America is a diverse nation with people of all most all ethnic origins in the world. With this in mind, one would expect the country to be racially accepting. On the same note, a person would expect the cultural differences, races, religions, and other factors such as sexual orientations to bring the residents in the nation together. However, this has not been the case. Research shows that discrimination is one social problem that many people in the country have to deal with. The aspect of discrimination has created a notable social issue since many people are discriminated against on different ground.
There is an evident national outcry of the escalating issues that concern discrimination in America. Notably, people talk about discrimination from various levels. Therefore, this paper is a discussion of discrimination as a social issue and shows how it has affected social problems in various sectors of human living in the nation. This paper looks at freedom from discrimination by looking at factors such as racial, employment, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and voting rights and other rights that have been used as forms of discrimination in the country.
Discrimination is defined as the state of being denied a right to belong because of social and biological orientation. Many lobby groups in America have taken to the streets to demonstrate against different types of ways across various sectors of the nation. In fact, some reports state that most people encounter discriminating issues in the society contrary to normal beliefs that there is no discrimination in America. To start the discussion, racism is one prominent form of discrimination that most if not all Americans have experienced. The issues of racial discriminations in the country are some of the factors that grab news headlines on a regular basis. Studies indicate that racial discrimination still exists in America and other parts of the world. Most importantly, people from the minority ethnic groups are more discriminated upon compared to their white counterparts. Racism is a problem that is felt in all sectors of the nation. It occurs in schools, restaurant, court, policing, judicial systems, and in the work places among others.
What is worse is that even the justice system practices racism by ensuring that cases against people from minority groups are heard by a panel of the jury that is predominantly white. Racial profiling is another issue that indicates the unacceptable levels of racism in the nation. For example, many people in the nation associate a race such as blacks with violence and other criminal activities. This has lead to the police shooting and killing many innocent blacks by assuming that they are always armed and ready to wage war. Racism and racial profiling is not only evident in America, but in other parts of the world such as Britain. Research shows that the number of racial discrimination cases reported to the court was on the rise since the country voted in their recent referendum to quit the EU.
Lack of freedom from discrimination is an aspect of life that many people in the nation have to come to terms with. Another area in which people are openly discriminated upon refers to political activities in the nation. As they say, politics is a dirty game. However, it becomes even dirtier if the people running for various political seats and on different tickets are discriminated upon based on their race, religion, or ethnic origin. Similarly, it is even worse f one of the people running to be the president of the most powerful states do nothing but show an outright discrimination towards people based on their political stance, race, religion, and home of origins.
Similarly, research has shown that many people are still denied their voting rights based on their ethnic orientations (Walsh, 2015). For example, many blacks from the southern states in America still struggle to exercise their voting rights just like their grandparents did during the slave trade era. Such discriminations occur in some areas irrespective of the amendments made to the civil rights acts which accord equal voting rights to every person of the voting age in America. Similarly, studies indicate that even in the current day and age when people expects America to be a free and fair nation, millions of citizens across various states are still denied the right to vote. Further studies indicate that they are mostly people of color who find themselves in these predicaments.
Another area in which people experience discrimination is the employment sector. Research has shown that most firms openly discriminate their employees based on race, gender, sexual orientations, and religion among others. Research has further indicated that there is still evident inequality in employment opportunities in the nation (US Department of Labor, 2015). Some organizations have made a strict policy not to employ people from certain tribes, ethnic groups, communities, gender, religious affiliations. On the other hand, some organizations like employing women with the aim of exploiting them. Some other companies also fail to employ women because of their gender and what the society thinks about women. They believe that women are less educated, less able and will not perform their duties well, irrespective of the existing evidence that many organizations in the nation have employed women who have brought much success in their environments.
Similarly, some organization is so discriminating that their employ packages state that they do not employ gay, lesbians, and other transgender people. Many cases have been reported in which gay, lesbians, and transgender persons have been denied employment based on their sexual orientations (Bobo & Fox, 2013). This kind of discrimination takes place in an organization that holds traditional notions of what the sexuality of a person should be. Sometimes some organizations that are inclusive in their employment opportunities fail to provide equal employment rights to their employees. For example, it is common to find that people from minority ethnic groups fail to get better pay. They also lack the opportunities to rise the rank in the organizations they work for.
The gender discrimination in various organizations is still widely practiced in most companies. In these firms, the managers consider women in terms of pay rises and ability to move up the leadership ladders in their organizations. On the other hand, women or female workers usually receive less pay than their male counterparts are irrespective of their levels of education. Some companies also make them do a lot of work as they work for longer hours than expected (Bobo & Fox, 2013). Thus, gender equality is still a problem in many organizations despite the fact that the government has put policies in place to help eradicate such discriminating actions.
Another evident form of discrimination in the nation is that based on religions. One should know that America is made up of people from all religions of the world. On that note, some people discriminate their employees, workers, and even neighbors based on their religion (Bobo & Fox, 2013). For example, some employers deny workers from Muslim origin work, claiming that they are dangerous people to employ. Another aspect of discrimination is found when some Islamic companies will not employ people who do not profess the same faith. Some people also decide that they will not help or live with people from other religions because they consider them less important than those who profess the same religion as them. Discrimination based on religion is a factor felt by everybody in every area. Even Christian employers and employees discriminate each other on the value of the supremacy of the denomination that one person belongs to. This kind of racism is not only found in America, but also in other parts of the world where it as not only becomes a social but also a sociological problem (Bobo & Fox, 2013).
Thus, discrimination is a factor that has been with people and especially Americans for a long time. The main issue presented by this social problem of discrimination is the tendency for people to live in fear and doubt. People coming from less recognized nations or people of color require a place that will allow them to use their culture. However, circumstances usually do not allow them the opportunities to have their cultural values thrive in a land far away from home (Bobo & Fox, 2013). They tend to realize these defections in their new systems with a heavy heart, because they believe that they are also equal to the other people in the environment in which they migrated to. Discrimination leads to a country in which human rights are less balanced, and it is a show of a social and justice system that does not treat its people equally.
Another area in which most people of color, especially blacks and minorities have encountered issues of discrimination is in education and other public sectors, in fact, one research survey reveals that blames, people of color and other minority groups feel more discriminated in various areas than their white counterparts do. According to this study, 57 percent of blacks are harassed and discriminated in public schools compared to 15 percent whites and 32 percent Latinos (Carnell, 2013). Thus many examples indicate that people from almost all races, including whites lack freedom from discrimination and that discrimination is still a social problem that most countries of the world have to deal with.
References
Bobo, L., & Fox, C. (2013). Racism, race and discrimination: bridging the problems, methods, theory in social psychological approach. American Sociological Association, 318-334.
Carnell, Y. (2013). 9 racial discrimination cases from last month that prove we don’t live in a post-racial america. Breaking brown.com.
USDepartmentofLabor. (2015). U.S. equal employmentopportunity commission strategic enforcement plan fy 2013 - 2016. Eeoc.
Walsh, K. (2015). Voting Rights Still a Hot-Button Issue. U. S News.
