Sociology Applied 5 (Gender, Race and Ethnicity) - Essay Example

11th April Personal Discrimination Experience of Gender/Race or Ethni Discrimination is referred toas a treating a group or a person in an unfair manner on the basis of prejudice. This term is immensely prevalent in our society. Even though discrimination used to be very dominant in past, in certain regions of modern American system, it is still seen. I and my family have also experienced ethnic discrimination. Sometimes it happens because of different color, race, ethnicity or gender but at times, it also happens when one is unable to speak English.

Me and my family experienced discrimination when we moved to United States. The first time my brother experienced discrimination was when he was giving interview for a new job. The receptionist was very aggressive and discourteous in the way she responded to my brother’s questions and guided him. She asked number of questions to him as if she was terrified of the confirmation of my brother’s job in their company. She asked so many questions and it made my brother even more nervous since he was already anxious about the interview.

In another incident, my parents went to obtain my mother’s ID card. The lady who was assisting us asked countless questions as if she was investigating them for a corruption. My father kept on answering her questions to which she said, “Why are you answering my questions? Cant your wife talk?” My father replied that she cannot speak English, to this the lady said, “That’s what I too thought.” At the end, she refused to issue my mother an ID card with an excuse that we didn’t provide complete information and proper answers to her questions.

My own experience related to discrimination was when, in the same year I got enrolled in high school. I was perceived by others as a Mexican student, who cannot speak English. I clearly remember the first day of my school when I was walking nervously to look for a seat near a student from the same ethnicity. I was forcing myself to stay since I was feeling so uncomfortable that I felt like running away. Students used to call me illegal, wetback and many other offensive terms. As discrimination exist in our society, so does fairness, kindness and tolerance do.

My family was being supported by our neighbors who were very helpful and respectful to us. They offered us their support and help in anything which we needed. In school, my counselors and teachers were always encouraging and supporting me and never doubted my potential and skills to exceed others in school. Despite of such discrimination, I never held myself back. They couldn’t stop me from succeeding and therefore I and my family became able to overcome these obstacles. For the time being, we used to feel inferior but as soon as we got mingled with Native Americans, our perceptions related to us changed.

Tajfel’s Social Identity Theory This theory suggests that discrimination can be defined by our propensity to view ourselves as part of a group. Then, we start perceiving others as either part of the same group as us or not. Therefore, people are then being judged as ‘us’ and ‘them’. This theory implies in our case also, where some of the Native Americans perceived us as different from them while others respected those differences and tried to help us in every way as much as they can.

Works CitedPrejudice and Stereotypes. Psychological Theories of Prejudice and Discrimination. April 2005. Web. 12 April 2013.