Discrimination and Prejudice in Society - Essay Example

Discrimination refers to an act of unfair treatment directed at an individual or group because of some characteristic they possess. An individual could have negative feelings for a group, but due to some policies, social pressure, or law, they might not be able to act on their feelings. Equally, it is a possibility that a non-prejudiced individual can act discriminatorily to avoid being ostracized by his or her affiliation group. The difference between discrimination and prejudice lies majorly in implementation. Prejudice is an attitude while discrimination is an action.

Thus, discrimination could be perceived as the implementation of a prejudiced attitude in action. An example of discrimination is a retailer refusing to serve a customer because of the customer’s racial affiliation or a customer refusing service because of the racial affiliation of the person serving them (Chin, 2004).

Institutional discrimination is can be defined as discrimination incorporated into the organizational process, structures, procedures, and institution (Chin, 2004). An example of institutional discrimination is racial discrimination where some individuals are denied some rights because of their racial orientation. An example is the apartheid policy practiced in South Africa in the 80s and early 90s.

The conflict theory, suggests that if resources are scarce, individuals will act discriminatively against other groups because of prejudice. The theory bases its rationale on the notion that if there exists competition for survival people tend to favor the continued survival of their kind and hence discriminate against other groups (Chin, 2004). Read More