Running head: DISCRIMINATION EXPOSED
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DISCRIMINATION EXPOSED
The Truth about Discrimination
Heather Bone
University of Central Oklahoma
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Discrimination is the prejudicial and/or distinguishing treatment of an individual based on their
actual or perceived membership in a certain group or category, "in a way that is worse than the
way people are usually treated." It involves the group's initial reaction or interaction, influencing
the individual's actual behavior towards the group or the group leader, restricting members of
one group from opportunities or privileges that are available to another group, leading to the
exclusion of the individual or entities based on logical or irrational decision making. (Collin,
1992) Discrimination happens in the work place in many different ways, it also happens in preemployment, such as during an interview or assessment. Discrimitation has a broad range of way
in which the invidual can be discriminated. Different types and forms of discrimination include
but are not limited to, sexism, racism, sexual, religious, size (fat or thin), social class and wealth.
Regardless of the type discrimination is unethical.
It's never ethical to discriminate in the workplace. In the United States, however, discrimination
against people based on their ethnicity, racial or cultural orientation is strictly forbidden under
federal and state laws in all sectors, including the employment sector. Ethical discrimination
discrimination often harms companies because companies do best with the most qualified
employees and discrimination often prevents qualified people from attaining the jobs they would
best serve. As a result it also harms customers and investors who depend on the company to hire
and reward the most qualified employees who can provide us with the best products and services
in the most efficient way available.
The consequences for discrimination can be brutial to a company and the influence could hurt
the organizations reputation, leading to futher ramifications that only hurt the company and the
employees. Not all discrimination is intentional or conscious. Sometimes people favor some
groups of people over others as a matter of personal preference, or unconsciously accept
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stereotypes. Sometimes no one in particular is prejudiced, but the policies or procedures of an
organization are prejudiced. For example, before cival rights movment some states required a
literacy test for voters and many blacks were given a poor education and couldn’t pass the
literacy tests. In many pre-employment screening there are altidute test administered to evaluate
and individual personality or character, however this isn’t necessary a job requirement and it is
not a reflection of an individual’s qualifications to meet job requirements it is simply about their
attitude. Based on the definition of discrimination I would say that these personality test could be
considered a form of discrimination as they are used to weave through the candidates. But they
do not serve to investigate the true nature of an individual jobs capacity and the qualifications in
which they hold.
When we talk about ethics the book has defined it as being the discipline that examines one’s
moral standards or the moral standards of a society to evaluate their reasonableness and their
implications for one’s life. (Velasquez, 2011) Job discrimination is unethical and immoral. It
unfairly harms people of a certain group, it’s disrespectful, and it violates the ideals of equal
moral equality, violates people’s moral rights, and violates the ideal of equal opportunity.
Although it is clear that job discrimination exists, it’s not clear how widespread it is. However
statistics show that in fiscal year 2012, the EEOC filed 122 lawsuits including 86 individual
suits, 26 multiple-victim suits (with fewer than 20 victims) and 10 systemic suits. The EEOC's
legal staff resolved 254 lawsuits for a total monetary recovery of $44.2 million. (US Equal
Employment Oppurtunity Commission, 2013)
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DISCRIMINATION EXPOSED
References
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