The Effects Of Racial, Sexual, Or Religious Discrimination

Discrimination as a word can be used in a much less negative context than the one that we have become accustomed to. It basically means being able to tell one thing from another which is a useful skill. A person who has discriminating tastes, for instance, may be said to have a taste for the finer things being able to distinguish them from those of lower quality. The problem comes when that ability is turned to other members of the human race with the intention of treating them with less respect. Here I will discuss some versions of this problem.

Racial

From a scientific standpoint, humanity is a single race. There are groups of monkeys occupying a single landmass that display more genetic diversity than the seven billion humans scattered across the entire planet. Still, what we perceive as race can be describes in terms of the differences in skin color, hair texture, facial features and many other traits. These have been used as a reason to murder, enslave, revile and otherwise harms different groups. This has resulted in a huge addition to needless human suffering the results of which continue to pile up.

Sexual

This type of discrimination can take many more forms than most realize. Men can discriminate against women who try to enter male dominated fields. This can also happen in reverse to men who enter nurturing professions. People who are easily defined as male or female can discriminate against those with ambiguous genitals who are labeled as intersex. People who identify with neither gender and consider themselves ‘queer’ may be pressured to pick a side. None of this assists anyone in living a more enriched life. In fact many people lose out because by pushing others to the fringes of society we lose the contributions they might have made to our lives and those of others.

Religious

This has been perhaps the most destructive. Wars have been started which raged for centuries over people’s difference of opinion over their concept of God. This often leads both sides to become more fanatical in their beliefs. This squeezes original thought out which can lead technological advancement to stagnate or even reverse.

One of the most effective tools that society possesses against discrimination is exposure to the group that has been marginalized. When we get to know each other we find we have more in common than our differences.