Discrimination

Why did I choose this subject?

Because I’ve heard a lot about this subject.
And I thought it was a good subject to talk about.
And my girlfriends’ parents are not coming from Holland. They come from Syria.
And they are discriminating, because they don’t come from Holland.
And you can see this about my girlfriend in my reaction on this subject.
Discrimination is a big issue. Everyone is doing it.
Everyone has to deal with discrimination, especially foreigners.
This subject is a big problem in this world. It was a big problem before, but now it is still a big problem.

What is discrimination?

The answer on this question is not easy to describe.
You’ve got al lot of definitions of discrimination. Like: discrimination is that you distinguish people.
Discrimination is a big word.
The difference between discrimination and prejudices is that discrimination isn’t only about what people think, but also what someone does.
An example of discrimination is: the difference between black and white people, they are the same people but a lot of people think that the white ones are better.
In the constitutional from the Netherlands you will find: everyone is equal.
But we don’t treat each other as equals.
People don’t respect and accept people that are different, so they discriminate.
But you have to know that it is forbidden to discriminate!!

The facts

If you are treating people differently because their colour is different, you discriminate.
You may not judge people on things that don’t matter.
If someone without a license wants to be a courier, then is it logical that he won’t get the job.
But if someone doesn’t get the job because he or she is black, woman, gay or old, then that is discrimination.
Discrimination is forbidden, if you look at the Dutch constitutional you will see that it is forbidden. It says that everyone is equal, so you may not discriminate.
If you discriminate because of religion, man/woman, or what kind, it is forbidden.
But meanwhile there are a lot people that have been discriminating.
In the Netherlands are living a lot of people, and a lot of different races.
They have got other customs.
If you notice that you have been discriminating, you can say something about it.
Don’t get angry, but explain calm why discrimination is not fear.
If you’re afraid of saying something, you can walk away.
Then you show also that you don’t agree with it.

Who needs to deal with discrimination?

If you think of discrimination, a lot of people will say that discrimination is calling names to foreigners.
That is also discrimination, but these people are not the only one that have to deal with discrimination.
Discrimination is about treating people differently.
If you’re not accepted in your class, because you’re different, like you come out of a different city or an other environment then that is discrimination.
Also homosexuals are discriminating.
Because people don’t accept that they are gay.
They are different, so a lot of people treat gay people differently and don’t accept that they are gay.
The most people think that heterosexual is normal.
But if you’re gay then it is bad. Some people say that is disgusting.
They say that you’re different and that it is stupid to be gay.
A lot of people don’t accept gay people and they discriminate these persons.
Example: you get fired because you’re gay.
That is very stupid, because if you’re gay, it doesn’t mean that you can’t work!
Or an other thought: AIDS is a homo-disease.
That is discrimination!!
If you’re gay it doesn’t mean that you have got AIDS!!
I know people who are gay, but they are normal people! I know a man who is gay, he is family of mine. Of course you can see that he’s gay, but that doesn’t mean that you can call him names. When he was young people always called him names and they didn’t like him, only because he was gay. That is so stupid!

What kind of discrimination?

There are not only different groups that have been discriminated.
But the way it happens if different.
There is:

- Direct and indirect discrimination
By this kind of discrimination are women, homosexuals or foreigners involved.
The ‘perpetrator’ will admit that he or she want to treat groups of people differently - direct discrimination
But there is also a kind of discrimination that is not easy to see.
That is because it doesn’t shows itself in public.
An example is: If you want to go to a disco and they won’t let you in because they see that you’re not from that country. (A foreigner)
They let only people in that come from that country.
This kind of discrimination is called: indirect discrimination.

- Aware and not-aware discrimination
Aware: if you do this, you’re attending to discriminate that person.
You are doing this on purpose.
There are companies that hire a man instead of a woman because they think that women can’t handle the job.
An example of not-aware discrimination is: a Dutch company looks for a new employee.
In this company are working only white Dutch people. So they will hire a white Dutch person.
They won’t do it on purpose.
They do not attend to discriminate.

Why do we discriminate?

That is a big question. Why?
There must be a reason, I think that you always discriminate with a reason.
So it could be because:
- The colour
- Where they come from
- Because they are gay

Colour
The colour is the first thing you see.
And many people think that the colour black is not good.
Black people are the same as white people, only the colour of their skin is different.
Everyone knows Martin Luther King. He was against the difference between black and white. He wanted to give more rights to the black community.
The black community was discriminated.
They were treated as inferior people.
Like Martin Luther Kings ones said: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the contend of their character. I have a dream today!”

Martin Luther King

The black people have got now more rights then in that time.
And I’m thankful of that, because the black people are also normal people and the same as other people.
Unfortunately Martin Luther King was killed in 1968.

Martin Luther King died in 1968.

Where you come from
That is also why we discriminate, because some cultures are not accepted in this world.
It must be hard to be a Muslim. Because if you look at Osama bin Laden, then the Muslims get the blame.
And they say things like: the Muslim culture is stupid.
Why do people say such mean things?
They don’t even know the backgrounds, and what is going on in some cultures.
People got a lot of prejudge, maybe they don’t say it, but I know for sure that they think it.

Rosa Parks

In 1955 Rosa Parks was arrested because she didn’t stand up when a white person came into the bus.
In that time, you had to give away your seat when a white person came into the bus.
But Rosa Parks didn’t do that. She wanted no more inequality. So she refused to give away here seat.
She protested against discrimination. And I think that that is a good think to do.
If I was her I don’t know if I would do the same. You must be though to do such things.
But I’m proud that she did that!

Hitler

An example of discrimination (in history) is Hitler.
Everyone knows Hitler and what he has done to the people in the World War II.
He wanted to create the perfect German.
The perfect German had blond hair, blue eyes etc.
He wanted to have his own race. He discriminated people on there face. On how they looked.
What Hitler did was awful, he murdered people and he was discriminating people.
He especially discriminated Jude. Jude were a stupid race. He called them the ‘Untermensch’ and that means that Jude were seen as people who were stupid and not good, they weren’t perfect.
He called the perfect people the ‘Ubermensch’.
If you were a Jude, you were not happy. You couldn’t do a thing. You had to wear a star with ‘Jude’ on it. So they could see you were a Jude.
Hitler didn’t like these people and most of them were killed in the World War II.

Organizations

If you feel that you have been discriminated you can call organizations.
You can call and you can say if you feel discriminated.
They will listen to you and finally they can call the person who was discriminating you and they can talk with this person.
Every year thousands complains against discrimination are going to these organizations.
The constitutional says that everyone is equal, so you may not discriminate.
But the constitutional says also that you’ve got the right to say what you want (to show your opinion).
And if you’re saying to someone that he or she is discriminating, he can say that he is only showing his opinion.
You can go to the judge if you feel very discriminated.
The judge can say that the one who is discriminating has to go to prison, because he broke the constitutional.
But then he has to say more than: stupid Moroccan!
But it could be when you’re applying for a job, and they don’t want you because you’re black. They can’t do it because your colour, the colour of the skin doesn’t mean that you can’t work!!

Discrimination and the police

Foreigner policemen have been discriminated everyday by there ‘white’ colleges.
Hurting jokes or that they check your family.
A foreigner college with a new expensive car is immediately a suspend.
Often you just behave like a bounty, brown from the outside and white from the inside.
Why don’t your colleges trust you?
Just because your colour is different?
So you see that in the most cases people have been discriminating because their colour.
Discrimination happens everywhere in the world and also by the police.

Examples of discrimination

On the market
A Moroccan lady went buying flowers on the market.
The salesman said: “Flowers love people, but I didn’t know that Moroccans belong to that people to.”
That is not nice thing to say.
This salesman is discriminating the Moroccan lady.

On sports field
After volleyball match the coach (Indonesian coach) wanted to shake hands with the other players. But one didn’t want that and said: “maybe your colour gets on my hand, and I don’t want to have the same colour as you!”
This player is discriminating the colour of the coach.

If you look in your own neighbourhood, you will see that discrimination is everywhere!

How to react

If someone is discriminating you, what would you do or say?
Would you walk away or say something about it?
It depends on what kind of mood you’re in.
If you’re self-assured, you can maybe react more easily.
Violence doesn’t solve the problem, maybe you can talk to the person why he is doing it.
People that have been discriminated can react on different manners.
A lot of foreigners don’t say anything about it, because they want to fit in their country.
But how does it feel?
Of course does it hurts when you have been discriminated.
You lose faith in people. Maybe you will get scared of them.
Maybe they think that you are stupid.
But you’re not stupid, maybe you’re a little bit different then the rest.
But that is good, because if everyone on this world were the same it would be very boring.

My reaction on this subject

If you ask people the question: Do you discriminate? They say: of course not!
But if you ask them: You’re standing in a train, and you need a seat. There are two places where you can sit. One next to a big black man, who’s wearing big golden things, or a place next to a white old lady.
Then they prefer to sit next to that white old lady. This is also discrimination.
That question was asked to me. If I could choose between that big black man or that white old lady, I prefer to sit next to that white old lady.
I don’t know why, but I just would do that.
The big problem is also that you can’t destroy discrimination.
Everyone’s doing it, aware or not aware.
If I was a little child I was also discriminating people.
I live next to a family who come from Syria.
If I had a fight with them, I called them names. I was discriminating them.
Only because they didn’t come from Holland.
Our neighbours are very friendly and there’s one girl, who’s my best girlfriend. She is born in Holland, but her parents didn’t born here.
They’ve got a church, somewhere in Rijssen. And some people think that there are Muslims, but they aren’t. So, they were putting names on the church with paint. They thought that this church was a Muslim church.
So the people who did that were discriminating the people who were going to that church.
A couple weeks ago this happened again. They had thrown burning things thru the window. This was the church from my best friend.
I think that this is so stupid! The people who did that are idiots!
You must be crazy to do that kind of things!

If I look at my school, I never see black teachers.
At primary school there weren’t black teachers, and at secondary school there weren’t also no black teachers.
If you look in shops, you see most of the time white salespeople. If I go shopping in Rijssen, I always see white salespeople. Why is that? I have totally no idea.
As I said before, you can’t destroy discrimination.
Everyone knows that discrimination is a stupid thing. But everyone is doing it.
Discrimination is not good, and that is the last thing that I’m going to say about this.