Prejudice, Stereotypes And Discrimination In A Multicultural Society
Discrimination
While discrimination is a social challenge because it usually perpetrated by the majority group and it affects multiple lives on a daily basis, it can also be considered a personal challenge because it has consequences for individuals. Discrimination is defined as “treating a person differently from other persons based on group membership and an individual’s possession of certain characteristics such as age, class, gender, race, religion, and sexuality. Discriminatory behavior can take various forms from relatively mild behavior, such as social avoidance, to acts of violence, including hate crimes and genocide.” There is often a connection between prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination, though it is not always the case. For …show more content…
example, people assume that a prejudice person discriminates others, while someone who does not have prejudiced thoughts does not discriminate. Someone who is familiar with a group’s stereotypes doesn’t necessarily treat them any differently.
Discrimination has more serious consequences compared to prejudicing and stereotypes because they are only thoughts and feelings. It becomes discrimination when one acts unfairly towards other people because of those thoughts. It is often very hurtful and offensive to the ones who are being discriminated against. Your name, skin color, ethnic background, religion, sexual orientation, gender or age should not be the determining factor of the jobs you will get, what school you get into, your rights, or your access to various resources.
Assimilation
Another challenge in a multicultural society is figuring out how the minority group will fit and live in the community.
There are three different ways of adapting to a new culture: assimilation, integration, and segregation. Sometimes, people choose how they wish to do this, other times, they are forced to do it in a particular way. Assimilation is when one group’s common identity and uniqueness slowly fades away and becomes the majority group’s culture. Ways of assimilating oneself includes changing the way you dress, acquiring new values and norms, and possibly speaking another language on a regular basis. If this goes on for generations, the descendants will know very little of their original heritage. Assimilation is especially difficult if the two groups have exceptionally different norms and values, or if their appearance and ethnic background is …show more content…
drastic.
Integration
The next way of adapting to a new culture is integration. That means that the minority group has preserved significant parts of their own culture, but they also partake in what the community has to offer them (education, sports, music, cuisine) in order to be on the same level as the other citizens. However this does not mean that only the minority is adapting, the community must also provide the means for them to efficiently integrate themselves. For example, they need to have the opportunity to learn the language, familiarize themselves with the culture, get a job, and their children must have access to education. Nonetheless, even if the community and government is accepting of new people, there will always be individuals who discriminate them because of their differences.
Segregation
Lastly, there is segregation, which is not an adaptation method but rather the opposite.
Segregation is when two or more ethnic groups live in the same community, but live separately. For example, there was South African apartheid during the 1950s to the 1990s and American Jim Crow laws from the 1880s into the 1960s. Both were biracial communities where whites were the majority and blacks were the minority, and the color of their skin determined how they lived. It could be anything from which voting rights they did/did not have, to where they can sit on the bus or which school their children went to. In both of these cases people were forced to live segregated, but some minorities choose to live separately. However, when that happens the minority group can be perceived as a threat to the community. They will also lack the cultural and social skills needed to thrive in
society.
We can conclude that finding a way for two groups or two cultures to live together in harmony can be challenging. What laws are the minority groups to follow? What rights should they have? How “different” from the majority are they allowed to be? Negative consequences come as a result of forced assimilation and/or segregation, but integration is not an easy task since it requires tremendous effort on both sides.
Summary
Multicultural competence is an essential part of living in a diverse community. However, social challenges such as prejudice, intolerance, stereotypes and discrimination can get in the way of building a peaceful and prosperous society. Fortunately, there are theories such as the contact hypothesis that can help us resolve ongoing or potential conflicts. There are also challenges when it comes to joining multiple cultures in one community, but assimilation, integration, and segregation all have different ways of doing so.
While discrimination is a social challenge because it usually perpetrated by the majority group and it affects multiple lives on a daily basis, it can also be considered a personal challenge because it has consequences for individuals. Discrimination is defined as “treating a person differently from other persons based on group membership and an individual’s possession of certain characteristics such as age, class, gender, race, religion, and sexuality. Discriminatory behavior can take various forms from relatively mild behavior, such as social avoidance, to acts of violence, including hate crimes and genocide.” There is often a connection between prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination, though it is not always the case. For …show more content…
example, people assume that a prejudice person discriminates others, while someone who does not have prejudiced thoughts does not discriminate. Someone who is familiar with a group’s stereotypes doesn’t necessarily treat them any differently.
Discrimination has more serious consequences compared to prejudicing and stereotypes because they are only thoughts and feelings. It becomes discrimination when one acts unfairly towards other people because of those thoughts. It is often very hurtful and offensive to the ones who are being discriminated against. Your name, skin color, ethnic background, religion, sexual orientation, gender or age should not be the determining factor of the jobs you will get, what school you get into, your rights, or your access to various resources.
Assimilation
Another challenge in a multicultural society is figuring out how the minority group will fit and live in the community.
There are three different ways of adapting to a new culture: assimilation, integration, and segregation. Sometimes, people choose how they wish to do this, other times, they are forced to do it in a particular way. Assimilation is when one group’s common identity and uniqueness slowly fades away and becomes the majority group’s culture. Ways of assimilating oneself includes changing the way you dress, acquiring new values and norms, and possibly speaking another language on a regular basis. If this goes on for generations, the descendants will know very little of their original heritage. Assimilation is especially difficult if the two groups have exceptionally different norms and values, or if their appearance and ethnic background is …show more content…
drastic.
Integration
The next way of adapting to a new culture is integration. That means that the minority group has preserved significant parts of their own culture, but they also partake in what the community has to offer them (education, sports, music, cuisine) in order to be on the same level as the other citizens. However this does not mean that only the minority is adapting, the community must also provide the means for them to efficiently integrate themselves. For example, they need to have the opportunity to learn the language, familiarize themselves with the culture, get a job, and their children must have access to education. Nonetheless, even if the community and government is accepting of new people, there will always be individuals who discriminate them because of their differences.
Segregation
Lastly, there is segregation, which is not an adaptation method but rather the opposite.
Segregation is when two or more ethnic groups live in the same community, but live separately. For example, there was South African apartheid during the 1950s to the 1990s and American Jim Crow laws from the 1880s into the 1960s. Both were biracial communities where whites were the majority and blacks were the minority, and the color of their skin determined how they lived. It could be anything from which voting rights they did/did not have, to where they can sit on the bus or which school their children went to. In both of these cases people were forced to live segregated, but some minorities choose to live separately. However, when that happens the minority group can be perceived as a threat to the community. They will also lack the cultural and social skills needed to thrive in
society.
We can conclude that finding a way for two groups or two cultures to live together in harmony can be challenging. What laws are the minority groups to follow? What rights should they have? How “different” from the majority are they allowed to be? Negative consequences come as a result of forced assimilation and/or segregation, but integration is not an easy task since it requires tremendous effort on both sides.
Summary
Multicultural competence is an essential part of living in a diverse community. However, social challenges such as prejudice, intolerance, stereotypes and discrimination can get in the way of building a peaceful and prosperous society. Fortunately, there are theories such as the contact hypothesis that can help us resolve ongoing or potential conflicts. There are also challenges when it comes to joining multiple cultures in one community, but assimilation, integration, and segregation all have different ways of doing so.