Impact of Prejudice and Discrimination - Research Paper Example

IMPACT OF PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION (Past and Present Events) ID Number: of (affiliation) Location of University: Professors Name: Date of Submission: Estimated word count: 1,933 (text only) Introduction History is replete with examples of prejudice and discrimination committed against racial or ethnic groups; usually these groups belonging to the minority of a general population. Perhaps it is a human tendency to exclude others belonging to another group because of certain biases in a way that betrays the larger groups prejudicial and discriminatory acts out of ignorance, certain reactions to perceived threats coming from the minority, and a general feeling of racism. Ideas of certain racial or ethnic groups can persist over long periods of time due to prejudgment or wrong perceptions and a tendency to generalize everyone belonging to that particular group as having a personal trait, characteristic, behavior, or feature that is indicative of the minority group. People can sometimes be blind to the truth even if actual observation belies their mis-perceptions due to a consistent refusal to see that some people can be very different from what they make them out to be in real life. Slavery in America during its early years is a good example of how prejudice or discrimination can have long-lasting consequences if perpetrated by a larger group. Racism arising from ignorance, bias, prejudice, and discrimination results in exclusion of a minority group from the political, economic, and social spheres of society. Its effects usually are negative especially if racism is committed systematically and embedded in the psyche of the general population which in turn helps to perpetuate the wrong ideas and wrong perceptions of a minority group such that it becomes almost a permanent feature of a society, carried from one generation to the next generation. Its ill effects can be felt or seen in lower incomes for the group and exclusion from opportunities usually accorded to members of the general population. Biased treatment of minority groups also reflect badly on the whole society because it is indicative of its own intolerance and inflexibility towards other people who many not share the same beliefs. Discussion There were cases in the past in which discrimination was well documented because it was made official policy and there are also recent cases in which discrimination is not so blatant or overt but still results in the systematic exclusion of a minority group. All cases have negative impacts on the minority people discriminated against. It is the aim of this brief paper to discuss one event of discrimination and prejudice in the past and then discuss a more recent similar event in contemporary times. Both events (past and present) illustrate the negative impact of mis-perceptions prevalent in particular times and these two events are compared for their similarities and differences in terms derived from its socio-cultural-historical perspective (Schaefer, 2011). The past event concerns the expulsion of the Jews from England through an official edict issued by King Edward I back in 1290. This was the culmination of two centuries of increasing harassment and persecution of the Jewry in England and persisted throughout the Middle Ages as people were very superstitious due to ignorance. The Jewish stereotype was seen as a distinct personality who cared only for money and nothing else at all due to rampant money lending activities of the Jews who lent at high rates of interest resulting in usury (New, 1996). The perception of the general English populace was that Jews benefited from their lending activities and got rich at the expense of poor English people. English laws at that time prohibited the imposition of interest on money as it was considered to be against their church but Judaism allows lending for profit like the English literature character of Shylock (Bloom, 2010). The economic activities of the Jews who were usually better off than their English counterparts created resentment among the common people and this resentment was further fueled by rumors such as the so-called “blood libel” in which Jews caught Christian kids for ritual sacrifices. The Jewry in England suffered as a result of these rumors (modern-day urban legends) in which there was widespread anti-Jew sentiment (or anti-Semitism); while anti-Semitism was a bit widespread throughout much of Europe, the anti-Semitism in English was quite virulent as it was England where Jews were first required by law to wear a badge marking them as Jews. Laws were passed persecuting the Jews in England such as increasingly oppressive rates of taxation to offset the wealth they had supposedly accumulated from their extortionist lending activities. The Jews in thirteenth-century England were vulnerable (Levy, 2005) as they were not considered as English subjects and therefore not covered by the protection of the Magna Carta. The Jews were considered as direct subjects of the king of England because they mostly were merchants and as direct subjects (unlike the general English population who were likely to be under the protection of their respective lords), the Jews were at the mercy of the English king who could be whimsical at times and issue edicts discriminatory against the Jews and prejudicial to the interest of the Jews, such as imposition of a very high rate of tax without the concurrence of the English parliament because the Jews were not considered as regular English subjects. King Edward I could have revoked or rescinded this expulsion edict to promote harmony among his subjects, like the Jews living in England. But successive kings merely continued this practice as these kings needed the money from taxation to pay their luxurious lifestyles, finance wars and expeditions, and also to enrich the treasury. English kings could instead asked Parliament to pass laws that will penalize discrimination against the Jews, like current laws in France where anti-Semitism is a criminal offense. It was Oliver Cromwell who allowed Jews to return in 1657 in exchange for financial expertise and since then, Jews made big progress (Stansky, 2011). Shakespeares character Shylock in the Merchant of Venice was a Jew. A more recent or contemporary event in which discrimination is also practiced on ethnic group is the current situation in western Burma (the modern name of this country is Myanmar). It concerns the Rohingya people of Burma today who speak a different language than most of the Burmese people; Rohingyas speak an Indo-European language that is more closely related to the languages of India and Bengal (located on the extreme eastern region of the Indian sub-continent and is today called as Bangladesh) while most Burmese speak the Sino-Tibetan related language. Additionally, the Rohingyas are Muslims while most Burmese are Buddhists. Even the United Nations considers the Rohingya people as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world as they are openly discriminated against and targeted by the autocratic Burmese government which is ruled by a military junta today lead by Burmese generals close to President Thein Sein. Most Burmese people, even those who claim to profess modern-day democratic ideals, do not consider the Rohingyas as Burmese but alien people who migrated to Burma illegally during the rule of the British Empire a few centuries ago. The discrimination against these peoples have resulted in some 100,000 of them living in ghettos (urban slums) and refugee camps along the Thai-Burmerse border to escape the political persecution and occasional riots perpetrated against them by the majority Burmese who were incited by politicians using nationalism as reason. Their numbers are greatly diminished and many Rohingyas live in camps set up by the Burmese authorities intended for internally-displaced persons. Many of the Rohingyas choose to leave using whatever means necessary to escape a harsh life under Burma today; there are many cases of Rohingyas leaving Burma on flimsy boats which capsized or sunk in heavy seas similar to the Vietnamese boat people refugees some decades ago when South Vietnam fell to the North Vietnamese communist army after the United States of America chose to exit the Vietnam War. The impact of prejudice against the Rohingya by the main Burmese ethnic majority are to include racial slurs such as describing these people as ugly as ogres, the national government of Myanmar do not consider them as Burmese but rather as stateless refugees who came from areas in Bangladesh, and even the supposedly gentle Buddhist monk organizations take active steps to block foreign aid and international assistance intended for the Rohingya communities in Burma. A military junta in existence for almost five decades already has imposed educational restrictions on the Rohingya and these people turn to Islamic schools as their only viable option. The government policy of exclusion was made official when Burmese government authorities came out with a list of recognized ethnic minorities in the country but the Rohingyas were not included in this list (Dittmer, 2010). The Rohingya people are not allowed to apply for Burmese citizenship to formalize their stay because the government considers them as stateless Bengali Muslims who entered Burma illegally in the years past during British rule. The Burmese Army has been accused of committing atrocities and arbitrary violence against them and the Burmese police is likewise accused of making mass arrests based on mere suspicion of membership in a Muslim organization, especially if that organization is suspected of terrorism. The end result is that the Rohingyas have turned to violence and terror themselves to help protect their own people and now have links to the Bangladeshi terror networks which include as well terror organizations based in Pakistan. The civil and political rights of the Rohingyas have been severely curtailed such as not being allowed to travel without prior permission, they cannot own land, they cannot vote, and they cannot acquire Burmese citizenship. A Rohingya couple is not allowed to have more than two children; many of them suffered human rights violations like forced eviction, high taxation, various forms of extortion, even rape, murder, and execution. The similarity between the Jews of early England and the modern-day Rohingyas is that both groups suffered prejudice and discrimination due to religious persecution which coincide with ethnic persecution (OShannassy, 2000). Thirteenth-century England under King Edward I was mostly Protestant while majority of the Burmese people today are Buddhists and so religion is a major cause of the discrimination by the majority against an identifiable minority. The Jews in early England were barred from owning land or engage in any other kind of legitimate forms of business, hence most Jews became money lenders and financiers. The Rohingyas are barred from owning land in Burma and they are also facing many financial restrictions on them. The difference of these two events is that the recent Rohingya problem is in a different place of geography and occurring in a different era but essentially both events are the same. The other difference is the Jews today are so widely dispersed throughout the world and they have a state of their own while the Rohingyas have no offical territory and restricted to only a small area in the region, such as in the borders between Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma, and Thailand. Conclusion These two groups were chosen because they illustrate quite well how human relations in the last few centuries have not changed at all for the better. People are still biased due to so many prejudices born out of ignorance and preconceived notions which are usually wrong of certain peoples because of embedded stereotypes in their psyche or minds. Discrimination today is the product of bigotry when people view others with hatred, disgust, contempt, distrust, intolerance, and condescension and this is a bit surprising considering how the modern world is connected by leading-edge information and communications technology (ICT) such as the Internet, wireless smart phones, and satellite imaging. People should open not only their minds but their hearts too. References Bloom, H. (2010, May 7). The Jewish question: British anti-Semitism. Retrieved March 21, 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/books/review/Bloom-t.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0 Dittmer, L. (2010). Burma or Myanmar? The struggle for national identity. Hackensack, NJ, USA: World Scientific. Levy, R. S. (2005). Anti-semitism: A historical encyclopedia of prejudice and persecution. Santa Barbara, CA, USA: ABC-CLIO. New, M. (1996, January). Anti-semitic stereotypes: A paradigm of otherness in English popular culture, 1660-1830. Eighteenth-century Fiction, 8(2), 293-295. OShannassy, T. (2000). Burmas excluded majority: Women, dictatorship, and the democracy movement. London, UK: Progressio. Schaefer, R. T. (2011). Racial and ethnic groups. Sydney, Australia: Pearson Education, Ltd. Stansky, P. (2011). Trials of the diaspora: A history of anti-Semitism in England. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 41(4), 635-636. Read More