Discrimination as a Modern Issue - Essay Example

Discrimination Conflict is an integral part of our life. Conflict theory reflects the ideas of Karl Marx. According to him, our society is divided into two classes: working class and powerful class. Powerful class possesses resources needed to produce goods, while working class works for powerful to earn the life. Such situation becomes the reason for conflict as people from powerful group try to do their best to save their positions. The people from working class on the contrary try to obtain more power. This creates conflict between them and this conflict is natural as people always try to defend their interests. Inequality becomes the reason of conflict and, unfortunately, it is always presented in that society in this or that form. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes” (The Communist Manifesto 35). In any society one group is more powerful and another group is less powerful. For example, being physically strong, men have always have privileges over women. This caused racial discrimination that made women struggle for their rights, thus conflict has always taken place between men and women. When we talk about discrimination, we usually can’t hide our sorrow. Discrimination appears to be one of the most unpleasant problems in our society that causes many conflicts and makes many people hurt both physically and mentally. Thinking about discrimination, the first form of discrimination that comes to our mind is racial as this form has always been carefully studied and discussed by different scholars. Many historical events are connected with it. However, we should not forget about other forms of discrimination, which are not less offensive. They are gender, religious and age discrimination. Discrimination is a result of inequality. In conditions of discrimination one group has privileges, which another group is deprived of. This condition makes another group suffer. In conditions of racial discrimination people of different races are treated differently. The most widespread kind of this discrimination is the difference in the attitude towards white and black race. Black people suffered terrible discrimination through history and unfortunately continue experiencing difficulties because of the color of their skin. The main argument of whites was the ability of blacks to work as they have always been more physically developed. Moreover, the color of the skin of black people allowed them to work continuously in the sun without burns. Thus, white people decided to make black people work for them for free, considering them to be created specially for that. Whites have always stated that blacks lack intelligence, thus they are able to fulfill physical work only. Black women could not be considered beautiful “As a girl and young woman, hair, body, and color were society's trinity in determining female beauty and identity, the cultural and value-laden gang of three that formed the boundaries and determined the extent of women's visibility, influence, and importance. For the most part, they still are. We learn as girls that in ways both subtle and obvious, personal and political, our value as females is largely determined by how we look. As we enter womanhood, the pervasive power of this trinity is demonstrated again and again in how we are treated by the men we meet, the men we work for, the men who wield power, how we treat each other and, most of all, ourselves. For black women, the domination of physical aspects of beauty in women's definition and value render us invisible, partially erased, or obsessed, sometimes for a lifetime, since most of us lack the major talismans of Western beauty. Black women find themselves involved in a lifelong effort to self-define in a culture that provides them no positive reflection” (Nelson ). Black people have always had to prove that they are not less intelligent than whites and their good physical development is not something whites should take advantage of. Blacks have to prove that they have their own culture, outstanding poets, painters and singers. These outstanding people helped blacks a lot to overcome the difficulties connected with low self-esteem caused by many years of humiliation caused by discrimination. Famous poet Langston Hughes (1902-1967) wrote “the night is beautiful, so the faces of my people, the starts are beautiful, so the eyes of my people. Beautiful also is the sun, beautiful also are the souls of my people” (Hughes, cited in Rampersad, 336). Religious discrimination also represents a serious problem. In the conditions of religious discrimination some people are treated negatively because of their religious beliefs. This type of discrimination violates the commonly established principle, according to which all the people have a right to choose their religious beliefs. Nobody should impose his/her own views on other people. This kind of discrimination prevents democracy from being established in the whole world. Until religious discrimination exists, it will represent a serious obstacle to the development of democracy. Age discrimination is another problem that is usually met at the workplace. The trouble is that employers prefer to give a job only to the people who belong to particular age group. The preferred age is usually 24-42. Those people who are younger or older are usually not given a job even if they are good specialists. Elder people are usually abused by their relatives who prefer to send them to special establishments not to take care of them, forgetting that they are people, who are still alive and need care and sympathy. Adolescents also face hard discrimination as they are usually offended by other people because of their age, they are usually reminded that they are young and have no right to express their own opinion. The last form of discrimination to be discussed in this paper is gender discrimination. This is the most offensive type of discrimination that modern society faces. It is very upsetting that men and women, who perfectly understand that they can’t exist without each other have so terrible conflict. While they should live in peace and love each other, they try to determine who is more powerful instead. This is stupid and unacceptable but the conflict continues to exist and, unfortunately, it is necessary to admit that it is becoming more and more serious. The roots of this conflict are in our history. It is a well-known fact that women have always been offended by men, because they are physically stronger. Feeling their physical superiority, men always tried to hurt and humiliate women to establish a power over them. Women were not allowed even to get education as their primary role always was to serve men and bring up children. Consequently, women started struggling for their rights and this struggle still takes place. It is really awful to realize that in our modern democratic society women are still terribly abused, hurt mentally and physically. They suffer from terrible discrimination at the workplace as employers prefer to give a job to men rather them to women. Women are not given a job, they have no help from men about the house. The position of women is still horrible. We can make a conclusion that discrimination still represents a serious problem. It is really upsetting that in the modern democratic society this problem still makes people suffer. Certainly, now people’s rights are regulated by laws, but it seems that it can’t change human nature. Powerful group is still struggling to sustain power and weak group is still being hurt physically and mentally. What can we do about that? The only way is to develop democracy and to develop mentally. The world “discrimination” means “to make distinction”. We should not make any distinctions, we are equal. Works Cited Nelson, Jill.  "Straight, No Chaser—How I Became a Grown-Up Black Woman— WHO'S THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL?". New York Times, 1997; Marx,K and Engels, F. The Communist Manifesto, introduction by Martin Malia,New York: Penguin group, 1998; Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes Volume 2: I Dream A World. In Ask Your Mama!, Oxford University Press, 1988. Read More