SOC 220 Week 2 Assignment Stereotypes and Prejudice

Gender, Race, And Age Discrimination

Grand Canyon University: SOC 220

October 28, 2024

            The definition of discrimination as dictionary.com mentions it is the “treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit:“  Discrimination on the basis of age, sex, race or even religion is ethically and morally wrong in my opinion and illegal in the United States Of America.  I personally believe that discrimination will be a constant in all forms of society, but I believe it will stay more or less the same or decline over time to some level state over time, this also depends on existing social problems or new ones that may arise.

Age

            The issue with age is that in working environments youngsters or elderly are often dismissed because employers often think that they may be less efficient or effective.  The US has larger amount of elderly as the baby boomer population increases, according to Anderson, stereotypes about age are prominent in society (Anderson 2009).  Often the reasons for people to discriminate seem irrational, but with age there is some rationality to employers, this is because they need efficiency in their employees.  I think people think that elderly or youngsters are less efficient, functional, or even less trainable.

Race

As I am part Jewish, I have had some experience with racism.  This is a particular issue in the United States.  Some people think that on a basis of skin color or biological difference that one person is better or worse than another.  I think that this is a naïve and juvenile approach to life and modern times as we know it.  Race should have no effect on whether or not a person gets an equal opportunity in life.  However America has placed laws like affirmative action to guarantee ethnic races an equal or fighting chance.  I think discrimination on race happens because of jealousy, anger, resentment, and misguided historical or mythical beliefs that have no fact in modern society or society at any point.

Gender

While there are a multitude of reasons, from historical and religious recordings or physical fact that one gender is weaker or less able than another, there are also a multitude of myths and things wrong about that.   Although, statistically women have less upper and lower body strength than men it shouldn’t mean that there should be jobs that pay less on average for women NCBI.COM).  Also statistically women get paid less for the same jobs, even when those jobs don’t have anything to do with upper or lower body strength.

Conclusion

In conclusion whether or not its race, religion, age, or gender all people should have a fair and equal chance in this world.  Although no attempt will ever help all minorities, we need to help those who don’t have an equal fighting chance.  I believe that discrimination will stay approximately the same or decrease over time unless there are major setbacks in society.  If the country or world has major setbacks such as something that would cause dissolution of the government, and we see chaos in society form, then we may very well see discrimination change.  Otherwise, I feel that as a rule of thumb, discrimination will be the same or decrease if society remains about the same. 

References

Anderson, M.L. and Taylor, H.F. (2009). Sociology: The Essentials. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

(n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2015, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/discrimination

 Result Filters. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8477683