Discrimination Worksheet

Associate Program Material

Discrimination Worksheet

Write a 100- to 200-word response to each of the following questions. Provide citations for all the sources you use.

• What is discrimination? How is discrimination different from prejudice and stereotyping?

Racial and Ethics Group 13th Edition by Richard T. Schafer defines discrimination as the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons. Discrimination is different from prejudice and stereotyping because discrimination is the act of excluding a group from some right, privilege, or service which is based upon some form of prejudice or stereotyping. Stereotyping is a generalization of a group of people from a certain race which is usually negative and a prejudice is a first impression of a person which is usually based off a stereotype. Discrimination is actual positive or negative actions towards a person or group based solely on their differences. An example would be an employer not hiring Hispanics because he does not like them.

• What are the causes of discrimination?

Discrimination is caused by race, religion, gender, ethnicity; this can affect promotions, or even getting the job to begin with. Discrimination is often based on ignorance, fear and stereotypical viewpoints. There are many causes for discrimination. One of which is learned from behavior. If you grew up seeing discrimination practiced by your parents, you will probably follow the same mind-set and this will be passing on through generations and generations of families. Racism is the major cause of Discrimination. It creates a big gap between people the hate for minority groups and the action to oppress them. For example to deny a Hispanic family living in an all-White community.

• How is discrimination faced by one identity group (race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability) the same as discrimination faced by another? How are they different?

Discrimination at times is something one person cannot control such as age, race or even one’s disability. The similarities are that they are all suffering at the hands of insensitive and ignorant people. To be honest I really do not think there is an actual difference at all in the discrimination faced by one group versus another group. To me discrimination is discrimination. I do not see a difference with discrimination from one person to another person; the only difference is that person’s ethnicity. Someone may not like blacks over Hispanics but when it comes down to it and they had to choose let’s say for example an employment opportunity that person might go along with the black person. That one person might have just picked the black male over the Hispanic male because he does not like Mexicans and now that one person may think all Hispanics are Mexican.