Week 3 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?

- Discrimination is the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons. (Racial and Ethics Chapter 3) The difference between the three words is that prejudice is negative comments about a group of people without having any knowledge about them. When you think of stereotyping it is more of you having some type of input on how one person has acted before and now you think that everyone that is somewhat similar will do the same as him or her. Now you have discrimination, which you deny individuals certain rights, because of what has gone on in the years before and you still base that lifestyle on what they should be limited to do.

What are the causes of discrimination?

- One of the major causes of discrimination is fear. Many people that were raised with their elders in the early 1920’s and on were taught a lot of hate towards the different races. By teaching them to dislike blacks or whites that’s all they knew so it was passed on to the next generation of children. Even if they did not want to discriminate against that particular race the fear of their family disowning them or criticizing them would lead them to treat other races with no respect. Income gaps are another cause of discrimination especially when it exists between racial and ethnic groups. You will find that some people that are wealthier than others would look down on lower class citizens because they believe they are not worthy of their time.

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?

- I do not believe there is a difference between other identity groups when it comes to discrimination. When you are being discriminated against you are not thinking about how another group is being discriminated against. Many minorities or people with different sexual orientations come together because they don’t see discrimination as being different from anyone else. They know it means all the something and they try to fight together to stop it. Discrimination will always exist no matter what we try to do. The only thing we can do to try and stop it and show people why it’s wrong and how it affects us.