Promoting_Equality

{draw:rect} 09003057 There are various factors that should be taken in account when trying to promote equality upon an individual or organisations. This essay will eloborate deeper on what is needed to understand with the idea of promoting equality; from understanding the basic definition of prejudice, discrimination, inequality and how they are developed with indepth explaination on how these action(prejudice discrimination,inequality) came about with understandig the PCS analysis and the Structuation theory. The benefits of practising equal opportunity approach within an organisationis also explained in this essay, followed by useful practical steps that could be taken in consideration for organisations to improve equality;and also explaination on how a particular group of the society are phrone to discrimination. Every human being has similarities and differences between each other in terms of biological constitution and social backgrounds. This leads to the structuring of social groups in terms of gender, sex age, religion, racial group etc.(Haralambos and Holborn, 1991). Inevitably, the differences between individuals of different social groups constitute an element of prejudice, i.e. negative prejudgment towards individuals in different social groups. These prejudgments are enforced and shown through the process of discrimination, which can be portrayed verbally (words) or physically (conduct) towards the discriminated social group.Moreover, these negative prejudgments often promote misunderstanding or wrong conception of groups of different social nature. Usually, the misconception can make one group believe that they are superior to the different others, and vice versa. As a result, the discriminated social groups feel inferior and minor under the superiority of the “better” group. This leads to the formation of social hierarchy, which is defined by the individual's status, power and prestige in his/her social group. The prospect of life chances of an individual interrelates heavily on his/her social situation. In other words, the higher the individual is ranked in the social hierarchy , the greater his/her life chances are. In other words inequality means not everyone gets equal opportunity in life; those who are advantaged with cultural capital, wealth and power are situated in a superior social group, often have better prospects in life, for e.g. prospect of employment. Therefore, it can be argued that inequality renders the system non-meritocratic in nature 09003057 The formation of discrimination can also be explained through three factors explained ; personal level, cultural level and structural level. (Neil Thompson, 2003). An individual’s personal experience and social interactions with others, in one way or another, help to develop their own personal judgements on every aspect of society e.g. the other social groups. As the nature of society is claimed to be highly influenced by stereotypical views of how a “proper” society and its individuals should operate and behave etc, this will at the same time manipulate the personal judgements of individuals of what is to be considered “normal” and “different”. Typically, the other social groups considered “different” is treated in a discriminatory way. This view is regarded as being subjective, focusing too much on individualistic view. Therefore we need to use a more objective approach to see the bigger picture. To achieve this objective aim, the formation of discrimination is analysed in the cultural pattern of society. between the good, loveable people and those who are “bad” and do not fit in the picture. These people of the exact opposite of the good ones are typically portrayed 09003057 as a symbolism of anything unacceptable and unfavourable, something that does not meant to be in the society. Hence, this creates a boundary in the society of at which point or criteria of a person or something that discrimination usually occurs. It should be recognised that there exist factors outside the cultural pattern which are much wider and macro in nature, which concerns about the importance of social interactions in accordance to the following social, political and economic views. Social institutions such as the school, in a way or so, helps to install ideological ideas into individuals, based on the norms and values developed through cultural experience and personal beliefs, which are often oppressive in nature. For example, teachers in school often set higher expectation and give better treatment majorly towards middle-class, white, male students compared to those female students or those of ethnic minority and lower social classes. This view is further enforced by the political progress which are often portrayed in the media e.g. newspaper and news on TV, which often focuses criminal cases, especially street crimes, as being the negative acts of poor young male minorities. From these social and political perspectives, it is clear that discrimination is also determined by the economic status of the individual; if he / she is economically advantaged, the individual would be most unlikely to fall under discriminated victims as they are well-benefited in terms of cultural, social and economic adequacy, therefore are superior than those who lack these qualities. These oppressive ideas progressively promote social division and prejudice, which when practised on regular basis, leads to the development of a social structure with discriminatory element. 09003057 discriminatory. They see their actions as normal hence they take it for granted. The more the individuals see this as not a bad thing, the more the oppressive elements build up.(Neil Thompson, 2003) The conduct of discrimination should be taken seriously and well thought of because it directly affects the moral value of society. When one society practise discrimination extensively yet in a taken-for-granted way, it will somehow taint the perception of others towards the morality of the society in question. The existence of discrimination, particularly which is racially aggravated, is clearly exposed in the employment organisation. These employing organisations enforce the existing patterns of racism in relation to their employees in a number of ways: the discriminated individuals are usually given secondary workloads which do not really allow them to show their potential skills and they are provided with minimal access of training and career workshop which prevents them from acquiring good prospect of promotion. These factors, along with the intentional deposition of unfavourable working conditions by the oppressive employers, lead these discriminated individuals of their inferior position, in which they eventually take upon as their role to be subservient to the others. As a result, they become fatalistic, in which they act on what negative perceptions the others had on them. This will lead these pitiful individuals to stop trying to improve their social conditions, and this will truly be a defect in the running of society because this particular group of people cannot change their social facts due to the oppressive obstacles posed by those superior to them. In one way or another, this will result in the damaging of the society, and the individuals in it. This view is well-reflected in the majority decision in the court case of Regina v Rogers (2007) UKHL 8, which was about a defendant who was charged with an offence of using racially aggravated abusive words to three Spanish women. One of the Lordships, Baroness Hale of Richmond, in her judgement, identified the essence of racism and xenophobia which triggered this offence. the essence of these elements were the "denial of equal respect and dignity to people who are seen as ‘others’”. She also argued that these elements are damaging both to the victims and societ as a whole, as society is acknowledged that they would be denied of acceptance and will be prone to being discriminated if they were "different" in terms of social or cultural membership. This truly provokes inequality in the society because these people are helpless in improving the source of discrimination towards 09003057 them (difference in cultural/social membership), as this is something they are born with, thus they can do nothing about it. The previous paragraph has explained the extent of negativity and damages that social discrimination can affect society and individuals in it. In response to this, Neil Thompson (2003) introduced the steps to unravel the solution to the mentioned defects so as to promote equality and balance in society. Firstly, he introduced the method of empowerment, which can be seen as a process which is geared towards achieving authenticity and balance in society. This is directed particularly on the relationship between the “superior” individuals and the “inferior” ones, e.g. between employers and employees. Neil Thompson suggested that by allowing the employees, regardless of their social status and constitution as well as cultural background, to get involved in more participation and even made as partners in the business venture, as long as the employees in question have the adequate skills, potentials and qualifications appropriate for this opportunity. The main objective of this empowerment process is to identify the problems in the connection between the employers and employees, and that this enables the two sides to set goals to be achieved in their respective areas. Apart from that, this promotes a more structured collaboration between them, because through their intensive assessment, future beneficial plans and proper allocation of responsibility could be arranged among themselves. The undertaking of these allocated tasks leads to the next solution towards equality, which is the process of continuation. As mentioned, the employers and employees may start to carry out their respective responsibilities with a good use of the process of collaboration and consultation, in which the two sides are required to be analytical on their progresses, and amend some changes in their course of actions when necessary. This process requires the employers to apply their knowledge and skills to help about the employees by allowing them to address their needs and aspirations so as to improve their situations, especially career wise. This process of intensive cooperation has the benefit of reducing the gap of differences between professional workers and employees as well as users of services. 09003057 Another solution to a less discriminatory society is through the awareness of the extent of particular sensitive language and image, through the detailed identification of the patterns of language and imagery that subtly or obviously inflict discriminatory element. The only problem with this process is that it considers only too lightly of the fact that these discriminatory forms of language and imagery are taken too much for granted. We become too accustomed to these forms that it is quite hard to recognize these as flaws. Some of the linguistic forms of discrimination typically used are the reference of ‘white’ to goodness and ‘black’ to anything evil or negative, which prevails the idea of white superiority, and the use of masculine and feminine word e.g. strong and brave in comparison to sweet and shy, enforce the channelization of male into their superiority role and female into their subordinate role. Therefore, the continuation of our ignorance towards these discriminatory forms allows it reinforce unequal power relations in terms of social division. This promotes the exclusion and rejection of the discriminated groups, which as a result makes the discriminated groups of individuals to feel marginalized and devalued by others, which definitely stigmatised a negative impact on society as a whole. There are a significant proportion of social groups in society that are usually the target of discrimination, these discriminated groups are ;older people, people with disability, people with mental health, gay etc. This essay elaborates more on the factors that might have led to discrimination towards Black and other ethnic minorities. First of all, ethnicity refers to the similarity of cultural and identity of a group of people. With a source of evidence to support this claim is the assessment of statistical data (appendix 1)of the rate of unemplyment of the ethnic minorities in comparison to the ethnic majority, the whites. Assessing from the statistical data of unemployment of the ethnic minorities, it can be concluded that the rate is overwhelmingly high. Out of this analysis, Bangladesh stand out to provide the highest rate of unemployment, twice higher than the other ethnic minorities’ rate, and 3-4 times higher than the whites population. Meanwhile, black Caribbean, black Africans and black other share almost the same rate of unemployment, yet still is incomparable to the ethnic majority’s. 09003057 David Mason (2000) explains the reason for the over-representation of ethnic minorities in the unemployment area is because of the discriminatory causes that I have mentioned earlier in this essay. There are pre-determined ideologies set by the politics and media in society which promotes the distinction of criteria of who is to be superior and who is to be inferior, subjected under the superior group. Those who are favourable are mostly white male middleclass individuals; those who has adequate cultural capital that will allow them to be more accepted in society due to the fact that they are being more advantaged in terms of wealth, education and social background, rather than those who are culturally and socially disadvantaged in relation to this stereotypical ideologies, which pointed this group to the members of ethnic minorities of lower working class. Since it is pre-installed in the minds of 09003057 Reference Case analysis of Regina v Rogers (2007) UKHL 8 per Hale J Gauntlett, D. (2002), Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction, Routledge, London and New York. Horolombos, M & Holborn, M. (1991) Sociology: Themes and Perspectives, Collins Educational, London. Mason, D. (2000), _Race And Ethnicity in Modern Britain_, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Payne, G. (2000), Social Divisions, Palgrave Macmillian, New York. Thompson, N. (2003), Promoting Equality: Challenging Discrimination And Opression, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.