Discrimination

In one way or another, we have all experienced discrimination in our lives. We may have experienced it based on our skin color, nationality, economic status, religion, political beliefs, origin, traditions and even culture. Whether we are victims of discrimination or whether we are the ones discriminating someone else, it is clear that discrimination affects all of us.

But what is discrimination anyway? Discrimination is where you make a clear distinction about a particular thing or person. It is like you have your own set of standards in your mind and when a person or a thing doesn't meet any of those standards, you often look down on that person or thing. It could also mean showing prejudice towards something which is based on a certain class or category regardless of individual merit.

A perfect example of discrimination (which is not a serious type though) is putting labels or stereotypes to certain kinds of people. In our modern day Philippine culture, we tend to associate people who are tacky and who don't have manners with "jologs", "skwater" or anything related to lower class of society or "masa". Whenever we see someone act like that, we immediately assume that they belong to the poor class without even trying to know the person. On the other hand, grave types of discrimination include the killings of Jews during Hitler's time or where blacks were greatly deprived of their human rights during the time of Martin Luther King Jr.

But how do we learn to discriminate? And why does discrimination continue to prevail?
Going back to our childhood days, we are surrounded by different agents of socialization that influence our values and beliefs. Through these agents of socialization such as family, friends, school,religion and culture, we are taught how to behave and interact with other people. We may be directly or indirectly influenced by these agents to discriminate others just by imitating what we see on them on what they teach on us when we were growing up. Hence, how we view others is somehow shaped by what were taught when we were young. But it is still us who decides whether we adhere to those that were taught to us whenever we see or meet someone. Pondering on the question 'why does discrimination continue to prevail?", I think this is because of the fact that since society has set certain rules, norms and standards that we must follow, everyone adheres to that. It is society which dictates what is right from what is wrong. And whenever a certain individual does not conform to it, he/she is treated differently. Moreover, closed minds also cause discrimination to discriminate. Some people do not let their mindsets be mixed with other beliefs because that's what they believe in. In this case, they immediately put a certain boundary or limit to a person who does not pass their expectations.

Discrimination has always been a major issue in our society today. In fact, it is inevitable and although there are already millions of people fighting against it, it may be still impossible to eradicate it completely. There is no promise that discrimination will ever end, but each one of us are encouraged to act our own part in preventing discrimination to destroy our lives. We must learn that each one of us is unique and that no two persons can be of the same thing. We all do not agree on the same thing and it is usually the differences in us that make us more productive and better in this world. We must accept the fact that everyone has their own set of standards, beliefs, cultural background, race and that we should respect that. We must allow ourselves to be open with other people's differences without quickly judging them because of it. Differences may prevent us from agreeing all at one thing or even getting things our way. But what is good about our differences is that it will allow us to grow further and to widen our perspectives by seeing things in different angles.