Understanding what discrimination is, will be useful for every person, because this phenomenon affects different strata of the population and social groups. Knowing the signs of discrimination will help to avoid infringing on freedom of speech and choice.
Discrimination - what is it?
More and more often one can hear the question, what does discrimination mean? This term means:
- deliberate infringement of the rights and freedoms of the individual;
- unjust treatment of the individual;
- deprivation of choice or voice;
- bias;
- in some cases, discrimination may be accompanied by violence.
This attitude is related to the fact that the whole population belongs to different social groups - they can differ in moral, physical, financial or gender terms. Their status provides an opportunity to form a certain attitude towards them and in some cases to deprive them of the available privileges. The issue of discrimination has existed for a long time, but some of its problems are still sharply perceived by society.
The causes of discrimination
When mentioning what discrimination is, you need to understand the reasons for its occurrence. They can be:
- unsuccessful previous experience;
- fear or misunderstanding of any factor;
- personal or social egoism;
- non-coincidence of interests, views;
- social inequality, lack of available opportunities due to financial or political characteristics of the region;
- difference in appearance or features of the state of health.
Discrimination of the individual can be manifested in various spheres of society. The greatest prevalence is found in family life, politics and the workplace. For each type of discrimination there may be individual reasons:
- There may be restrictions in hiring due to working conditions, complexity or severity of production, work schedule.
- In the family, the causes of discrimination can be the upbringing of children or housekeeping.
Signs of discrimination
As a rule, behavior that restricts the rights and freedom of the individual is considered discrimination. There are some signs of discrimination:
- prejudiced attitude;
- presence of insults, boorish behavior, humiliation and violence;
- unreasonable refusal to hire, to train and develop professional skills;
- disrespect of another's opinion, religious, political, moral views;
- exaggeration of their own achievements towards others, belittling others' virtues.
Types of discrimination
One of the world's most pressing problems is discrimination, and its types can be as follows:
- Informal or legally substantiated.
- Direct or indirect.
- By the type of activity and sphere of manifestation: at work, in the family, in political life.
- On the basis of the social group to which it applies:
- sexual discrimination, it is often called gender - based on the male or female gender;
- racial - by belonging to any race and color of skin;
- national - depending on a person's nationality;
- religious - in relation to one or another religion;
- age, which is expressed in a biased attitude towards people of a certain age - including children and the elderly;
- infringement of the rights of disabled people and people with health and developmental characteristics.
Racial discrimination
This phenomenon affects many social groups of the population and has a long history. Ever since the great geographical discoveries of the country, colonies and persons of another race have been restricted in freedom and rights. What is racial discrimination is the total restriction or infringement of people due to racial differences and differences in skin color.
Racial contradictions can lead to acute conflicts. Activists in the fight against discrimination on the basis of the topic are proposing to achieve equality of people regardless of their skin color. A similar condition applies to all spheres of society:
- health;
- education;
- availability of workplaces;
- political freedom and the possibility of voting.
National discrimination
For many countries of the world, discrimination based on ethnicity is a very acute problem. This is due to the fact that a large number of nationalities often live in the territory of one country. Typical examples of such countries may be the Russian Federation, the United States, Britain, Spain.
National discrimination is expressed in the infringement of the freedom of groups of the population, who are represented in small numbers or have their own peculiarities of language, culture and traditions. To solve this problem, it is important, within one state, to equalize all nations in rights, to ensure their security and to develop a system of punishment for violating the principles of the country's integrity and insulting certain nationalities.
Gender discrimination
The predominantly widespread form of infringement of rights is gender discrimination, and it can equally affect both men and women. Gender discrimination can be manifested in the following issues:
- education;
- employment, career development and wage differentiation;
- participation in elections and in the resolution of political or social issues;
- solving family problems, raising children;
- harassment, violence, the use of physical force.
Limiting the actions of any gender is important to remember that this can not always be legitimate. With such reasoning, one must start from the fact that there are classes that are better for men or for women. There are restrictions related to working conditions, physical strength and reproductive function.
Age discrimination
Age restrictions can often lead to disagreement. Thus, age discrimination is manifested in the refusal to cooperate with people not suitable for age, and can be observed in the following situations:
- when hiring or changing a position;
- if necessary, social security and benefits;
- when selecting a sports team;
- with the limitation of the age for marriage and the birth of children.
Equality of all age categories of citizens should not be limited:
- employers;
- politicians;
- social prejudices;
- stereotypes.
Religious discrimination
Often, discrimination based on religion can very seriously offend the feelings of believers and damage the psyche. It consists in contempt, insult, restriction of the ability to follow church traditions. Such infringement of rights in some cases leads even to armed conflicts.
In order to avoid such situations, it is important for people to be tolerant to each other, respect the interests of each person, even if they are not separated. Sometimes, state intervention, the imposition of criminal responsibility and changes in the legislation of the country in favor of a certain religious orientation may be useful.
Discrimination against persons with disabilities
Many people ask themselves what is discrimination of disabled people, and does it exist? The answer to this question will be positive. The considered social discrimination can be manifested as follows:
- absence of an "accessible environment" - the passage or passage in public places for people with disabilities;
- unreasonable refusal to apply for a job;
- offensive attitude;
- non-admission to participation in social or political life;
- infringement of rights and freedoms in obtaining social benefits.
Manifestations of such behavior are important for public inspection, because any person, regardless of his state of health and a certain diagnosis, has his own weight in society. In no case should the rights of citizens be infringed solely because they are "people with disabilities".
Discrimination against children
Unfortunately, the concept of discrimination extends to children, and the reasons for this attitude can be the same as in adults:
- language;
- floor;
- nationality and race;
- appearance;
- the possibility of learning and development;
- presence of diseases.
Discrimination can occur both from adults and from children themselves. It is important that this phenomenon in childhood is perceived more tragically and painfully, and can cause psychological trauma. To exclude such a phenomenon and its consequences, it is necessary to keep in touch with the child, his teachers and educators, in some cases it will be useful to communicate with the parents of his friends. It is necessary to participate in the education of children and to inculcate in them the traditional norms of morality and piety.
How to deal with discrimination?
The struggle against discrimination in most cases is reduced to the achievement of the following objectives:
- obtaining rights and freedoms of the individual;
- achievement of equality;
- requirement of absence of prejudice;
- Exclusion of stereotypes and prejudices.
Discrimination in the family can be resolved by mutual agreement on the leading position of a man or woman, on some of the duties of both, on the prohibition of violence and aggressive behavior. Discrimination against women should not impede their employment, except for harsh working conditions, political activity, professional development.
There are many examples of what discrimination is. Regardless of the negative aspects, there are positive points in her theory. So, industrial safety rules restrict the work of women in lifting heavy objects or dangerous working conditions. Someone calls it discrimination, and some call it health and reproductive health.