Discrimination

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 making a distinction in favor of or against a person based on the group, class, or category to which the person belongs, rather than on individual merit. Discrimination is an actual positive or negative action against someone because of their race, religion, or culture, while prejudice is a positive or negative attitude toward the members of different races, religion, or cultures. Stereotypng is the generalization about the characteristics of members of groups. So discrimination is different from prejudice and stereotyping because it involves actual action against the person or persons of race, religion or culture while the other two are attitude and generalization.

Tamara J. Ferguson (2004)

• What are the causes of discrimination?

Discrimination covers a wide range of attributes. We recognize race as the biggest discriminatory attribute but it ranges as far as height or weight. Discrimination is often caused by ignorance, fear, and stereotypical viewpoints. For example, racial discrimination is usually triggered by one or both races stereotyping each other by sayng things like whites think they are better than blacks or blacks are lazy and do not want to work. These stereotypes are the cause of discrimination and will never end in my opinion. For years it has been this way and no matter how much you may see groups getting along, there are many more groups not getting along.

• 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?

The discrimination faced by one identity group is the same as discrimination faced by...