Living in a discriminating world

As I stated in my previous blog discrimination cannot be totally eliminated, although its negative impact is never desired. Despite that we all make discriminations, either they are severe or sometimes too insignificant to be taken into consideration. Still, the most important think remains the fact the we should all take attitude towards discrimination and understand that we are all equal in this world. If we are to talk about equality, there is one heavy word that comes into my mind right now and that is slavery. This is, I believe the most severe form of discrimination that ever existed in the history of humankind. Both the ancient times and the modern ones known slavery and when I say this I think about the Egyptean and the American people. We all know a little bit about the slavery history of these people so I will go to another example of discrimination closely related to the slavery in the United States and that is the racial discrimination. Nowadays racial discrimination is one of the most often know forms of differentiating people that we come across with. All the countries characterized by a mixture of people coming from all over the world have this phenomenon of racial discrimination. Sometimes we do not accept the others and reject them because they are Black, or Asian, or European. But is it our fault that we were born that way? More than that, is this a fault at all? What is true is that racial discrimination exists and is unfair. In addition, we must not forget about disability or weight discrimination. Although they are not something that we should laugh at, many people tend to look at obese or disabled persons with different eyes, considering them as not being their equals. There are many other discrimination examples that can be discussed, such as those related to religion, age, unemployment, but I will make my last stop to a nowadays tendency, the discrimination related to sexual orientation. Although some European countries have serious thoughts and debates upon matters such as the legalization of marriages between persons of the same sex it is very difficult for these persons to be accepted by the society the way they are. They are marginalized, rejected and not integrated in the day by day life, at work or in any other place. But this is a long story and mine ends here for the moment by concluding that no matter where we came from or what we did we should all have a chance to equality just as we have the chance to life. We should accept the others the way they are without making them feel bad when they are around us and at the same time continue our paths in life without letting ourselves influenced by what the others say or do.

Discrimination

Discrimination is a controversed subject that can be discussed for hours and hours. I will only begin with a short, theoretical presentation of discrimination and keep the examples of discriminatory attitudes and behaviors for my next blog.
Discrimination represents any situation which supposes a different treatment applied to a person or a group because of their affiliation to a distinct group or social category. Discriminations can be based on race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, weight, disability, employment circumstances.
We are confronting so often with discrimination that, there are cases when we do not even see that we tend to have discriminatory attitudes towards people. It is impossible to eliminate discrimination totally, because, only in an ideal society people addapt each time perfectly to the circumstances and people around, without taking into consideration certain injust criteria. And, as nobody and nothing is perfect in this world, we discriminate many times, either we are aware of that or not.
Discrimination represents a behavior of excluding or reducing the access of certain individuals to certain resources in a society. This unfair treatment of people, which is discrimination is based on prejudice. While discrimination represents a form of behavioral manifestation, prejudice represents a negative attitude towards every member of a group, motivated only by the affiliation to this certain group. Discrimination is also linked to stereotypes, which represent the negative component of prejudice. Prejudice is a bent for agression or for any other negative mood or state towards a group which was stereotyped according to some simple characteristics, based on incomplete information. This definition concentrates on the negative aspects of prejudice and does not refer to all moods against any other category of objects or events.
The targets of hostilities and the victims of prejudice vary from a society to another and from a culture to another. Many times they are associated with the lack of power. Social groups as the Asians, African-Americans, women, homosexuals and unemployed people are among the most prejudiced groups. Less obvious, but dicriminatory is viewed the language accent, occupation, mental health or weight.
Discrimination is the one that implies the expression of the attitudes of prejudice. Still, some studies have shown that discrimination does not always come as a result of prejudice, but as a result of the social context.
To reduce discrimination, countries around the world have issued a series of strategies meant to ensure the equality of chances in the areas with discriminated groups. In the United States these strategies are called “Affirmative Action”, while in Great Britain they are know as “Positive Discrimination”. These strategies do not suppose a reversed discrimination but have the purpose of ensuring equal chances for all citizens, no matter the group they belong to. Positive Discrimination and Affirmative Action suppose the the admittance of disadvantages accumulated by the discriminated groups and also the development of practices and policies which help surpass difficulties.

Tolerance

According to the definition, tolerance means the acknowledgement, the admittance and acceptance of other persons’ or groups’ way of life. This supposes the deliberate choice of not interdicting, impeding or interfering in a person’s or a group’s behavior, even if we do not agree with that kind of behavior and we have enough power to interdict or impede it.
At the level of individuals tolerance requests the acceptance of individual differences, no matter how different our values may be. At the level of institutions and our relations with them tolerance supposes that we listen to the ones who have different opinions and we analize their arguments fairly. We should also sustain our own opinions with strong arguments and accept the fact that sometimes our opinions can be wrong and that the others’ opinions can be valuable. In addition, we should not consider that the ones who have different opinions are our enemies. At the level of society, of the whole community around the world, multiculturalism represents an esential condition of the manifestation of tolerance.
In a word, the caracteristic traits of tolerance are: the respect towards diversity, the respect towards the freedom of choosing, solidarity, social dialogue and responsability.
The opposite attitude of tolerance is intolerance, its manifestations being either in relation to race, religious beliefs, political options, or opposite sex. The negative character of intolerance can express itself through the violation of the person’s liberty and dignity, the deprivation of liberty, marginalization, persecution or even physical retrenchment. Intolerance is synonymous with discrimination.
Here are some steps that we can take in the fight against intolerance. First of all we should find out what the other person’s story is, listen without emiting opinions and double check if the things related are accurate. A second step is represented by the identification of the similarities and differences between our system of beliefs and the other person’s system of beliefs. Another important thing that we should do is to evaluate the differences and establish, with solid arguments, pro and con if the system of beliefs belonging to one or the other person are open to revision. All these being said there should always be found a way towards tolerance, but for this thing to happen we need to be open and accept the others as being different individuals.

The hard way

I have recently encountered some problems being a newcomer in the USA. For the people who were born here in the USA, the visa allowance is a totally unknown issue or just a formality. As many others, Romanians are required to get a visa in order to come to the United States. No problem till here. However, I have a very interesting story for you. Last year I made one of the biggest steps in my life, I got married. Everything was arranged the way my future wife and I wanted and that was the reason why this moment was the greatest of my life. It was the first moment I felt that we could both come to the USA to finally start building our life, our future, thing that was almost impossible before the wedding because of this visa allowance. After some time, we went to the American Embassy in Bucharest to receive the visa, but……big problem. We received instead a very short answer: “she cannot leave now with you because you are only an American resident, not an American citizen. She needs to wait for her visa number to be issued and this can take even three, four years from now” and she completed the phrase by adding “sorry, this is the bureaucracy that even ourselves have to face with”. From that exciting moment that I had only one month before our "visit" to the Embassy I shortly stepped to that feeling of desperation thinking that, I have no choice but to be away from my wife for three, four years. Now, after almost one year, I feel the same, the same pain in my soul but at the same time I still have the hope that everything will be ok. I go back to Romania each summer and winter, the time I spend there sometimes is even four five months, this being a great opportunity for me to taste an almost complete life. However, this is not a way of living for such a young couple like we are. Put yourselves in my shoes. How would you feel? And, why does all this have to happen? Because of bureaucracy?
I work hard, I pay taxes, and I go to school…..The same thing everybody is doing. Still there is a difference…for me at this moment it seems there is only the hard way.

Cultural Assimilation

I intend to discuss in my present blogg about a process that many people tend to mix up with multiculturalism, namely assimilation. As I have already talked about multiculturalism I will make now a brief description of assimilation to have an idea what it is about. Sociology defines cultural assimilation as the taking over of the customs, traditions and the language belonging to a majority by an individual, group of individuals or a minority of people, having as consequence the loss of the characteristic traits of the minority.
Cultural assimilation can be observed very well at the level of the immigrant population. Immigrants get most of the times through a state of change after entering a country with new cultural characteristics, different from theirs. Step by step, either easier or harder, they are assimilated in the society that becomes a new home for them, gaining similar traits with the members of this specific society.
Multiculturalism goes hand in hand with assimilation, being totally opposed to it. Where there is assimilation, there is no place for multiculturalism. Assimilation takes a culture, and makes that culture like your own by following your cultural beliefs, while multiculturalism preserves cultural differences. It has been said that assimilation is something similar with the term ‘melting pot’ because people are changing both cultures into something that they are not. However, many state that assimilation has negative implications, as it contributes to the disappearance, the loss of the distinctive traits of the national minorities and the aboriginal cultures. It is important to understand what the process of cultural assimilation can do to the level of minority cultures because, once we are aware of the destructive nature of assimilation, we can also take a stand and fight against the disappearance of cultural values.

A Better Understanding of the Multicultural Phenomenon

The notion of culture is very difficult to define, as it covers a wide and hard to limit area. In addition, various social sciences have approached the term from particular points of view, but they have not reached a complete definition yet. A culture contains the norms and values specific to a certain group of people, the products of their spiritual and material activities. It is untrue to consider that a society is formed of one culture only, as this society will always contain more than one culture. This kind of society can be called a multicultural society, a grouping of various cultural entities living in a common physical space without explicitly intending to communicate and cooperate.
The multicultural societies are existent realities, in which people belonging to different groups get in contact accidentally when certain life circumstances impose it. The main trait of a peaceful cohabitation in the multicultural society is tolerance, subject that I will talk about in one of my following bloggs. With the help of tolerance, several different cultures are able to coexist in the same space, environment, without having conflicts in general. Another aspect, also to be discussed further is globalization, a tendency of nowadays society that stimulates towards a continuous understanding, acceptance and affirmation of diversity.
In the process of building social identity, multiculturalism opposes the homogenizing strategies of the modern society, considering them oppressive and emphasizing differences and diversity. The ideology of multiculturalism proposes itself to adjust communities in order to sustain their different cultures. However, this fact does not mean that multiculturalism opposes to changes. On the contrary, it ask for respect and appreciation from all cultural groups towards other groups and also gives the individual the right to leave or refuse his own cultural group.

American Multiculturalism

The topic of multiculturalism has always been a subject for many debates, describing the cultural and ethnic diversity of a nation. Multiculturalism directly relates to the people in the United States, and even more specifically to the problem of maintaining it in different countries.
United States of America is a multicultural and multiethnic country where people from different parts of the world have chosen to live. The immigrants who came to settle here carried with them their various backgrounds of culture, ethnic origin, values and beliefs.
For most part of America's history the country's doors were open to the tired, the poor, for the people who simply wanted a better life. Coming from different countries, races and religions, they were driven by the desire and hope of finding new opportunities, the promise land that accomplishes everybody’s dreams.
It is important to learn the aspects of the American multiculturalism in order to find the best way to live harmoniously within the multitude of cultures that characterizes this country. Therefore, people need to understand that they need to have their own identity, to be independent and at the same time interdependent with the others. They also have to realize that the others are different individuals, with different cultural background than theirs and once they understand this fact they will be able to find more place for tolerance, for acceptance. This will lead to a better communication and to a peaceful and harmonious life in the multicultural society, which is for the benefit of the entire humanity.