What is Discrimination?
When someone is treated less favorably than another person in a similar circumstance simply because they belong, or are thought to belong to, a particular group or category of individuals, discrimination has taken place.
Individuals can be discriminated against on several different grounds, including age, disability, ethnicity, origin, political beliefs, racism, religion, sex or gender, sexual orientation, language, and culture. Prejudice goes against everything that makes us human. Someone's rights are being violated only because of who they are or what they believe in. Prejudice is detrimental and keeps inequality alive.
Regardless of our race, ethnicity, nationality, class, caste, religion, belief, sex, gender, language, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics, age, health, or any other status, we all have the right to be treated equally yet. Almost every nation on the globe is impacted by racism.
People's complete human rights are routinely denied solely because of their color, race, ethnicity, ancestry (including caste), or country of origin. Unchecked racism can contribute to mass murders like the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and, more recently, the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. Members of the dominant castes in India target members of the Dalit minority for a variety of human rights violations.
Because Dalit crimes are not taken seriously by the police, they frequently go uninvestigated. These crimes include gang rapes, killings, and the destruction of their homes.
Racism
Discrimination has direct effects on the individuals and groups it targets, but it also has an indirect effect. Prejudices that become ideologies can fuel hatred. Racism is one such ideology. Racism is the practice of treating others unfairly or violently because of an underlying belief in their "inferiority."
The idea that there are distinct human races within the species of humans based on physical characteristics has gained widespread acceptance. Yet, according to scientific studies, "human populations are not unmistakably, clearly delineated, biologically distinct groups"4 and that race is a sociological construct. As all people are members of the same species, discussing "races" is absurd.
Racist beliefs have had a disastrous effect on humanity; they helped to legitimize slavery, colonialism, apartheid, forced sterilizations, and the destruction of entire people groups. The Nazi beliefs and the programmers to eliminate Jews and other "inferior peoples" were founded on it. Regrettably, modern political and social structures in Europe still tolerate racism.
The impact of racism persists and manifests in various ways, such as cultural racism or ethnocentrism, the idea that some cultures, typically one's own, are superior or that other cultures, traditions, customs, and histories are incompatible with one's own. Although race is no longer accepted as a biological category and only a small minority of people believe in "superior races" with an inherent right to exercise power over those considered "inferior," racism still has an impact on society.
Types of Racism Discrimination
Differential access to commodities, services, and opportunities based on race is known as structural racism (sometimes referred to as institutional racism). When discriminatory policies are incorporated into organizations, it shows up as an inherited disadvantage.
The racism that is personally mediated arises when discrimination is caused by prejudice. Racial actions may be deliberate, accidental, negligent, or the result of omission.
Internalized racism refers to the internalization of derogatory messages about one's abilities and inherent value by members of stigmatized races.
Effects of Racism
Racism has an impact on health at every stage of life. Many negative outcomes in newborns and children have been linked to a higher risk of stress during the prenatal and postnatal periods.
Racism can have a direct impact on a person's postnatal health and development through a variety of processes, as well as an indirect one through secondhand exposure, often known as vicarious trauma. Researchers have described racism's effects as chronic violence and trauma that affect people of all ages.
Racism is a very deep-rooted problem and exists, even though our world has made so much progress, it still exists and disturbs the human mind in so many ways. Discrimination has long-term scars on everyone's mind who has faced it at some point in their lives. “Much progress has been made but much more still has to be made”.
Written by Kirti Garg
Edited by Rumela Gupta
.jpg)
0 Comments