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?
Discrimination is unfair treatment to different categories of people based on many things including race, religion, culture, orientation, and so on. Prejudice is, in my terms, judging someone without actually knowing anything about them. Stereotyping is very similar to prejudice but it is widely known groups that people are placed in like jock or nerd. Discrimination is different because you are acting on the hatred you have for people instead of just thinking about it. For example, it is the difference between thinking about killing someone and actually doing it. Discrimination is probably the most hurtful because you are being open about it to someone instead of thinking it to yourself.
• What are the causes of discrimination?
Many things can cause discrimination. The main thing, I would say, is it is a learned behavior. This means these people who discriminate were probably raised to feel this way towards a certain group of people. What you learn growing up can stay with you for the rest of your life. Here you are a defenseless child who knows nothing but are told to hate a certain group of people, you are going to listen because you were raised to. Then, when you’re older, you will automatically discriminate against this group because you were told to. There is discrimination against people of other races because they have a different skin color which makes them “different.” There is discrimination against gay people because we don’t understand why they “choose” to be that way. These are just a couple examples of what causes discrimination.
• How is discrimination faced by one identity group (race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, sexual