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Minority Discrimination In Canada

Decent Essays

Introduction
Discrimination is a phenomenon that has been observed world-wide. The concept of discrimination is the unequal and unfair treatment of an individual or group based off a unique trait of said group. Every society in the world is known for having some discriminatory factor and it is especially renowned within developed, capitalistic societies. The cultural mosaic has been a title held by Canada for a number of years. With visible minorities representing 22.3% of the Canadian population in 2016 and a predicted representation of 31.2% - 35.9% by 2036 (Statistics Canada, 2017), it is undeniable that Canada’s population is extremely diverse. However, it is well known that the diversity of this country is not necessarily reflected in …show more content…

Blalock (1967) attempted to understand the relationship between minority populations and the extent of discrimination by non-minority groups. Blalock argued that as visible minority populations rose, the minority population would continually be seen as a political and economic threat to the ‘ruling race’ and would then be ostracized and victimized (Banton, 1968; Chongatera, 2013). Building further upon Blalock’s theory, Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou (1993) suggest that visible minority groups that were economically and politically successful were seen as threats whereas unsuccessful visible minorities were seen as deviant (Chongatera, …show more content…

The three categories of offenders all differ in motivation, the first being driven by a need for excitement, the second by a perceived need of self defense, and the third is driven by a perceived duty to ‘cleanse the world of all evil’ (Bennett, Levin, & McDevitt, 2002; Boeckmann & Turpin-Petrosino, 2002; Chongatera, 2013).
Impacts of Racially Based Discrimination
Despite the difficulties in determining whether each crime against a visible minority is bias-motivated or not, there has been a significant increase in studies examining the damage done by hate crimes and discrimination (Vega, 1991; Barnes & Ephross, 1994; Boeckmann & Liew, 2002; De Maio & Kemp, 2009).
Countless studies have researched the connection between perceived racial discrimination and the likelihood of developing a severe mental illness. Currently, research shows that visible minorities in North America are inherently more likely to fall victim to mental health stress, which is commonly believed to be associated with their exposure to discrimination (De Maio & Kemp, 2009). In which case, allows them to be more susceptible to further mental stressors such as hate-crime victimization and a poor socioeconomic standing (Vega,

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