Analysis of Two Situations of Discrimination - Essay Example

Working as a cashier in a store, one day I was faced with a situation in which a white lady made a ride remark about my ethnicity. Our store has a policy that customers can only use a card to purchase if the bill amounts to a minimum of three dollars. This lady bought a lollipop and wanted to make the payment through a credit card. I politely explained to her that this was not possible since her transaction did not amount to the minimum set by our store manager. Instead of trying to abide by this rule, she commented that such behavior was typical of “you Chinese people”. I was disappointed and heartbroken by this comment, as it was not my fault and I had no way of assisting her.

Nevertheless, I was viewed as a troublemaker for the customers just because of my ethnicity. I feel that had the cashier been a white native, he or she would not have been subjected to such comments by the same customer. This is an example of the social prejudice that people nurture in their hearts when they have too little information about a group of people whom they have to deal with daily (Ruchlis 2). This discrimination, according to Ruchlis, forms the third level of social prejudice (8).

On the other hand, I sometimes act as a perpetrator, too, practicing social discrimination and prejudice against certain groups of people that I either do not like or do not feel comfortable with. I have often held a negative view of the black population of the area where I live and work in. Some of this discrimination has resulted due to unpleasant experiences that I have had with that group (Ruchlis 2), and those feelings of resentment have been augmented by the general views of my friends and the people around me about the black populace (Ruchlis 4).

I generally believe them to be rude and stingy, and although I am well aware that holding such negative notions about a community, in general, is faulty on my part (Ruchlis 3), I still keep on harboring such feelings. For instance, just recently a black lady came to our store to buy groceries. It was the first time she had come, so she needed some directions as to the location of certain items and some help with choosing among the options. Although I assisted her, my manner was very rude. I did not address her as “ma’am” or “lady”, rather I answered her questions merely with “yes” and “no”, and overall had a very exasperated air to me.

Thinking that she would be so stingy as to deny me any tip for assisting her, I did not put my best foot forward and did not give her my best advice. Nevertheless, she was very sweet of me, and on her way out at the counter, she gave me handsome compensation for helping her, which was very surprising to me.