Imagine yourself being a minority. Imagine being someone not among the predominant race: an Asian American or an African American. Imagine people talking at your back, making fun at you, or throwing rude remarks. What would you feel? How would you react? We have always been reminded to treat people with respect. Treating with respect means accepting people for who or what they are – regardless of their color, ethnic or racial background, age, religion, or social status in life. However, sad to say, discrimination exists in society today. Despite reminders and laws on equality, access to similar resources and privileges, as well as emphasis on human rights, differences in treatment to people of color have been observed to continually exist.
What should we do about this? As students, I strongly believe that we have some responsibility in correcting this situation. The Citizens Advice Bureau has provided several courses of action to address discrimination . One of the simplest ways is to talk to the person discriminating other people. At the worst situations, people being discriminated on should take appropriate action using proper legal medium. In situations where the discrimination happened in the workplace, the person being discriminated on could seek legal sanctions for violations of equal employment opportunities .
In sum, it was cited that according to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race” . We have been made aware through speeches, publications, laws and regulations. Therefore, we should stop being passive about this. We should act now.
Works Cited
National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux. "Discrimination because of race." 2014. adviceguide.org.uk. 17 December 2014 <http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/discrimination_w/discrimination_discrimination_because_of_race_religion_or_belief_e/discrimination_because_of_race.htm>.
Roberts, J. "Parents Involved in Cmty. Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1." 2007. heritage.org. 17 December 2014 <http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/02/what-states-can-do-to-stop-racial-discrimination#_ftn1>.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. "Race/Color Discrimination." n.d. eeoc.gov. 17 December 2014 <http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/race_color.cfm>.
von Spakovsky, H.A. and Clegg. R. "What States Can Do to Stop Racial Discrimination." 11 February 2014. heritage.org. 17 December 2014 <http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/02/what-states-can-do-to-stop-racial-discrimination#_ftn1>.
