How Discriminative Are We?

Are we more discriminative than we realise or would like to admit?

We don’t necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people.

How is it, that we can remain comfortable whilst knowing we continue to gain from the suffering of another?

It gets deeper, when we ask, ‘can anyone truly be human under the forces of such oppression, when they are condemned to a life where injustice is at the core, where their free will is exhausted and they are too eager to obey, because it is a precondition for survival?’ If this is true then why do we accept it? Perhaps it is because we really are subhuman.

We as individuals have a habit of using ignorance to construct our world, based around concepts that make us feel good about ourselves. This of course impacts on how we perceive an ‘ism’. It should therefore come as no surprise that many people shut down when they are confronted with the word ‘racist’ ‘sexist’, ‘disablist’ or ‘ageist’.

Sometimes this is due to fear of other people’s reactions. On the flip side it may also be the case that for those who are affected by the ‘ism’, that they feel too vulnerable and too disempowered to address it.

Prejudice or Discrimination?

In simplistic terms, discrimination refers to a persistent inequality where individuals in a society inherit an inferior social status on the basis of ‘ethnicity’, ‘gender,’ ‘age’ ‘disability’ and/or ‘transgender’. The results can manifest themselves in many forms but in essence it is the exclusion of people from full and equal participation in a lifestyle we all collectively perceive as being valuable, important, personally worthwhile and socially desirable.

Discrimination and prejudice are so easily intertwined that many people confuse the terms. This can lead to the erroneous assumption that overt ‘ism’ no longer exists.

Discrimination cuts both ways.

Many who have experienced oppression inherit prejudices borne from their experiences. These prejudices can be represented as a form of hatred or intense dislike towards all those who are thought to be part of the collective group that responsible for their social disadvantages.
To identify the act of an ‘ism’ in all of its subtle and persistent forms can be extremely challenging. However, it is important not to forget the history of ‘ism’. We are wired to like people that are similar to us. It is this history of ‘ism’ that cannot be dealt with immediately.

What do you think?

Does it matter?