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What Is Discrimination

Discrimination involves unfair treatment of individuals based on specific characteristics outlined in the Equality Act 2010, such as age, gender, and race. It can manifest in various forms, including direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimization. The document also discusses the concepts of disparate treatment and disparate impact, along with the 80% rule used to evaluate employment discrimination cases.

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19 views4 pages

What Is Discrimination

Discrimination involves unfair treatment of individuals based on specific characteristics outlined in the Equality Act 2010, such as age, gender, and race. It can manifest in various forms, including direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimization. The document also discusses the concepts of disparate treatment and disparate impact, along with the 80% rule used to evaluate employment discrimination cases.

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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What Is Discrimination?

Discrimination
means treating a person unfairly because of who they are or because they
possess certain characteristics. If you have been treated differently from
other people only because of who you are or because you possess certain
characteristics, you may have been discriminated against.

The Equality Act 2010 highlights 9 protected characteristics:

Age  Gender  Race  Disability  Religion  Pregnancy and maternity 


Sexual orientation  Gender reassignment

Marriage and civil partnership


Types of Discrimination
Discrimination can occur in the following forms:
Direct Discrimination
Under similar circumstances, when a person with a protected characteristic is treated
less favorably than others, it is direct discrimination. For example
–
you have the qualifications and
experience necessary for the job but your application is turned down because you are
‘too young’ or ‘too old’.

Indirect Discrimination
If there is a rule or policy in the workplace that puts you at a disadvantage as compared
to others, it may be considered indirect discrimination. For example
–
an organization includes a clause that forces all employees to work on Sunday. This
puts Christians at a particular disadvantage as it is common knowledge that Sunday is
a day of worship for Christians. You have a right to challenge the clause if it
affects you directly.
Discrimination by Association

If you are treated unfairly because someone you know or are associated with has a
protected characteristic, this may be construed as discrimination by association. For
example
–
you are refused service in a restaurant because you are with someone who belongs to
a particular race.

Discrimination by Perception
Receiving unfair treatment because someone thinks you belong to a group with
protected characteristics, you may be experiencing discrimination by perception. For
example
–
you are heterosexual but an estate agency refuses to lease out a flat to you because
they assume you are gay due to their misconceptions about how gay people look, dress
or behave.

Harassment
Harassment comprises of unwanted behavior that makes another person feel offended,
humiliated or intimidated. Unwanted behavior could include physical gestures, abuse,
jokes, spoken or written words or offensive emails and expressions. For example
–
male gym members passing sexual comments or telling unwelcome jokes within
earshot of a female gym member could constitute harassment.

victimization

When a person is treated badly or subjected to detriment because they complained


about discrimination or supported another victim of discrimination, this may be
considered victimization. For example
–
you are denied training or advancement avenues at work because you filed a sexual
harassment complaint against your boss.
Defenses against discrimination
Avoid those people-

You have to understand one thing: those people are scums. They are losers
of the society. They discriminate you only because they see something in
you that remind themselves of their pains. That is why they don’t
want you to succeed. The
truth is they are just jealous because they know they will never beat you and
they don’t
want to see you do better than them
.
Just ignore it-

Truth of the matter is; you can’t completely avoid discrimination.


Discrimination has been happening since humanity existed. It is very
common for people to
discriminate others. It doesn’t just happen from races to races, it also
happens within the
same races. Let use an example, I am Chinese and I am from Guangzhou,
which is the third biggest city in China in terms of impact and size. I will
automatically discriminate
people from smaller cities like Xiangtan and Hangzhou, just because they
don’t have the
same privilege’s as us. People from those cities tend to not enjoy as much
benefits as us.
They also don’t share the same vision as us. Many people from the big cities
have gone to
different countries and get to drive luxurious cars such as BMW, Benz,
Rolls Royce etc. People from smaller cities never get to enjoy those perks

Conclusion
Just be yourself and ignore what others say to you. Regardless of how you
do in life, there are going to be haters out there who just don’t like you.
Don’t worry about
them
What Is the Difference Between Disparate Treatment and
Disparate Impact?
The law recognizes two types of illegal discrimination. Disparate treatment
refers to intentional discrimination, where people in a protected class are
deliberately treated differently. This is the most common type of
discrimination. An example would be an employer giving a certain test to all
of the women who apply for a job but to none of the men.
Disparate impact refers to discrimination that is unintentional. The
procedures are the same for everyone, but people in a protected class are
negatively affected. For example, say that job applicants for a certain job are
tested on their reaction times, and only people with a high score are hired.
This test will discriminate against older workers, who are less likely to have
fast reaction times. Whether this test is illegal will depend on whether fast
reaction times are necessary for the job. Disparate impact discrimination is
not always illegal. If an employer has a legitimate, necessary, and job-related
reason for applying its procedures, then it is allowed to do so.
For example, say a fire department required job applicants to carry a heavy
load up several flights of stairs. Say a higher percentage of male applicants
pass the test, compared to the number of female applicants who pass. In
that case, the test would have a disparate impact on women, who are a
protected class. But if the fire department can show that carrying heavy
loads up stairs is a necessary part of the job, then the test would be legal
even if it favored men over women.
But say an accounting firm gave job applicants the same test, requiring them
to carry heavy weights upstairs. In this case, the resulting disparate impact
discrimination would be illegal. There is no legitimate job-related reason why
accountants would need to carry heavy weights. A female job applicant who
failed the accounting firm’s test would have a good case for a sex-
discrimination lawsuit if she could show the test was the reason she didn’t
get the job.

What is the 80% rule in discrimination?


Tests of statistical significance have increasingly been used in employment
discrimination cases since the Supreme Court's decision in Hazelwood. In
that case, the United States Supreme Court ruled that “in a proper case”
statistical evidence can suffice for a prima facie showing of employment
discrimination. The Court also discussed the use of a binomial significance
test to assess whether the difference between the proportion of black
teachers employed by the Hazelwood School District and the proportion of
black teachers in the relevant labor market was substantial enough to
indicate discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has
proposed a somewhat stricter standard for evaluating how substantial a
difference must be to constitute evidence of discrimination. Under the so-
called 80% rule promulgated by the EEOC, the difference must not only be
statistically significant, but the hire rate for the allegedly discriminated group
must also be less than 80% of the rate for the favored group. This article
argues that a binomial statistical significance test standing alone is
unsatisfactory for evaluating allegations of discrimination because many of
the assumptions on which such tests are based are inapplicable to
employment settings; the 80% rule is a more appropriate standard for
evaluating whether a difference in hire rates should be treated as a prima
facie showing of discrimination.

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