The Harmful Effects of Discrimination and Segregation

Discrimination and Segregation have both had many harmful effects on society in the past and exist when individuals are treated unfairly because of their particular race, gender, age, ethnic group, physical disability, or religion. Discrimination and segregation both poison the atmosphere of trust that we need in order to live peacefully. In the video “Separate but Equal”, there are many incidences to prove that racism, segregation, and discrimination all have negative effects. The three most prominent effects of discrimination and segregation combined are Inferiority, fear, and anger. Inferiority is a major issue when discussing the effects of discrimination and segregation. In the
Plessy vs. Ferguson case it was ruled that there may be segregation, but the people must be equal-Separate but Equal”. After this ruling all facilities were separated according to race, but in fact were not even close to being equal to each other. The white mans facilities were almost 100 times better than the blacks. Then in the Brown vs. Board of Education in Topeka case it was brought to attention that segregation and discrimination obviously affect the children’s state of mind. In the experiment to prove this hypothesis many black children were given a variety of white dolls and black dolls. They were then told to describe what they thought of each doll. The results were in fact that majority of the young black children related the bad characteristics with the black dolls and the good characteristics with the white dolls. It was then proven that segregation and discrimination have long term inferiority issues with the children. Fear is another result of discrimination and segregation. Segregation pushes the dominant group to believe they are superior to the other and justify their actions through false stereotypes, favored treatment, and excuses. Because of their actions the subordinate group develops feelings of fear and dislike for