Introduction
Discrimination is any difference, limitation, or advantage that denies all people the equal exercise of rights. The concept covers the exclusion or limitation of opportunities for members of a particular population group relative to the possibilities of other groups at the level of society. Issues of discrimination and prejudice are currently defined by law in many countries and ratified in many conventions. According to the Declaration of human rights, discrimination was prohibited back in 1948. However, to this day, many trends directly affect society. An important issue is still race and national origin discrimination, which manifests itself in education and does not provide many opportunities.
The meaning of discrimination
Ethnic discrimination is political and, in particular, social oppression carried out by the dominant ethnic group in the state against one, several, or all non-dominant ethnic groups. This type of prejudice can manifest itself in any way, but it is worth considering one of the most unexpected – academic. This discrimination has historical, psychological, and economic motivations, conditioned by the traditional attitude toward foreign ethnic groups as enemies in many societies.
Discrimination can be direct or indirect. Direct discrimination is characterized by intentional discrimination against individuals or groups of people, for example, when an employment office refuses an applicant a room or a real estate agency does not offer an apartment to a refugee (Gibney, 2020). We talk about indirect discrimination when conditions, procedures, or actions considered neutral put individuals or representatives of a minority at a disadvantage compared to others. Examples range from minimum height requirements for firefighters (with more women than men) to stores not accepting people wearing hats. These neutral laws can create unfair barriers for members of certain social groups. The Human Rights Convention prohibits direct or indirect discrimination. Indirect discrimination is more common and more difficult to justify than direct discrimination.
Structural discrimination is based on the way our society is organized. The system itself puts certain groups of people at a disadvantage. Structural discrimination is implemented through norms, procedures, relationships, and behavior forms that prevent achieving true equality or equal opportunities. Structural discrimination often manifests as institutional biases, mechanisms that consistently favor one group and discriminate against another or others (Costello, & Foster, 2021). These are cases where discrimination does not result from an individual’s beliefs about a person or a group of people but from the functioning of institutional, legal, organizational, and other structures.
Summary of the literature reviewed
Today, the issue of discrimination is prevalent in the literature, and many studies are devoted to this topic. Much of the literature dedicated to this topic mainly examines the historical context of discrimination. The literature’s problem remains that only the causes are usually considered, but not the ways of solving this problem. In particular, it is crucial that modern literature only explains and compares everything with the past and the issues that existed in the last century. It is vital that, in general, there are practically no concrete works on discrimination based on education.
However, some separate works reveal the topic of discrimination in education and allow us to consider various options for developing this issue. Tannock (2008) clearly shows such a problem in his works, particularly the lack of research. His work deals with the problem of discrimination in education, especially discrimination that arises based on certain features or differences in learning approaches (Tannock, 2008). In particular, the author tries to reveal the topic of ridicule and devaluation of individual experiences of people in education and achievements, which can also be subject to the factor of condemnation and the emergence of certain prejudices.
In particular, the following important article by Bleich (2019) for research is about discrimination in general and racism in particular against black people. This study reveals the historical context of such actions, mainly how they fought them in the past. However, a large part of the work also considers the modern context of racist actions of people. The author raises the question of how often black people can get an education and what statistics are obtained (Bleich, 2019). All this is relative to the white people and the widespread learning in their lives. The average percentage is that most black people graduate high school and do not continue their education. In particular, a large proportion of blacks no longer attend college.
That is an essential work on discrimination, first of all, because the author draws attention to the prejudice against Latin Americans. This issue is addressed by Perez (2009) in many contexts and developed at the level of discrimination against black people. The main focus is on prejudice in the medical field and the problem of obtaining services. The author argues for this whole system because Latin Americans usually were not paid that much attention, and their issues were not considered necessary. Perez (2009) uncovers the underlying problem of such discrimination, particularly the problems faced by vulnerable groups, and tries to investigate the causes of attitudes and the issues of a system that does nothing to avoid bias.
An important work that reveals the topic of discrimination is O’Reilly & Kathryn Borman (1984), which focuses on sexism and discrimination against women in education. However, the main focus is on teachers and their learning, which negatively affects the teachers themselves. The authors see the problem of dividing education into genders and education with specific differences. In the same vein, teachers’ approach to girls and boys is considered separately, where boys were taught better and given more severe opportunities. At the same time, girls were not taken seriously and tried not to focus too much on critical individual things but on what kind of future they would have.
Support of the Trend
Even though discrimination based on race is actively feared today, such an attitude still exists. The problem for people today is that many continue to live on remnants of the past (Tannock, 2008). It is worth paying attention that a discriminatory attitude often occurs in older people, but young people sometimes also misbehave. It is worth saying that support for discrimination is mainly manifested in Latin Americans and Asians since protective organizations significantly extend their work and protection to black people; accordingly, individual ethnic people may not receive decent opportunities.
Very often, sexism also works with racism in the workplace or society. Popular shows still make stereotypes about Asian or Latina women. Today, it is also worth mentioning that people of Arab origin also encounter such prejudiced attitudes because of their clothes or religion, which hurts society (Ellermann, 2020). Support for such things happens in different ways; first of all, in mass culture, not the correct image of this or that ethnic person. Second, it can be manifested in the fact that social privileges may be available for individuals: education or medicine.
Discrimination is not very common today, but people can often find certain regions that can support such actions. That usually happens in various conservative parts of different countries, which does not help the new order. In particular, it is necessary to understand that mass culture, i.e., films, books, or music, often contributes to developing specific discriminatory ideas. The problem exists, of course, but more and more, this trend is declining and receiving much condemnation from society. On the other hand, many activists and organizations must create many opportunities to counter such a trend.
Opposition to the Trend
Today, the issue of racism and discrimination is very harmful and widespread in society. This issue is critical to consider now, given the events that have taken place in 2020 Black Lives Matter. That created many organizations to fight against discrimination and introduce an equal system. It is also worth understanding that there are other parts of how people deal with such prejudices (O’Reilly & Borman, 1984). When considering the education issue, it is essential here that many educational tasks are currently being considered for teachers who should learn how to teach all students correctly and not divide them according to some unique characteristics. The primary purpose of teachers today is to address the crucial possibility of prejudice in themselves and to spread such ideas through various projects among their students.
Much of the focus is also on properly addressing discrimination in medicine and obtaining certain essential services for different populations. First, notable organizations are responsible for carefully checking that unprotected population groups, particularly a large part of ethnic people. In particular, many people must try to create a meaningful environment for that. To qualitatively integrate Latin Americans and involve them not only in terms of receiving individual social benefits but also so that they have the opportunity to be involved in social activities (Perez et al., 2009). In particular, a large part of the activities is manifested precisely to create many jobs and diversity in different companies. For this purpose, separate positions have been developed responsible for such a situation. Ensure that there is no discrimination at work and the involvement of different people in the team.
Many laws have clearly stated that such actions are not legal. It is essential that today at the state level, they talk about discrimination and try to counteract it. It is vital that the state directly intervenes in such processes and introduces various organizations to combat discrimination. It is necessary that numerous events and training are held, which try to educate all officials so that such situations do not arise in the future. Improvements in such a system lead to a better society and racial and gender equality.
A significant contribution to the fight against discrimination and racism is made by mass culture: films, books, or music. Most of the movies try to reveal the problems faced by different people. That will often pay special attention to the history of black people and how they fought for their freedom, which makes its adjustments accordingly. In particular, that must reveal such questions not only about people of a specific race but often the issues of Asians or Latin Americans are also shown in such pictures (Liu & Kawachi, 2017). It is essential that now this trend is gaining success and receiving many positive results. The issue of discrimination not only based on origin but also in general bias is decreasing in various societies.
Personal Position Concerning the Trend
The development of anti-racism and discrimination is the right decision. It is upsetting that this still exists and that people can be prejudiced against others just because of their origins. Solving such a problem will allow everyone to be equal and be perceived similarly in society. In addition, such a thing as prejudice and discrimination must happen very often; it affects not only people of ethnic origin, but very often such things develop, which is why it is necessary to get rid of them at all levels. Such an attitude is negative in our society, regardless of the kind of discrimination. It is personally important to develop the idea of equality through various activities; it is worth considering. It is worth considering that it is essential to understand that some friends can also become part of discrimination. That is necessary to make an important choice not to become part of such a trend and try to fight with people who do not accept and discriminate against others.
Conclusion
Even though the trend of discrimination and racism is decreasing in society, such a thing continues to exist. Ordinary people need to fight against such tendencies. First, it is crucial to understand and know different ways of solving the problem. Even though there is a large part of people who try to counteract such a trend, there is also a part of people who continue to project their attitudes onto people of different backgrounds. Thus, developing a personal position openly and speaking freely about equal rights is also essential.
Reference
Bleich, S. N., Findling, M. G., Casey, L. S., Blendon, R. J., Benson, J. M., SteelFisher, G. K.,… & Miller, C. (2019). Discrimination in the United States: experiences of black Americans. Health services research, 54, 1399-1408. Web.
Costello, C., & Foster, M. (2021). Race Discrimination Effaced at the International Court of Justice. American Journal of International Law, 115, 339-344. Web.
Ellermann, A. (2020). Discrimination in migration and citizenship. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(12), 2463-2479. Web.
Gibney, M. J. (2020). Denationalisation and discrimination. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(12), 2551-2568. Web.
Liu, S. Y., & Kawachi, I. (2017). Discrimination and telomere length among older adults in the United States: does the association vary by race and type of discrimination?Public Health Reports, 132(2), 220-230. Web.
O’Reilly, P., & Borman, K. (1984). Sexism and sex discrimination in education. Theory into Practice, 23(2), 110-116. Web.
Perez, D., Sribney, W. M., & Rodríguez, M. A. (2009). Perceived discrimination and self-reported quality of care among Latinos in the United States. Journal of general internal medicine, 24(3), 548-554. Web.
Tannock, S. (2008). The problem of education‐based discrimination. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 29(5), 439-449. Web.