Discrimination: Past and Present
What is discrimination? Discrimination is treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit (dictionary.com,2010). In America, there has been many cases of discrimination from both the past and present. Statistics shows that 49% of African American and 11% of Hispanic feel a great deal of discrimination.(Episcopal News Service,2013) Discrimination and racism has some great similarities when it comes to the way people were treated and still being treated in today’s time. So, racism will be mentioned frequently. Therefore, I will discuss the difference between
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The civil rights movement began in the 1950’s when African-Americans basic rights were long denied to them (PBS.org, 2015). This inspired the African American culture and other discriminated groups to fight for their own rights. One of the first acts was when a woman name Rosa Parks did not want to give up her seat to a Caucasian man. She was wrongfully put in jail because of the incident. She was not the first person to do this, but because she was close friends with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which was one of the leaders of the civil rights movement, she received a lot of publicity and media play. This incident shows that she was a victim of discrimination. She was belittled by people because she would not give up her seat which, in that time was the law. The laws in the past did not protect the minority but the majority which was the Caucasians. Later in the civil rights movement, people marched protested and did everything possible to get some result from the discrimination in America at that time. People were also killed, arrested, slandered, and abused because all they wanted was their rights not to be discriminated against. After all of fighting for civil rights, the laws finally changed and things were getting better. Although things were getting better, in the present time things has turned around for the …show more content…
First, discrimination make individual feel worthless and like they do not belong in society. For example, if there are two individuals applying for the same job position, but the one that looks more like the person that is doing the hiring gets the job but not the one that is more qualified is a strong explanation of discrimination in America. This will affect American people because everyone would not get an equal share of the opportunities that everyone deserves. Also, with this situation it will make the individual that is more qualified for the job feel like they wasted their time and effort in school to receive the proper qualification for that specific job position. Secondly, discrimination will affect individuals by the injustice that the minority receives from the higher authorities when it comes to the United States judicial system. For instance, when there is a crime, the police will usually accuse the suspect to be a part of the minority group instead of the majority. This will make people lose trust in the judicial system because they are not being treated equally. America will always have high crime rates when most people that are citizens do not trust or feel safe with the law enforcement or any other higher
A growing amount of American people began to speak out about inequality and injustice during the 1950’s and the Rosa Parks bus incident is a perfect example. On December 1, 1955, a 42 year old African American woman who worked as a seamstress
(Pal). “Rosa park was just a mother of the modern day civil rights movement”. Before that the incident has happened, Rosa park joined the NAACP. Rosa park was just a single mother of two and was trying the best to support her own family that she had. She stood up for her rights, once the bus incident happened, she gave speeches that made other people feel as important with white people. Rosa park was the best that giving speeches and she would keep trying to get the word out of making a change. Rosa park impacts the rights that everyone should have equally equally. That was the big speech that she gave to everyone. ‘It does not matter what color you are, it just matters who you are’ those words meant a lot back then. The rights back then were verily slim and were varily unfair back then. Even back,then the laws and the skin laws that were out were crazy. The law made it so strict that the colored people had different drinking fountain. That is how strict it was and unfair it was to colored people. . rosa park will always be remembered on that fine day that she mad one of the worlds changinges
During the 1900’s while the slaves were free blacks were still targeted with violence and discrimination even though Congress adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to ensure the safety and protection of black lives in many states. Racial discrimination went nationwide setting off the Civil Rights Movement in 1955. Rosa Parks, a seamstress in Alabama refused to give up a seat to a white male. Rosa whom was considered “The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement” was detained under a city law that forced her to give up her
Throughout the past, discrimination has been a common topic in history around the world. World problems, battles and wars have been fought over discrimination against different races and religions, and problems like that still happen today. Over race or religion, discrimination has been a problem in the past and the present time and it is something that needs to change. In the past, discrimination of race can be shown in the movie Remember the Titans, where the discrimination of blacks are in the 1970s. In a number of videos about Jane Elliott and her experiment shows how eye color and other small things can be a basis of discrimination and the What Would You Do? videos show discrimination in common society. Lastly in the near present day, the case of EEOC v. Abercrombie & Fitch the famous clothing company was caught discriminating against religious clothing. These all address the idea that separating and discriminating against people based on their race, religion, and other factors is wrong and a problem.
Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. Prejudice affects a multitude of minority groups and often makes it more difficult for them to get ahead in life. Discrimination is the most critical issue facing many cultures today because it leads to loss of cultural identity and alienation.
Generally speaking, discrimination is rooted in within the “cultural fabric of the United States” along the lines of “housing, employment, health, and the criminal justice system” (Camara & Orbe, 2011). Hecht (1998) describes the term, “discrimination involves the power and capacity to act followed by actual selective/targeted action against someone else emanating from one’s
This act of peaceful disobedience was one of the acts that started the Civil Rights Movement that eventually created equality between blacks and whites in the United States. Though there is still conflicts between blacks and whites in today’s time, there is an equal opportunity for everyone in public areas, job markets, and educational environments. This equality would not be possible if Rosa Parks would have not refused to give up her seat.
The Civil Rights movement began in the middle of the 50s throughout the 60s. Activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks used their messages to change segregation in the US to gain the equality African Americans worked hard for. Martin Luther King Jr. was a famous spokesperson in the movement that became a voice for future generations of African Americans. His most famous speech was I Have A Dream, which addressed racism and called for economic and civil rights. Rosa Parks was an activist in the Civil Rights Movement who used her determination to push forward for change. In December, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man because she was sitting in the back of the bus, which was a blacks only section. The man had no place to sit as the bus was full in the whites only section so he resorted to going to the back where the African Americans had to sit. Since Rosa refused to give up her sit she was arrested and fined. These activists used the issues conveyed in the famous literary works to promote change and act on it. These actions eventually brought on the change African Americans in the US were searching for and thus was born the Civil Rights of 1964. This act stated that it was illegal to separate people based on race, color or national origin in the
Rosa Parks' refusal to relinquish her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus was a slap in the face to hard line Jim Crow Southerners who thought that blacks are inferior to whites; it also happened to be illegal, and Parks was swiftly and promptly arrested for breaking a Jim Crow law. Little did the police arresting her know that this arrest would lead to the downfall of the very law they felt they needed, and wanted, to enforce. Along with MLK's protests and marches, a Federal Court determined segregation on buses to be unconstitutional. That would not have happened had it not been for Parks' refusal to obey a law that was both ludicrous and morally wrong. Every human on this earth, regardless of skin color or ethnicity, is exactly that: human, and therefore they deserve
Throughout the African American civil rights movement opportunities were sought to spark a chance at improving conditions in the south. Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the Montgomery, Alabama bus was the fire to that spark. Rosa, standing up for herself something anyone person in today’s world would do, was arrested and put in jail. While Rosa was in jail she caught the eye of many people in the Civil Rights Movement, including the leaders. The Civil Rights leaders protested her arrest and hired lawyers to aid her in her trial. Although she was found guilty and was fined fourteen dollars for the cost of the court case, which lasted on thirty minutes, she wasn’t done yet. Rosa Parks has affected the society we live in today in
Discrimination is when someone has a bias opinion on a specific crowd of people due to their race, sex, religion, or order of rank. This basically goes hand in hand with the phrase judging a book by its cover meaning the person with the negative opinion will not give the other individual a fair chance for the reason being they are being stereotypical and not thinking of the other person’s talent, or character. A modern day example of discrimination would be if a male employer were to compensate a female employee a lower pay due to her gender. At some time in everyone’s life due to today society, we have all been victimized by discrimination. Whether it may be a dirty look from a random person, or the way you dress, talk, and even look.
On Thursday evening December 1, 1955, Rosa boards a Montgomery City Bus to go home after a long day working as a seamstress. She walks back to the section for blacks, and takes a seat. The law stated that they could sit there if no White people were standing. Rosa parks never liked segregation rules and has been fighting against them for more than ten years in the NAACP, but until then had never broke any of the unjust rules. As the bus stops at more places, more white people enter the bus, all the seats in the “White Only” section was filled and the bus driver orders Rosa’s row to move to the back of the bus, they all moved, accept Rosa. She was arrested and fined for violating a city regulation. This act of defiance began a movement that ended legal Segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom devoted people everywhere.
In today’s time people have notice the spread of violence and constitutional controversy across the United States. People are beginning to feel betrayed by the political leaders we like to call the government. Discrimination is a problem that many people come across in everyday life. Discrimination is an action that denies social participation or human rights to categories of people based on prejudice. The most known types of the discrimination people face today include race, religion and sexual orientation. (U.S Employment) Race discrimination includes someone treating another unfairly because he/she is of a certain race.
Most people in today’s society may believe that prejudice and discrimination mean the same thing and most people may not pay attention to the fact that there is a huge difference between the two terms. The main difference between these terms is, prejudice is a negative idea about a certain group of people or people of a particular race. The person usually doesn’t act on the idea, they mainly just keep it to themselves. Most would describe it as being a “pre-judgement”. Discrimination, on the other hand, is far much worse than just being prejudice. Discrimination is prejudice put into action/practice. This involves treating people harmfully and disrespecting them as an individual just because they don’t look like you or because they belong to a specific group of people. There are three different forms of discrimination and they are: Individual Discrimination, Statistical Discrimination, and Institutional Discrimination. Both of these terms falls under the category, racism. Racism is the most talked about thing in the United States today. I completely disagree with the term “racism” as a whole and I completely disagree that it is being taught. Blacks and whites of the United States should always be against racism. Racism is not something that we are born with--it is something that we are taught and honestly society, parents, teachers, and movies play a big role in it. Some can teach it the right way and some can teach it the wrong way, and this is where we went wrong in
Unfortunately due to our past history, discrimination had been among us from since decades. Discrimination and prejudice would probably be among us until the end of the world. Prejudice and discrimination is an action that treats people unfairly because of their membership in a particular social group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs to rather on that individual. It is an unfair treatment to a person, racial group, and minority. It is an action based on prejudice.