State of Racism and Gender Discrimination

?State of Racism and sex activity difference What is disparity? inconsistency is the prejudicial treat custodyt of a different person or groups of citizenry based on certain characteristics. In the United States in that location ar seven defended characteristics or classes that are defined by style VII of the cultured Rights present of 1964, the Age discrimination Employ handst Act, and the Ameri mountain Disabilities Act that squeeze discover non be discriminated against race, color, religion, national origin, sex, tour, and disability. This typography focuses on 2 of the protected classes race and versed urge dissimilarity. What is racial disagreement?Racism ( withal cognise as disparity against a race or races) is a teaching that all members of one racial group require superior characteristics or abilities specific to that group it allows the ranking of races based on superiority and implies the grandeur of one race over the others (Racism 2008). Sup remacy ideology is summation to racism. In the 20th century, the face of racism was largely black and discolor however, in recent times there have been examples of racism against autochthonic the Statesns, Asian Americans, African Americans, Latin Americans, and some other immigrant groups (Racism in the United States 2008).Today, racism has become multi-colored and multicultural. Racism and racial discrepancy are in truth powerful forces which unfortunately harm the all told economy. Racism can take place in many areas such as the think over grocery, housing market, educational system, and health care services. Even right away, racial discrimination against minorities (especially African Americans) can be found in the housing market (i. e. making renting apartments, taking out mortgages, and buying houses ut or so(prenominal)ly nasty or even impossible in some areas).This is non to say, that there has non been significant attempts and progress made, in order to fall ra cial discrimination. Racial discrimination and separationism used to be legal crosswise the southern states of the United States (Martin Luther nance and the fight against racism in the US 2008). Many people have tried to s superlative racial discrimination throughout the history of the United States. One extremely influential and pivotal leader that many people are familiar with is Martin Luther King. While this paper is not a historic telling of Martin Luther King, his ideals are as influential today as they were then.He did not want people to be judged by the color of their skin only if by the capability of their character. He tried to revive the Civil Rights movement in the mid 1950s. However, he was tragically assassinated on the balcony of his hotel in Memphis, Tennes bump into (Martin Luther King and the fight against racism in the US 2008). After his passing and after many unfathomed changes in the constitution, African American communities are no longer curb in their rights from society (Martin Luther King Jr. 2008).Today, the eyes of ethics and the highest laws of the stain bids society to stop racial discrimination in all its forms, along with other types of discriminations defined under title VII, ADA, and ADEA. sexual practice or switch on diversity is the belief that one gender is much valuable than the other, and can in any case create doubts in the abilities of a certain sex and change stereotypes (Sexism 2008). In most countries around the world, gender discrimination is illegal in most circumstances (Manohar 2008). In the United States, designation VII protects against gender and k forthwithledgeable discrimination. in that location are two types of gender discrimination disparate treatment and disparate impact (Gender or Sex Discrimination 2008). Disparate treatment is treating people differently because of his or her sex (Gender or Sex Discrimination 2008). The other is disparate impact, when the company insurance policy d oes not include certain individuals or does not include everyone as (Gender or Sex Discrimination 2008). The fire department is a good example of disparate impact. The qualifications of the fire department are extreme (i. e. he ability to carry and lift a lot of weight), which makes it lowering for women to qualify for a military control as a firefighter (Gender or Sex Discrimination 2008). These requirements are key to go a fire fighter and many argue that they are more than necessary. However, this does not mean that the fire department does not want to work with women. It is save the policy to set the standards high. Another interesting example A masculine employee was fired by his employer because he refused to work at night ( low-pitched origin Encyclopedia 2002).This company had a policy saying that women did not have to work at night because the company was located in a high crime area. The male employees had to work the night shifts for the company, era the women em ployees did not. The male employee in question filed a suit under rubric VII against his employer claiming sexual discrimination. The company claimed that several female employees would quit if they were laboured to work at night. The company to a fault claimed the policy was a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ).This case is interesting because BFOQ can be used as a acknowledgment to allow certain discrimination. BFOQ is an exception provided by Title VII for jobs that require a specific religion, sex, national origin, or age as a reasonable necessity for normal operations of a business. Although BFOQ applies to the fire department qualifications, the courts deemed that the company who asked but its male workers to take the night-shift was could not use BFOQ as a valid defense ( miniscule Business Encyclopedia 2002).In the piece of work, sexual discrimination usually involves sex becoming a federal agent in deciding on who gets a job, promotion, or other benefits. Many researches have shown that women are treated unfairly compared to men in hiring, promotions, and benefits (Small Business Encyclopedia 2002). For instance, a youthfulness man, who dropped out from high school and does not have a degree, gets a job in a high position over a young woman who has her masters degree. While the young woman is break down qualified for the position than the young man, the man gets the job.This paradigm illustrates gender discrimination. The turnaround time has also held true. There have been cases where men have been discriminated against, as discussed above. There is also a particular form of sexual discrimination called sexual harassment. Sexual harassment includes inappropriate words or actions of a sexual nature to the opposite sex (Small Business Encyclopedia 2002). acts wait managers to understand that sexual discrimination may exist in the work and companies to take proactive measures to ensure that the environment is free from sexual discrimi nation.The early law of any federal importance in the United States regarding discrimination was The Civil Rights Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 it was mainly established to protect Southern African Americans from the abuse cosmos delivered to them from the Ku Klux Klan. Although the Act had been interpreted by the courts many times, it had very little effect. For one, the Act was broadly speaking defined and provided loopholes for state officials, who did not get litigated under the statue. However, this hole was spotty up in 1961, when the Supreme Court of the United States decided Monroe v.Pape. The ratiocination included several provisions to close the inadequacies found in the Civil Act of 1871. The Act is now one of the most powerful statues, in which the State and Federal courts may protect those whose rights are being violated. In particular, Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act enforces the disallowion of semipublic sector drill discriminat ion based on race, color, national origin, sex, and religion, but it rarely applies to the offstage sector. Eventually, the first Federal law to promote equal opportunity and prohibit employment discrimination in the United States was passed.The law is called the Executive localize 8802, also known as the Fair function Act. It was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. The law promotes and ensures that all Federal agencies and departments involved with the defense industry were administered without discrimination to race, color, or nationality on the vocational and training programs being offered to its employees and contractors. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial segregation in schools, public places, and employment regard little of race, color, religion, sex, or nationality.Originally conceived to help protect African Americans, it also explicitly included sections to protect women in the musical note as a result the Equal physical exertion probabilit y charge was founded as well. At the time of its creation, this law was seen as one of the most important legislations that abolished all forms and respects of discrimination. During its time at the House Judiciary Committee, the bill was expanded and strengthened to include bans against racial discrimination in employment, segregation in all public facilities, and protection of the rights of black voters.The bill was later on passed out to the House Rules Committee, at which the committees chairman Howard W. smith expressed his intention in canning the bill. But after pressures from civil rights groups and movements, prexy metalworker finally let the bill pass through and it was brought to a vote. It passed in the House on February 10, 1964 and was sent to the Senate. During the bills uphold at the Senate, a group of southern state Senators launched a two month filibuster trying to embarrass its passage through the Senate.In compromise, a revised weaker bill than the House ve rsion was brought to the tables for Senate vote on June 10, 1964 and was passed. Originally conceived to help protect African Americans, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also explicitly included sections to protect Womens Rights in the bill. Added by Howard W. Smith of the House Rules Committee Chairman, it was first seen as a guise to rule out the bill from passing (since at that time it was normally conceived that some groups of men within the House and Senate would oppose Womens Rights).The Bill was later luckyly passed and marked the first time legislation was put into effect to protect women. The Civil Rights Act was later followed by the Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly known as the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which expanded the barrier of discrimination to include the housing sector. It specifically prohibited discrimination on the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, nationality and later gender, and the protection of families with children and of t he handicapped.The following important anti-discrimination law to pass was the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. With more than 70% of women with children in the U. S. work force, the law was setup to protect women against discrimination due to their pregnancy (or intentions of becoming pregnant). Employers with prejudices against working mothers (due to the fear of disoriented productivity, surplus costs, expenditures and accommodations associated with pregnant women) who might have been correspondingly to discriminate against them were deterred.The Act also enables the distribution of a financial pay-out as a result of discrimination against pregnant women. In 2006 alone, The U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission handled 4,901 claims with monetary amount yielded totaling about $10. 4 million (EEOC 2006). The Civil Rights Act was amend again for the last time in 1991, in an effort to lecture various limits imposed by past United States Supreme Courts decisions on the rights of employees who had filed law suits against their employers.It was basically setup to bring forrad the emotional distress damages caused by employment discrimination while setting a limit on the amount the jury could award (List of Anti-Discrimination Acts 2008). Before the 1991 Act was put into effect, a plaintiff could only sue their employer for discrimination and recover lost earningss or salary, lost benefits, attorney fees, court fees, other legal fees, and other costs associated with reinstatement.To prevent from unreasonable court settlements, the punitive damages awarded was capped at $300,000 for most cases (excluding ethnic and/or racial discrimination) (List of Anti-Discrimination Acts 2008). The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission calm handles thousands of discrimination cases every year. There is statistical register that suggests racial discrimination in the workplace is still commonplace. In 2000, the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ) reported a study in North Carolina that states accusations of racial harassment on the job nearly quadrupled mingled with 1996 and 2000.Mindy Weinstein, attorney at the EEOC office in Charlotte, North Carolina, says, Theres a new generation of workers today who were not raised in the civil rights movement, who may not have been aware of the laws that came about because of that time We think its largely a reproof of whats going on in society as a whole (Racial Discrimination 2008). Since Barack Obamas win the 2008 presidential election, people would like to believe that racism has seen its last day unfortunately this is not the case. gibe to the research of Brown University, during 1970 to 1994, when America liberalized their uncompetitive banking markets, it reduced the wage fissure between blacks and fairs. Economists call the wage difference between black workers and unobjectionable workers the racial wage flutter (most of which comes from bias). Gary Becker, a Nobel-prize winning economist, argued that prejudice of employees was economically inefficient. Brown University found that deregulation of the American banking industry increased contest and lowered interest rates on loans.People found it easier to surface their own business. They found that in an initially high degree of racial bias, the black-white wage gap declined the most. This try out shows competition itself can not eliminate racial discrimination. Competition can only reduce the bias from employers. changing attitudes takes a lot of time and effort even though Obamas election victory denotes a change in history, there is still a long way to go ( cannonball along and Red read 2008). Wage gaps can be seen in between genders as well.though a wage gap between white men and white women may be expected, it is surprising to see this is not the only wage gap that exits between the sexes. In other racial groups, such as African Americans, Latinos, and Asian/Pacific Islanders, men earn mor e money than women within their own respective race (U. S. Census Bureau 2000). accord to a study, women working 41 to 44 hours per week earn 84. 6% of what men earn working similar hours women working more than 60 hours per week earn only 78. % of what men earn working the aforesaid(prenominal) hours (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2002). More over, women tend to work longer before they welcome promotions and get a higher pay. Most people think a higher education may increase womens salary, but the evidence suggests otherwise. The data does not show a narrow gender gap in wages at higher take aims of education. On the contrary, at the very highest levels of education, the gap is at its largest (Hilary M. Lips 2008).Racial discrimination is an important issue in the business world and is a genuine problem that still existsand in some cases its getting worse. According to a study promulgated in 1998 by the nonprofit group Catalyst called Women of Color in Corporate Management A Stat istical Picture, it was shown that minority women, while now accounting for almost a quarter of all women in the workplace, industrious only 15 percent of the management positions held by women.The study verifies that a combination of racial discrimination and the glass ceiling was a differentiating factor in those numbers (Racial Discrimination 2008). Glass ceiling is a symbolical phrase referring to an invisible cap preventing qualified women and minorities from progressing into key higher level management positions, or in some cases any management positions. These individuals separate the cap as a glass ceiling because they can see the opportunity that should be theirs through the glass, but due to the ceiling, they can not go any higher.In 1995 the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission described the American labor force as being segregate by gender and race, where white men fill most top management positions in corporations (Glass Ceilings The Status of Women as Officials and Mana gers in the Private domain 2004). The report affirms that the percent of women officials and managers in the private sector used to be 29% in 1990 and had increased to 36. 4% in 2002. Although this is an improvement, women embody 48 percent of all employees, but only 36. 4% of them are in key power positions.In the National Employment Summary released in 2005 by the EEOC, the bonny salary reported was $40,325. This report indicates that the median income of men is above medium ($44,090) and the median income of women is below average ($36,417) (National Employment Summary 2005). The median salary for White and Asian employees was above average as well ($41,525 and $50,762 respectively) whereas Black, Hispanic, and Native American employees had median salaries below the average income (National Employment Summary 2005).When graphed, these findings show that White male world has an income graph that is skewed towards the right, whereas most minorities and women have a normal incom e distribution. The data here supports the idea that more White men are employed in higher paying jobs. The Federal Glass Ceilings Commission argues that The successful elimination of glass ceilings requires not just an effective enforcement strategy but the involvement of employers, employees and others in identifying and reducing ttitudinal and other forms of organizational barriers encountered by minorities and women in advancing to higher level management positions in different workplace settings. (Glass Ceilings The Status of Women as Officials and Managers in the Private heavens 2004) Racism and gender discrimination hurt not only the people discriminated against, but also the economy as a whole. It prevents good, qualified individuals from progressing and attributing to the market. As a result, less qualified or poorly qualified people get displace in key positions.This prevents business from ambit their potential, and thus prevents the nation from reaching its. These iss ues are not restricted to the United States. Racism can be found in all countries across the globe, and its effects can be devastating. Africa suffers from constant political unrest where attempts at genocide are commonplace. give racism and gender discrimination ever come to an end? It is a difficult question to answer, especially since it is human nature to differentiate between us and them (So stereotypes persist because we want them to 2000).The hope and desire for America is that the definition of us truly changes to encompass all Americans (from all walks of lifetime). Works Cited EEOC (U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). 2006. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http//www. eeoc. gov/index. html Feinberg, Mark PhD. So Stereotypes Exist Because We Want Them to. American Psychological Association Public touch on Directorate. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http//www. apa. org/pi/oema/racism/contents. html Gender or Sex Discrimination. 008. Retrieved November 29, f rom http//www. discriminationattorney. com/lawyer-attorney-1287322. html Glass Ceilings The Status of Women as Officials and Managers in the Private Sector. 2004. U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http//www. eeoc. gov/stats/reports/glassceiling/index. pdf Lips, Hilary M. The Gender Wage Gap blackguard the Rationalizations. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http//www. womensmedia. com/new/Lips-Hilary-gender-wage-gap. html List of Anti-Discrimination Acts. 2008. Retrieved November 29, 2008, from http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/List_of_anti-discrimination_actsUnited_States Manohar, Uttara. Gender Discrimination at work. October 24, 2008. Retrieved November 30, 2008, from http//www. buzzle. com/articles/gender-discrimination-at-workplace. html Martin Luther King and the fight against racism in the US. 2008. Retrieved November 30, 2008, from http//www. socialistworker. co. uk/art. php? id=14531 Martin Luther King Jr. . 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