appeals to the readers that though no one or no system can claim to have the full solution to discrimination, if little efforts are made daily, then slowly discrimination can be dealt with (Resigl, 2001).

Different analogies have been drawn to explain the existence of discrimination and several solutions have been put out as well. Some of the analogies suggest that discrimination began from the beginning of the existence of mankind. It came growing forth and got to the point where it was taught through perceptions. Asians were described as sneaky; blacks were referred to criminals whereas the whites were referred to as evil. Other analogies suggested that the media played a big role in promoting discrimination as most roles are awarded to the whites and when the afro Americans get the roles, they had those that consisted as villains. This included criminal roles, gangster roles like drug peddling and prostitution among others. while most must be in favor of the analogies fewer though significant moves have been made to decrease the negative perception of the Latinos and Afro-Americans as though the whites are seen to ‘hate the ‘black people’’, they in some way do trust them. Most nannies are from Afro-Americans and the Latino communities (Wang, 2005).

And while discrimination has shown a lot of negative energy towards the issue, there is a different meaning to it. Discrimination has brought about some positive attributes to the society. Discrimination has been attributed to making the affected parties strive hard especially in terms of education so as to bridge the gap. Discrimination serves as a motivation and increased a sense of responsibilities to not only one’s lives to other peoples as well. There is great motivation for the affected people to work harder in their fields so as to achieve more out of the opportunities presented to them. Likewise, there have been greater efforts for the older generation to take care of the latter generation by ensuring their future is much better than theirs. Also, with time, civil human rights movements have come to fight against the same issues so as to promote equality in all phases of life for all people. Such efforts can be contributed to veterans like Dr. Martin Luther King (Wang, 2005).

CONCLUSION

This has prompted for greater questions to be asked. Is discrimination an issue of superiority or just a simple case of misconception? Is there a lack of understanding to what discrimination is to today’s society or is it a simple case of ignorance. Are there more drastic measures against discrimination that can overcome the previous efforts made to end discrimination? Are law and humanity the best that can be done to solve the problem that persists that is discrimination? Is discrimination a scientific, biological or societal issue and how do all these elements correlate? How can people make contributions eradicating discrimination at home, at workplaces and other places as well as individuals or groups? In what ways do people create awareness on the controversial topic in the wake of techno capability and social media outlets? All these are issues that are pertinent on discrimination and are issues that need to be solved. Though the issue is wide, a lot still has to be done and there is room for improvements and more changes to be made in the society whether individually or in groups (Blank, 2004).

References

Blank, R. M. (2004). Measuring Discrimination: Chapter 11: Cumulative disadvantages and racial discrimination. Washington, DC, USA: National Academic Press. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search?q=books+on+measuring+discrimination&oq=books+on+measuring+discrimination&aqs=chrome..69i57.8689j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#

Easton, S. (2016). Internal Journal Of Discrimination And The Law. UK: Brunel University Press.

Hauser, C. (2016). Video of Fatal Police Shooting of Louisiana Boy, 6, Is Released. The New York Times, 1.

MullaiNathan, S. (2015). Police Killings of Blacks: Here Is What the Data Say. The New York Times, 1.

Resigl, M. W. (2001). Discourse and Discrimination: Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism. Routledge: Routledge.

Wang, L.-I. (2005). Discrimination by Default: How Racism Becomes Routine. New York: New York University Press.