Discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination is a topic that has been affecting businesses from various sectors worldwide. Discrimination refers to the prejudicial or unfair treatment people or groups based on their characteristics such as gender, sex, race, sexual orientation and ethnicity. Discrimination affects different industries and companies. In the USA, workplace discrimination is a common topic that has been associated with equity and inclusion among various sectors such as education, journalism, sports, entertainment (music and acting) and several companies in general. One example of companies being, fashion line brand Louis Vuitton, which was sued for racial discrimination and harassment by one of its employee. According to the United Nations (2018) discrimination is among the top unethical subject that employees face on day to basis in their workplaces. Racial discrimination is among the top subjects as far as discrimination is concerned. LBGT communities have also faced huge discrimination due to their sexual orientations and they are among the individuals who have faced many cases of hate crime. This is usually showcased during selection and hiring, transfer and promotion, issuance of conditions and benefits. It should be the mandate of every business to ensure that its workplace has much diverse.

Discrimination in workplaces is usually motivated by people’s beliefs on inferiority of certain disadvantage groups compared to other groups that are dominant (Roberts, et al. 2004). Discriminations based on race, justifies how certain ethnic groups mistreat minority groups by showing dominance due to the beliefs of their cultural inferiority and genetics. In the case of Age-based discrimination, it might stem from stereotypes. Most people decline to hire older workers due to their unwillingness to accept change and their competence levels (Okechukwu et al., 2014). Most people do believe that they have experienced one or more incidences of discrimination in their day to day life but only people of ethnic and racial minorities do report these incidences. Discrimination can also occur between disadvantage groups themselves, and this could be due to favouritism from earlier experiences (De Castro, Rue and Takuechi, 2010). Despite the United States coming up with legislative solutions to safeguard employees and the society at large from discrimination, its prevalence is still on the rise. In 2017, over 80,000 cases of workplace discrimination were filed according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (Fekedulegn et al., 2019).This resulted in lawsuit settlement of almost $400 million as compensation of victims in both public and private sector in the United States (Fekedulegn et al., 2019). Between 2010 and 2018 an amount in the region $810 million has been used to settle workplace age discrimination cases..

Various interventions have been put into place to curb discrimination but more stress should be placed on awareness. Stereotypes are highly ingrained in the society and the only method it can be dealt with is by creating awareness on discrimination. For example, many celebrities have come out on their sexual orientations and they are using their influence to promote awareness on discrimination, which is a great thing to do. Many organizations have emphasized on employing and promoting people based on diversity but even if more people of color are ascended to higher positions of power people may still be not open to such approaches. Organization should invest in educating people on discrimination; this is because some people do racist behavior that they are not even aware because it is just in their genetics.

References

De Castro, A. B., Rue, T., & Takeuchi, D. T. (2010). Associations of employment frustration with self‐rated physical and mental health among Asian American immigrants in the US labor force. Public Health Nursing, 27(6), 492-503.

Fekedulegn, D., Alterman, T., Charles, L. E., Kershaw, K. N., Safford, M. M., Howard, V. J., & MacDonald, L. A. (2019). Prevalence of workplace discrimination and mistreatment in a national sample of older US workers: The REGARDS cohort study. SSM-Population Health, 8, 100444.

Okechukwu, C. A., Souza, K., Davis, K. D., & De Castro, A. B. (2014). Discrimination, harassment, abuse, and bullying in the workplace: Contribution of workplace injustice to occupational health disparities. American journal of industrial medicine, 57(5), 573-586.

Roberts, R. K., Swanson, N. G., & Murphy, L. R. (2004). Discrimination and occupational mental health. Journal of Mental Health, 13(2), 129-142.

United Nations. (February 2018). Prejudice and discrimination: Barriers to social inclusion. New York. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/2018/02/prejudice-and-discrimination/