Discrimination and prejudice are phenomena that have haunted human society virtually for as long as it exists. Numerous groups have been severely mistreated due to their gender, race, religion, nationality, and similar characteristics. I agree that this has to be stopped and that such characteristics are irrelevant for determining if someone is good or bad person, friend, worker. That said, in the 21st century, another phenomenon is becoming more and more prominent – reverse discrimination. As I love examples, here they come.
In my country, as well as most other countries where they represent a significant minority, Roma people suffer from very high discrimination, prejudice, poor life conditions, and lack of possibilities. To solve this, my country is giving free education (including university), free healthcare, free public transportation, and much more to all who declare themselves as Romani. At first, this sounds totally OK. But if you think about it for a moment: Hey, not all Romani are poor and not all other people are middle to high class! With the rules as they are, even rich Romani get tons of benefits that even poor members of other nationalities don’t! If we want to help, we should find a way to help all people living in poor conditions, not all Romani. If you ask me, helping (as well as not helping) someone just because of his/her nationality is unfair, unjust, even insane. This has gone so far that some members of non-Romani nationalities in my country are taking new IDs and declaring themselves as Romani to get the free benefits.
For centuries, even millenniums, women have been regarded as unequal to men in most cultures. This has led to serious women issues such as forced marriages, domestic violence, low education opportunities and much more. It is just to put an end to this and we should make sure that such things don’t happen anymore. However, the society very often, by protecting a "weaker" group too much, actually discriminates the "stronger" group, in this case men. Example number two. In my country, women have lower prerequisites to enroll into a military academy than men do. What does this lead to? This leads to: Although person number 1 can do 15 pullups and 30 pushups while person number 2 can do 10 pullups and 20 pushups, and person number 1 can run 15 km/h while person number 2 can run 10 km/h - thus the person number 1 is obviously a better candidate for a military academy than the person 2 is – the person 2 might be enrolled instead of the person 1 if the person 2 is a woman and the person 1 a man. Is this far? Do men have some sort of incentives if they want to become a steward(ess) or a secretary? No, they don’t and they shouldn’t! Men are generally better for army occupations while women are generally better for positions with a lot of communication and/or multitasking. There are exceptions among us and those exceptions should be respected, but no one should ever be picked or unpicked over someone else just because of the gender.
The reverse discrimination is getting so much mainstream and accepted that it’s almost shame to grunt about it. Let’s help this GENDER or that NATIONALITY… NO! Let’s help ABUSED people, DISABLED people, POOR people, HOMELESS people, etc. They are the ones that need help. Let’s not fix discrimination by discrimination!
Please let me know:
- Has this article made you think?
- Do you agree with me or am I forgetting something?
- Do you have more examples? I love examples! : )
If you liked this article then you will probably also like my recent article about human morale.
Have a wonderful day, week, and life!
There's a lot of the same kind of thing going on in the US. Scholarships for people of color, that are based entirely on race, for example. Not that the idea doesn't have merit, but when two kids in the same house can't get the same scholarship because of skin color, that seems counter productive.
Did you know college campuses are creating "Black only" locations? Places whites are not allowed to go. Because the best way to counteract racism is segregation, right? That's exactly what MLK Jr. was trying to accomplish. (Yes, that last bit was sarcasm. He fought very hard to abolish segregation.)
"but when two kids in the same house can't get the same scholarship because of skin color, that seems counter productive"
Exactly, superb example, straight to the point!
"Did you know college campuses are creating "Black only" locations?"
No, I didn't. It's insane. I guess that the more "developed" the country is, the more it dwells into reverse discrimination.
Thank you for the meaningful comment, cheers!
Just to spark a discussion.
The idea for entrance to policing for example, is similar to that of the military. But what they do is have a minimum standard. So to get in you have to pass an obstacle course, do a certain number of pushups, situps etc... But once you pass that threshold, then they look at other considerations such as diversity hiring or "reverse discrimination". So what if that female who is less physically qualified, still passed the minimum standard?
The idea is that historically women are kept out of those positions. Men do not have systemic discrimination keeping them from entering the job market so there is not the same need to help them enter the field of being a secretary.
Also, the idea is sometimes women or minorities have a unique outlook. So we want women police, military etc... because that makes it representative of the public at large.
Just something to think about. Your post is provoking in a good way.
Hi @cassjd, thank you for joining the discussion.
Your example with the police is good, there are many shades of discrimination (including the reverse one).
I completely agree with you that women should be allowed and accepted into all careers, as well as men. Your points about the need to change the historical tradition and to represent the public better are also very valid.
However, for me, justice is more important. I consider that it is simply too unfair to accept a worse candidate and refuse the better just because of his/her gender, race, nationality, etc. I would prefer that the basic (historical) discrimination is solved by promotional campaigns, public discussions, education, legal sanctions of any discrimination, or other methods that don't directly hurt other individuals. I don't claim that I'm right, of course.
Cheers!
Great article!
Thank you @katarinamiliv.
nice post love it. keep up the good work
Thank you @lolocabra.
Само једна примедба @lifenbeauty — терминолошки, кад кажеш „Романи“ сви са енглеског језичког подручја помислиће „Румуни“. Бољи израз био би „Roma people“ или просто „Gypsies“, пошто на енглеском тај израз нема исти степен значења као код нас.
Имаш још пет дана да то исправиш, после тога текст остаје какав јесте на блокчеину док траје мрежа :)
Hvala puno na sugestiji, izmenih post tako da u prvoj rečenici tog pasusa bude "Roma people" umesto "Romani", a za dalje je onda jasno. : )