discrimination essay introduction

Essays About Discrimination: Top 5 Examples and 8 Prompts

You must know how to connect with your readers to write essays about discrimination effectively; read on for our top essay examples, including prompts that will help you write.

Discrimination comes in many forms and still happens to many individuals or groups today. It occurs when there’s a distinction or bias against someone because of their age, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.

Discrimination can happen to anyone wherever and whenever they are. Unfortunately, it’s a problem that society is yet to solve entirely. Here are five in-depth examples of this theme’s subcategories to guide you in creating your essays about discrimination.

1. Essay On Discrimination For Students In Easy Words by Prateek

2. personal discrimination experience by naomi nakatani, 3. prejudice and discrimination by william anderson, 4. socioeconomic class discrimination in luca by krystal ibarra, 5. the new way of discrimination by writer bill, 1. my discrimination experience, 2. what can i do to stop discrimination, 3. discrimination in my community, 4. the cost of discrimination, 5. examples of discrimination, 6. discrimination in sports: segregating men and women, 7. how to stop my discrimination against others, 8. what should groups do to fight discrimination.

“In the current education system, the condition of education and its promotion of equality is very important. The education system should be a good place for each and every student. It must be on the basis of equal opportunities for each student in every country. It must be free of discrimination.”

Prateek starts his essay by telling the story of a student having difficulty getting admitted to a college because of high fees. He then poses the question of how the student will be able to get an education when he can’t have the opportunity to do so in the first place. He goes on to discuss UNESCO’s objectives against discrimination. 

Further in the essay, the author defines discrimination and cites instances when it happens. Prateek also compares past and present discrimination, ending the piece by saying it should stop and everyone deserves to be treated fairly.

“I thought that there is no discrimination before I actually had discrimination… I think we must treat everyone equally even though people speak different languages or have different colors of skin.”

In her short essay, Nakatani shares the experiences that made her feel discriminated against when she visited the US. She includes a fellow guest saying she and her mother can’t use the shared pool in a hotel they stay in because they are Japanese and getting cheated of her money when she bought from a small shop because she can’t speak English very well.

“Whether intentional or not, prejudice and discrimination ensure the continuance of inequality in the United States. Even subconsciously, we are furthering inequality through our actions and reactions to others… Because these forces are universally present in our daily lives, the way we use them or reject them will determine how they affect us.”

Anderson explains the direct relationship between prejudice and discrimination. He also gives examples of these occurrences in the past (blacks and whites segregation) and modern times (sexism, racism, etc.)

He delves into society’s fault for playing the “blame game” and choosing to ignore each other’s perspectives, leading to stereotypes. He also talks about affirmative action committees that serve to protect minorities.

“Something important to point out is that there is prejudice when it comes to people of lower class or economic standing, there are stereotypes that label them as untrustworthy, lazy, and even dangerous. This thought is fed by the just-world phenomenon, that of low economic status are uneducated, lazy, and are more likely to be substance abusers, and thus get what they deserve.”

Ibarra recounts how she discovered Pixar’s Luca and shares what she thought of the animation, focusing on how the film encapsulates socioeconomic discrimination in its settings. She then discusses the characters and their relationships with the protagonist. Finally, Ibarra notes how the movie alluded to flawed characters, such as having a smaller boat, mismatched or recycled kitchen furniture, and no shoes. 

The other cast even taunts Luca, saying he smells and gets his clothes from a dead person. These are typical things marginalized communities experience in real life. At the end of her essay, Ibarra points out how society is dogmatic against the lower class, thinking they are abusers. In Luca, the wealthy antagonist is shown to be violent and lazy.

“Even though the problem of discrimination has calmed down, it still happens… From these past experiences, we can realize that solutions to tough problems come in tough ways.”

The author introduces people who called out discrimination, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Barbara Henry – the only teacher who decided to teach Ruby Bridges, despite her skin color. 

He then moves on to mention the variations of present-day discrimination. He uses Donald Trump and the border he wants to build to keep the Hispanics out as an example. Finally, Bill ends the essay by telling the readers those who discriminate against others are bullies who want to get a reaction out of their victims. 

Do you get intimidated when you need to write an essay? Don’t be! If writing an essay makes you nervous, do it step by step. To start, write a simple 5 paragraph essay .

Prompts on Essays About Discrimination

Below are writing prompts that can inspire you on what to focus on when writing your discrimination essay:

Have you had to go through an aggressor who disliked you because you’re you? Write an essay about this incident, how it happened, what you felt during the episode, and what you did afterward. You can also include how it affected the way you interact with people. For example, did you try to tone down a part of yourself or change how you speak to avoid conflict?

List ways on how you can participate in lessening incidents of discrimination. Your list can include calling out biases, reporting to proper authorities, or spreading awareness of what discrimination is.

Is there an ongoing prejudice you observe in your school, subdivision, etc.? If other people in your community go through this unjust treatment, you can interview them and incorporate their thoughts on the matter.

Tackle what victims of discrimination have to go through daily. You can also talk about how it affected their life in the long run, such as having low self-esteem that limited their potential and opportunities and being frightened of getting involved with other individuals who may be bigots.

For this prompt, you can choose a subtopic to zero in on, like Workplace Discrimination, Disability Discrimination, and others. Then, add sample situations to demonstrate the unfairness better.

What are your thoughts on the different game rules for men and women? Do you believe these rules are just? Cite news incidents to make your essay more credible. For example, you can mention the incident where the Norwegian women’s beach handball team got fined for wearing tops and shorts instead of bikinis.

Since we learn to discriminate because of the society we grew up in, it’s only normal to be biased unintentionally. When you catch yourself having these partialities, what do you do? How do you train yourself not to discriminate against others?

Focus on an area of discrimination and suggest methods to lessen its instances. To give you an idea, you can concentrate on Workplace Discrimination, starting from its hiring process. You can propose that applicants are chosen based on their skills, so the company can implement a hiring procedure where applicants should go through written tests first before personal interviews.

If you instead want to focus on topics that include people from all walks of life, talk about diversity. Here’s an excellent guide on how to write an essay about diversity .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Discrimination Essay In A Nutshell

Table of Contents

The history of mankind is sodden with discrimination. It takes different forms and shapes, and modern society is not an exception. It is at stake of cultural history and has influenced many social, cultural, and economic occurrences that we see today.

Thus, any student will face a writing assignment dedicated to this subject matter sooner or later.

It is not that difficult when you know the principles of proper academic writing. Yet, when you have no time or decided to write it without an outline, you may end up in a deadlock.

Here we cover the basics of the writing of the essay on discrimination. Weaponize yourself with the tips from pro writers!

What is a discrimination essay?

There are several types of discrimination based on:

• Sexual orientation
• Disability, etc.

Each and every type of discrimination implicates the superiority of a certain group of people over another group of people. One of the main problems here is that many people mess up the notion of discrimination with the notion of prejudice and stereotypes. It is necessary to understand that, as a rule, stereotype and prejudice cause discrimination, but, these notions are not exactly the same.

This theme is controversial, multifaceted, and can be approached from different points of view. Thus, the list of disciplines that can cover issues connected to discrimination includes Psychology, Social Sciences, Political Science, Anthropology, Religion Studies, History, etc.

Racial discrimination essay essentials

The issue of racism is a hot button for American society. Naturally, this issue is widely depicted in the literary works, works of art, movies, etc., so you will definitely find enough research material. The problem here is of another kind. It is essential to make up your mind on the topic.

We have gathered some interesting ideas that you can use for your papers.

Essay on racism and discrimination

First and foremost, it is necessary to set these two notions apart: racism and racial discrimination are not the same. In fact, you will write a cause-and-effect essay where racism will be a cause, and racial discrimination will be the effect. Or, vice versa, you can approach this topic another way. Indicate that discrimination is a much broader notion than racism.

Consequently, racism is one of the manifestations of discrimination. Both approaches are correct, so the choice is yours. Select the one that seems more interesting to you and start working!

Racial discrimination in the workplace essay

A workplace is a place where all types of discrimination appear from time to time, so it provides a fertile field for the research. For example, you can dedicate the essay on racial discrimination to the issue of prejudice in this sphere.

Thus, as a rule, employers tend to hire white people to do intellectual labor and black people to do physical work. A heavy accent or poor knowledge of English can also become a stumbling block on the way to a good job.

The best sources to search for information are the laws and social programs aimed to protect workers from unfair treatment.

So you can make an insight into the current situation with labor legislation, what steps are taken to eliminate the racial discrimination at work and evaluate their efficiency. Another idea for the essay dedicated to the work issues is your solutions to them with solid argumentation.

Anti-racism paper

As the issue of racism is old as the hills, the search for the sound solution also takes different shapes and forms. There are many policies, movements, activists, and even scientific investigations aimed to prove that all people have similar physiology and development despite the race.

Here you can discuss the activities of the anti-apartheid movements (and, obviously, explain what apartheid is), or to discuss the influence of a particular anti-racist activist on the certain movement or event.

Racial discrimination in media

If you are an attentive TV viewer, this topic won’t need any further explanation. All you need is a thorough analysis of a cast of characters of any TV show or movie.

Thanks to racial prejudice, African Americans are typically criminals or hip hop musicians (often both), and Asian Americans are nerds with no communicational skills. All main roles are played by white people almost without exception.

Even Disney cartoons are not an exception!

If to compare Aladdin and Jafar, for example, it becomes clear that positive hero has whiter and more regular features, and the main villain has a more exotic appearance, though both characters are supposed to be of Arabic appearance.

Another idea for a thematic prejudice and discrimination essay is the negative effects of racial discrimination in media. Or, if you want a challenging task, try to search for some positive effects of racism in media.

Racial discrimination in literary works

The first one that comes to mind is, obviously, Othello. It is a brilliant example of the consequences of intolerance and the belief that one race is superior to others.

Another great discussion point is the aptitude of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in the school program. The text of this novel is filled with offensive, racist words and may seem abusive, so can the cultural values overweight the offense?

Or you may discuss the issues connected with Uncle Tom’s Cabin. On the one hand, this novel had a great influence on the start of the American Civil War. On the other, the novel is filled with racial stereotypes.

Gender discrimination essay ideas

Unequal treatment of men and women is evidenced in the Bible, let alone less famous sources. The situation started to change only in the 20th century with the development of the women’s rights movement. Still, in many countries, women’s rights are often neglected or abused.

The main types of gender discrimination are:

• Remuneration

Educational gender discrimination

Perhaps, it is the most popular topic for a college discrimination essay. Here you can talk about the preference to male students in the scholarship programs or admissions.

Do not forget to find enough statistics!

Gender discrimination in the workplace

There are at least three main issues that any woman can face with the attempt to find a job. First and foremost, when there are two candidates for a position, a man and a woman, an employer is more likely to choose a man. The next issue is sexual harassment.

According to the statistics, almost half of employed American women faced sexual , verbal, or physical harassment at work. Also, the very possibility to become pregnant and then take a maternity leave drives away employers.

Remuneration issues

It is a well-known fact that women get 25% less money than men for an equal amount of work. You can offer a solution to this issue or pay more attention to the statistics.

Essay on discrimination outline

As any other academic paper, this essay calls for proper planning and clear and logical structure. You will have to divide the paper into three parts: the intro, body, and conclusion.

As a result, the sample outline for gender discrimination in the workplace essay will look like this:

• Definition of discrimination
• Gender discrimination as a part of the discrimination
• Historical review + examples
• Labor legislation and its inefficiency + examples
• Current situation + possible solutions
• Restatement of the main idea
• Call to action

Starting discrimination essay introduction

The best way to start the intro, in this case, is to find some impressive statistics that highlight the scale of the issue. For example, 77% of women and 34% of men faced verbal sexual harassment at work according to the online survey by Stop Street Harassment.

Then you have to provide the background for your work. And the intro should be finished by the thesis statement on discrimination, aka the main idea of the text.

For example, inefficient labor legislation fails to protect women’s rights in the workplace.

Writing the body of the essay

The first paragraph s dedicated to the historical aspect of the problem. Thus, you show that the issue is not new, yet, still has no proper solution.

The second paragraph contains all your research about the legislation that should protect women’s equal rights with men and shows the void of laws. You will have to support this thought with real-life examples taken from trustworthy sources.

The last body paragraph provides your point of view on the solution to the problem.

Writing the discrimination essay conclusion

Usually, this section summarizes all the main ideas expressed in the paper. Then you restate the thesis statement and make a call-to-action aimed to leave an aftertaste after reading it.

The list of the most interesting discrimination essay topics

• LGBT discrimination essay: homophobia.
• Are there any racist ideas in Charles Darwin’s works?
• The differences in racism against men and women.
• Will racism ever disappear?
• Can religion cause racism?
• The problem of reverse discrimination.
• Is feminism relevant today?
• The concept of cultural racism.
• The problem of racism in the “Shape of Water” by Guillermo Del Toro.
• The issue of racism in “Green Mile” by Steven King.

Check out well-written discrimination essay examples

The theory is always helpful, but it’s always better to see the visual example. You can search for top-notch essay samples at a reliable custom writing service and use them as a source of inspiration.

On balance…

The issue of discrimination is one of the front burner issues for any society. The range of topics is huge, so as the problem itself, so you have plenty of variants to choose from. Search for relevant info, pay attention to planning and formatting and create a writing masterpiece!

And if you cannot complete this task on your own, feel free to ask professionals for help! Sometimes it is the wisest solution that helps to save tons of time and energy.

No inspiration to write the essay? Well, our professional writers are always inspired to offer you a helping hand! Click the button to learn more.

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Measuring Racial Discrimination (2004)

Chapter: 1 introduction, 1 introduction.

M ost people would agree that equal opportunity to participate as a full and functioning member of society is important. Nonetheless, existing social and economic disparities among racial and ethnic groups suggest that our society has yet to achieve this goal. For instance, Hispanics have higher school dropout rates than other racial and ethnic groups (Hauser et al., 2002). The black–white wealth gap remains large (Conley, 1999; Oliver and Shapiro, 1995). Young Native Americans are incarcerated in federal prisons at higher rates than any other minority racial group (Smelser and Baltes, 2001; Weich and Angulo, 2002). And some Asian Americans, among other minority groups, have poorer access to health care services and treatments than whites (Institute of Medicine, 2003). Such racial disparities are pervasive and may be the result of racial prejudice and discrimination, as well as differences in socioeconomic status, differential access to opportunities, and institutional policies and practices.

Such racial disparities persist despite the many legal and social changes that have improved opportunities for minority racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Several factors may contribute to racial differences in outcomes, including differences in socioeconomic status, differential access to opportunities, and others. One factor that should be considered is the role of racial discrimination. Overt discrimination against African Americans and other minority groups characterized much of U.S. history; a question is whether and what types of discrimination continue to exist and their effects on differential outcomes.

Although researchers in specific disciplines have investigated discrimination in particular domains, there has been little effort to coordinate and

expand such research in ways that could help to better understand and measure various kinds of racial and ethnic discrimination across domains and groups and over time. To address this problem, the Committee on National Statistics convened a panel of scholars in 2001 to consider the definition of racial discrimination, assess current methodologies for measuring it, identify new approaches, and make recommendations about the best broad methodological approaches. In particular, this panel was asked to conduct the following tasks:

Give the policy and scholarly communities new tools for assessing the extent to which discrimination continues to undermine the achievement of equal opportunity by suggesting additional means for measuring discrimination that can be applied not only to the racial question but in other important social arenas as well.

Conduct a thorough evaluation of current methodologies for measuring discrimination in a wide range of circumstances where it may occur.

Consider how analyses of data from other sources could contribute to findings from research experimentation, such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development paired tests.

Recommend further research as well as the development of data to complement research studies.

Although there is substantial direct empirical evidence for the prevalence of large disparities among racial and ethnic groups in various domains, it is often difficult to obtain direct evidence of whether and to what extent discrimination may be a contributing factor. Differential outcomes by race and ethnicity may or may not indicate discrimination. Examples of studies using methods that persuasively measure the presence or absence of discrimination are rare, and appropriate data for measurement are often unobtainable. As a result, there is little scholarly consensus about the extent and frequency of discrimination and how it relates to continuing disadvantages along racial and ethnic lines (Fix and Turner, 1998).

One reason it is difficult to assess discrimination is that changes have occurred in the nature of prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behaviors. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other laws that prohibit discrimination because of race in a variety of domains, overt discrimination is less often apparent. However, discrimination may persist in more subtle forms. Indeed, social psychological research suggests that relatively automatic and unexamined cognitive processes, of which the holder (and sometimes the target) may not be fully aware, can lead to discrimination (Devine, 1989; Fiske, 1998). These subtleties make defining and measuring discrimination more difficult.

STUDY APPROACH AND SCOPE

The panel’s goal in this report is to review and comment on the methods used in various social scientific disciplines to identify types of racial discrimination and measure their effects. The report is designed to help social science researchers, policy analysts, federal agencies, and concerned observers better understand how to assess racial discrimination in different domains, drawing on different social science methods and data sources as appropriate. To approach this important but difficult task, the panel focused on defining relevant concepts, examining various methodological approaches and data sources, and considering directions for future research.

The purpose of this report is not to promote a single “right” way to measure discrimination. In some situations, one approach may be more easily implemented and more credible; in other situations, another approach may be more appropriate. Often, multiple approaches will be needed to provide credible evidence about the prevalence of discrimination in a domain. Thus, the panel attempts to identify the broad range of approaches for measuring discrimination and to provide a critical review of their relative credibility when applied in different situations. The panel develops a cross-disciplinary research and data collection agenda for action by public and private funding agencies and the research community.

The report makes no attempt to actually measure current or past levels of discrimination in any domain. Our purpose is not to report numbers or impacts but to provide guidance and encouragement to researchers and policy analysts as they work across domains to identify where discrimination may be present and what its effects may be.

In the first part of this report, the panel defines the concepts of race and racial discrimination from a social science perspective, which we believe is the appropriate perspective for research and policy analysis on discrimination. When referring to race in the report, the panel uses the categories established by the federal classification standards (U.S. Office of Management and Budget, 1997) to identify whites, blacks or African Americans, American Indians and Alaska Natives or Native Americans, Asians, and Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. According to these standards, Hispanics or Latinos are referred to as an ethnic group. Yet, although the panel was asked to consider racial discrimination, Hispanics (a rapidly growing ethnic population) also face discrimination. In addition, concepts of race and ethnicity are not clearly defined for many Hispanics, so for these two reasons our discussion often refers to Hispanics as well as to specific racial groups. Throughout the report, the term disadvantaged racial group is used to refer to groups in the United States (e.g., blacks) whose disadvantage can be linked historically to discriminatory practices and policies and who are, consequently, part of a legally protected class.

The panel is concerned with broad types of discriminatory behaviors and processes that have negative consequences for disadvantaged racial groups in various social and economic arenas. We draw on sociological, social psychological, and other literature to develop our definition of racial discrimination. We also discuss the conceptual possibility that discrimination may operate not just at one point in time and within one particular domain but at various points within and across multiple domains throughout the course of an individual’s life. The panel acknowledges that the effect of such cumulative discrimination may not be easily identified or measured.

In interpreting that part of its charge to review measurement methods, the panel chose to address broad approaches that could be applied across domains, rather than making recommendations about specific approaches for particular domains. Therefore, although examples are used throughout the report to illustrate efforts to measure discrimination in particular circumstances, our main focus is on methods (e.g., experiments, observational studies, survey research) that can be used to study discrimination under many different circumstances.

The examples of disparities and discrimination measurement that we provide come from research in five domains: labor markets and employment, education, housing and mortgage lending, health care, and criminal justice. Although not the only domains of concern, these are key areas of social interaction for which discrimination can seriously limit life opportunities; these are also among the areas for which the federal government regularly collects administrative and survey data long used by researchers to study discrimination and discriminatory effects. We do not provide an exhaustive set of examples for each of these areas. Rather, a selected bibliography of important literature reviews, major reports, and other work on data collection and analytical methods used in each of these domains is provided at the end of this report.

Much of the discussion in this report on such topics as statistical inference, experimental design, and data quality is relatively technical in nature. Although sometimes dry, the import of this discussion should not be misunderstood by readers who are deeply concerned about the possible extent and continued effects of racial discrimination in American life. It was our shared concern about racial discrimination that drew each member of the panel into the in-depth discussions of measurement reflected in this report. Because we view racial discrimination as a crucial social issue, we believe it is essential to use the most credible and accurate measurement approaches.

In carrying out this study, the panel met and deliberated over a period of almost 2 years. We held meetings, invited speakers, and commissioned several papers (see Box 1-1 ); we requested input from prominent scholars on key issues; reviewed a large body of literature on salient aspects of the law and criminal justice, labor markets, housing markets, education, and

health care; investigated the ways in which race is defined in various federally funded surveys; reviewed the literature on race, prejudice, and discrimination; and examined other literature on survey design, experimental evidence, and statistical analysis.

REPORT ORGANIZATION

This report is divided into three parts. The chapters in Part I provide a conceptual framework for thinking about racial discrimination. Chapter 2 explores the meaning of race as a social construct and provides historical background on the complex issues surrounding race in the United States and how it is measured in the decennial census and other federal data collections. Chapter 3 defines discrimination from a social science perspective and explains why we focus on racial discrimination. Our definition of racial discrimination is informed by legal concepts of discrimination, but it also encompasses behaviors and processes that may not be unlawful or easily measured. Chapter 4 provides a framework for understanding how racial

discrimination may operate. As the discussion indicates, there are different ways in which discrimination can occur and various mechanisms that can result in discriminatory behavior. Identifying various sources of discrimination is a crucial first step in developing theories or models of discrimination and using them to guide data collection and research for measuring the presence and extent of different types of discrimination.

The chapters in Part II examine methodological approaches to measuring discrimination and the advantages, limitations, and best techniques associated with each. Chapter 5 provides a general framework for inferring causation and a brief introduction to some of the topics covered in detail in the chapters that follow. Chapter 6 focuses on experimental methods, including field and laboratory experiments. Chapter 7 describes the use of statistical analysis of observational data to measure discrimination, reviewing the necessary assumptions and potential credibility of various approaches. Chapter 8 focuses on approaches employing attitudinal and behavioral indicators of discrimination, including methods based on survey data and administrative records. Each of these chapters describes specific approaches and the situations in which they can be implemented and may be appropriate. Where possible, we also attempt to identify more and less credible approaches, providing guidance for future scholars seeking to use the most effective methods. Chapter 9 at the end of Part II addresses issues of racial profiling, as an illustration of an area in which measuring discrimination is difficult.

The chapters in Part III present the panel’s priorities for data collection and research for improved measures of race and racial discrimination. Chapter 10 describes the data collected by federal statistical and administrative agencies that may support analysis of racial discrimination and its effects. The discussion focuses on concepts and measures of race and ethnicity in federal data sources, how different measures may affect distributions and consequent analyses for racial and ethnic groups, and research that is needed to improve federal measures. Chapter 11 considers the nature of cumulative effects of discrimination within and across multiple domains, seeking to identify techniques that can be used to provide a fuller measure of the impact of discrimination when it occurs over time and in more than one social arena. Little empirical work has been done on cumulative discrimination, so research and data collection in this area are important to pursue.

Finally, Chapter 12 suggests next steps for program and research agencies to build a research agenda that is directed to priority needs for measuring racial discrimination. The aim of the chapter is not to develop a detailed agenda per se, which is beyond the panel’s scope and resources, but to suggest a series of steps whereby agencies may identify priority research topics; evaluate them for feasibility and cost-effectiveness; and bring to bear the necessary conceptual frameworks, research methods, and data. Whether

conducting research from a policy perspective or more basic research, it will be important to support multidisciplinary studies that draw on a range of methodologies and data sources.

The report ends with two appendixes: Appendix A presents the agenda for the Workshop on Measuring Racial Disparities and Discrimination in Elementary and Secondary Education held by the panel in July 2002; Appendix B provides biographical sketches of the panel members and staff.

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Many racial and ethnic groups in the United States, including blacks, Hispanics, Asians, American Indians, and others, have historically faced severe discrimination—pervasive and open denial of civil, social, political, educational, and economic opportunities. Today, large differences among racial and ethnic groups continue to exist in employment, income and wealth, housing, education, criminal justice, health, and other areas. While many factors may contribute to such differences, their size and extent suggest that various forms of discriminatory treatment persist in U.S. society and serve to undercut the achievement of equal opportunity.

Measuring Racial Discrimination considers the definition of race and racial discrimination, reviews the existing techniques used to measure racial discrimination, and identifies new tools and areas for future research. The book conducts a thorough evaluation of current methodologies for a wide range of circumstances in which racial discrimination may occur, and makes recommendations on how to better assess the presence and effects of discrimination.

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Chapter 7: English and the global perspective

7.2.4 English and linguistic discrimination (research essay)

Anonymous English 102 Writer

November 2020

After the Norman conquest of France in 1066, French rose to the seat of the world’s  lingua franca , or a language used to communicate across all other countries (Marques para. 2). French was the language of power – anybody who was anyone boasted of speaking it (Marques para. 3). All the nobility spoke it, great philosophers wrote books in it, diplomacy was conducted in it – the reach of the French language and the French influence stretched across the globe (Marques para. 4). But from what we can observe today, it does not seem to be that way anymore. Instead, there is a new language that has replaced the once dominate French – and that language is English. But how did this happen? It was not an overnight thing, where suddenly everyone woke up speaking English and living under its influence. So how, exactly, did English come to reside in this position at the top of the language hierarchy? And after it did happen, how did it come to a point where any other languages were considered inferior?

As mentioned before, English did not used to hold the seat of power against all other languages. For much of history, it was French that controlled the globe. But entering 18th   century, it started to look like French would not reign supreme for much longer (Marques para. 6). The Industrial Revolution in England pushed the country, through technological and scientific advancements, to the fore front of the scene (Marques para. 7). In addition, the British Empire began to stretch its sphere of influence across the globe, bringing English culture, and the English language, along with it (Marques para. 8). By the 19th century, the British impact spanned to all reaches of the Earth, and the barely formed, economically skyrocketing United States contributed its influence as well (Marques para. 9). According to the article “How and Why Did English Supplant French As the World’s Lingua Franca?” by Nuno Marques, “French may have been spoken in the courts of Europe all the way to Russia…. but English was the language of money, and money talks louder than philosophy.” And this certainly held true when the United States stole the spotlight from bankrupt England after WWII. In its competition against Russia during the Cold War, all eyes were on the U.S as it put forth unprecedented technologies and continued on its steady rise in power. And things only escalated from there. Today, roughly 1.5 billion people speak English – that is about 20% of the entire population on Earth (Stevens para. 2). Of those 1.5 billion, 75% of them are nonnative speakers, indicating the globality and rise the in influence of English (Stevens para. 2). It is the language of almost everything of importance – business, diplomacy, medicine, and so much more. And with English being the forefront of everything, it can be assumed that native speakers of English are given the upper hand. Any individuals speaking other languages as their primary are forced to learn English in order to spread their ideas or hold any sort of power in the gobal fields.

And there is certainly much evidence to attest to this. In the academic article “Language Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials Published in English and German,” the authors, Matthias Egger and Tanja Zellweger-Zähner, relayed their study on academic articles published English medical journals versus journals of other languages. They found that it was more likely for authors to publish statistically significant findings in English medical journals that it was for them to publish their articles in journals of their first language. According to the article “The Hidden Bias of Science’s Universal Language,” “in some non-English speaking countries… English-language academic papers outnumber publications in the country’s own language several times over (para. 1)”. This reveals that researchers are ultimately forced to publish their findings in English in order to reach a wider audience and global recognition. It also suggests the possibility of significant scientific findings being overlooked because they were not published in English and thus reached a more limited audience. In another academic article, “The Inferior Science and the Dominant Use of English in Knowledge Production: A Case Study of Korean Science and Technology,” author Kumju Hwang interviewed Korean scientists and engineers living in the U.K on perceptions of English usage. She noted that many of the Korean interviewees felt that they had a significant disadvantage because they had to devote more time and effort to learning English that could have been used elsewhere in their scientific activities (p. 407). In one interview, a scientist said “In order to learn English, we lose 20 percent of the time that could normally be spent concentrating on science. We cannot fully concentrate con science. This means that our scientific results will be reduced by 20 percent (p. 407)”. The interviewee also expressed difficulty in communication at conferences and national meetings, which she felt could lead to a disadvantage for everyone (p. 407). And yet still, if researchers want their findings to be recognized, they have to learn English and publish in an English journal. As one interviewee said, “It is…much easier to be accepted into Korean journals, due to the fact that papers of poorer quality are submitted [there]. If I discovered something important, I would not submit it to a Korean journal (p. 412).” Yet another interviewee said that there are prejudices against non-native speakers of English in the sciences that affected their ability to be successful in publishing their papers and gaining recognition for their work (p. 413).

But it’s not only countries’ academic journals that have been affected by English’s rise to power, but also their languages and cultures themselves. This first came to my attention in my German class, when my teacher was talking about something in German about the internet and she used the word  googlen  – to google. I thought that honestly quite amusing and it led me to think about what other words from the English language have been incorporated into the vernacular of other languages. In fact, the answer to that is – a lot. The article “The Influence of English” by R.L.G, details many examples of this, such as  downloaden (download) (para. 5), and also ways in which English sentence structure has rubbed off on other languages. For example, in German you would traditionally say  Es hat mir Sinn  (It has sense to me), but recently people have begun to say  Es macht Sinn  (It makes sense) (para. 3). I find this particularly interesting seeing how the tables have turned. Before the German language borrowed words from English, they were borrowing words from French. One that when I hear for the first time had me a little bewildered is the word  Chance ( same meaning in English too). The pronunciation of the word,  shaunz,  sounded so much more fluid that the normally harsher tone of the language that I was used to. But English isn’t innocent in this endeavor either. In fact, the language had a large habit of stealing words from other languages that has contributed to many of the common words we use today. These so called “loanwords” (I’d call them stolenwords) make up so much of our speech that we don’t even realize how much of our language we have absorbed from other languages. For example, the word ketchup comes from the Hokkien Chinese word  ketsiap  – which is a sauce made from fermented fish (Coleman para. 15) . Another one is cookie, which comes from  koekjes , or “little cakes”, in Dutch (Coleman para.17). But not only language has changed because of English, culture has as well. What I have noticed with specifically the influence of the United States is the seemingly “Americanization”, so to speak, of other countries. The article “America’s Cultural Role in the World Today” goes into detail about this, attributing the first huge rise of American cultural influence on other countries to the United States’s consumer economy after the Second World War (Damm para. 2).  One of the factors that the article attributes the influence of American culture to is the media. The technological advances, such as tv broadcasting, put American media at the head of the scene, and gave them a wider audience (Damm para. 6). Other factors include the arts – film, music, literature, art – all of which put international eyes on the United States. For example, the popularity of Hollywood and American films have sold the ‘American dream’ to people around the world (Daam para. 8). Unfortunately, the power the English language has acquired hasn’t only resulted in loanwords and domination of the film industry. It has also brought about biased beliefs that English is superior and prejudice against non-native speakers of English and speakers of other languages.

The occurrence of prejudice against non-native speakers of English and speakers of other languages is nothing new. Linguistic discrimination, or when someone is treated unfairly based on the language that they speak (or do not speak) and the way in which they speak (ex. accent, span of vocabulary) (Loehrke 2), has occurred all throughout history. This goes hand in hand with linguistic imperialism, which Rober Phillipson defines in his book  Linguistic Imperialism  as “the notion that certain languages dominate internationally on others. It is the way nation states privileged one language, and often sought to eradicate others, forcing their speakers to shift to the dominant language (p. 780).” Phillipson also discusses the idea of a “linguistical hierarchy” where languages are ranked as superior or inferior to one another, with the dominating language being at the top of the hierarchy (p. 2). He describes a similar pattern that has occurred in instances of linguistical hierarchy throughout history, which includes stigmatization, glorification, and rationalization (p. 2). Beginning with stigmatization, any other languages, accents, or vernaculars other than the current dominate language are deemed inferior (p.2). For instance, ancient Greeks called non-speakers of Greek  barbarians,  or outsiders (p. 2). Through glorification, speakers of the dominate language raise their language up on a pedestal above other languages, and with rationalization, establish a justification for why their language remains at the top of the hierarchy (p. 2).  A good example of this is the belief of German as the dominate language in Nazi ideology. The Nazis glorified the German language as a language of Aryan race, a people “physically and genetically superior to others” (Smith p. 151). Stigmatization, discrimination, and biased thoughts like this are present throughout the history books, but that doesn’t mean that modern people have not been affected by it.

Linguistic discrimination is still a very real occurrence and is very harmful for everyone involved. But how and why does it occur? TEDx writer Olena Levitina, in her article “Is Language Discrimination Still a Thing?”, writes that prejudice against non-native speakers stems from a lack of understanding (para. 6). When native-speakers talk with non-native speakers and cannot understand what they are saying because of their accent, they might associate their misunderstanding with the non-native speaker not being intelligent (para 6). This thought process is extremely harmful and can lead to future beliefs that anyone with that accent is not as intelligent as someone without. For example, in the academic article title “Why Don’t We Believe Non-native Speakers?”, authors Shiri Lev-Ari and Keysar Boaz recounted experiments in which they found that people were more likely to report statements spoked by native speakers as believable than those spoken by non-native speakers (p. 1093). They noted that when listeners hear accented speech, their “processing ability”, or how well they are able to take in information and understand it, decreases, but instead of just deeming what the speaker says as harder to understand, they perceive what they are saying to be less trustworthy (p. 1095). Always being thought of as less believable than native speakers is extremely detrimental, and even in some case they can become prepared for it. This phenomenon, described by Agata Gluszek and John Dovidio in their academic article “Speaking with a Non-native Accent: Perceptions of Bias, Communication Difficulties, and Belonging in the United States”, is called “anticipated stigmatization” in which the non-native speaker already expects the native speaker to have biases against them before they even open their mouth. The authors found that accented speakers of English in the United States who previously experienced conversational problems and difficulties in communication were more likely to feel anticipated stigmatization (p. 227). They suggested that if native speakers expect non-native speakers to have a harder to communicating than they actually do, they might be more likely to avoid instances with accented speakers or similar situations where they might have communication difficulty (p. 227). Thus, Gluszek and Dovidio also reported from their experiments that non-natively accent speakers expressed more feelings of not belonging in the United States, which they attributed to anticipated stigmatization and difficulty communicating (p. 288).

Linguistic discrimination directed in any situation is harmful, but it has been especially destructive in the education system. In going back to Phillipson’s book, he says about teaching English as a second language: “the spread of English shows clearly that the ‘development’ of this language has been structurally related to and contingent upon the underdevelopment of others (p. 348).” In addition, in her article “Education Equality: Mitigating Linguistic Discrimination in Second Language Teaching”, Laura Matson says that the “ideology of English language teaching is rooted in a power structure of linguistic imperialism brought about by a history colonialism in which English speaking countries have kept non-English speaking countries in a position of subordination (p. 14)”. For example, Matson details an explanation on how anxiety affects language learners’ performance and how the ideologies of teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) have contributed to this. Generally, learners at lower proficiency levels are more reserved when learning and less willing to participate because they are afraid of making mistakes and sounding “non-native” (p. 16). This is something that I can relate to as well with my journey learning languages. Especially when I was just starting out, I was afraid to answer question or speak out loud because I didn’t want to seem “stupid”. Whenever I read something out loud, I would internally cringe because even  I  could hear how bad my pronunciation was. Matson believes that the reason for anxiety in learning ESL is a direct result of the way in which the language is taught. By stressing that the “native speaker” accent is the correct, and essentially the ‘perfect’, way of speaking, pressure is put on the learner emulate this speech, and when they have difficulty with this, their willingness to participate at the risk of making mistakes decreases (p. 16). This ultimately enforces the idea of standard language ideology, which is defined by Rosina Lippi-Green in her book  Language in the USA  as “a bias towards an abstracted, idealized, non-varying spoken language (p. 289)”. This can be an extremely damaging belief, as, in referring to English, it promotes one way to speak it as the ‘right’ way, when in fact this ideology is a fallacy (p. 289). For example, Lippi-Green says that accents can be hard to change when they do not do anything to make communication difficult (p. 289) this makes it hard for there to be one language and only one way to speak it that is ‘correct’. In the article “The Silencing of ESL Speakers”, Barbara Seidlhofer, professor at the University of Vienna, says “it is easy to dismiss [various accented forms of English] as the use of incorrect English by people who have not learned it very well, but it is an entirely natural linguistic development, an example of how any language varies and changes as it is appropriated by different communities of users (para. 11).”

Another situation in which linguistic discrimination has been detrimental is in the workplace. In the academic article “Political Skill: Explaining the Effects of Nonnative Accent on Managerial Hiring and Entreprenurial Investment Decisions”, Laura Huang et. al investigate whether there is persistent bias associated with non-native speakers having weak political skills, and thus being less likely to advance in their careers (p. 1). The bias being tested in this article, called glass-ceiling bias, occurs when an individual is barred from attaining a higher position because of implicit bias against them (p. 1). Thus the ‘glass-ceiling’ refers to the idea that the individual is so close to reaching the position that they can see it through the glass, but bias has created a ceiling between them, preventing the individual from being able to climb higher up the corporate ladder (p. 1). In the experiments, Huang et. al found that native speakers of English received higher recommendations for promotions and more entrepreneurial funding than did non-natively accent individuals, therefore signaling that non-native speakers were considered to have lower political skill (p. 10). This is particularly alarming, because it shows that although non-natively accented individuals may have the same qualifications and experience (maybe even better) as native speakers, native English speakers are more frequently chosen for promotions and advancements in their careers.

But it is also important to note that not only non-native speakers of a language are discriminated against, but even native speakers as well. The most prominent example of this is discrimination against people who speak African American English, or AAE. African American English, which also has been referred to as Ebonics, African American Vernacular English, or Black English, is a dialect spoken by many African Americans in the United States (Mufwene para. 1). The linguistic features of AAE have often been criticized and denounced as grammatically incorrect compared to ‘standard’ English. For example, the usage of “double negatives” such as in “You  ain’t  getting  no  thanks from it.”(Poplack para. 3) would garner much denunciation according to standard English grammatical rules. But the fact of the matter is, that AAE is a part of the cultural identity of many African Americans just as any other accent is a part of anyone else’s. Unfortunately, due to lack of understanding and racist based biases, speakers of AAE have been, and continue to be, discriminated against. In the book  Why Are So Many Minority Students in Special Education? Understanding Race and Disability in Schools , authors Beth Harry and Janet Klinger offer a powerful example. As we discussed before, discrimination against non-native speakers of English in the education system is extremely detrimental, and the same is true for speakers of AAE in schools. Harry and Klinger found that speakers of AAE were found more often to be diagnosed with a language disorder and thus be placed in special education. The reasoned that it was often the assessors’ lack of knowledge regarding AAE and its linguistical traits that led to this diagnosis (p. 30). Assessors unfamiliar with the way that AAE functions might hear a student say something such as “he walk to school” instead of the standard English “he walks to school” and conclude that they have a language disorder, when in fact they were just speaking their native dialect. This disproportionately affects African American students, and students with other accents and dialects, giving them a disadvantage in their education. Discrimination also occurs with regional accents, most notably the Southern accent. Long held stereotypes of Southern ‘hillbillies’ and ‘rednecks’ have twisted many people’s minds, leading them to have biased views of Southerners being less educated or competent that other Americans. In the article titled “Perceptions of Competency as a Function of Accent”, Cheryl Boucher et. al found in their experiments that participants were more likely to view individuals with Southern accents as less competent that those with ‘neutral accents’ (p. 27). Participants rated the neutral speakers as being more grammatically correct and professional than speakers with Southern accents. This is similar to the common bias that African American English is grammatically incorrect compared to standard English. And it is harmful because it put speakers of AAE, those with Southern accents, and any other speakers of other stigmatized accents or dialects at an unfair disadvantage and puts untrue labels on them.

So how, then, can we stop linguistic discrimination, whether in the education system, workplace, or anywhere else? Going back to the academic article by Laura Matson, the author suggests promoting anti-racist education (p. 18). Matson argues that anti-racist education encourages a deeper look into the imbalances created between linguistically dominant and linguistically marginalized groups (p. 19). She writes that “‘merely celebrating differences (Kubota 36)’ … creates an illusion of equality that still maintains ‘existing power relations that the people on the margins are expected to assimilate to (Kubota 37)’ (p. 18)”. Matson proposes teaching English in a way that leads learners to look critically at the standard language, which allows them to question its role as a dominate language (p. 20). In the workplace and in the hiring process, writer Bridget Miller suggests in her article “Avoiding Discrimination in the Workplace” for employers to avoid “English-only” policies and train anyone related to the hiring process in unbiased interviewing (para. 3). She also wrote that it was important to note that 100% English fluency does not necessarily correlate to high job performance (para. 3). Dr. Pragya Agarwal, in her article “Accent Bias: How Can We Minimize Discrimination in the Workplace?”, says that making a conscious effort to look past bias and prejudice can create a more inclusive and amicable environment (para. 6). Through these ways, we can become more aware of our own, possibly unconscious, biases towards other non-natively accent speakers and work on ending them.

Works Cited

Lev-Ari, Shiri, and Boaz Keysar. “Why Don’t We Believe Non-Native Speakers? The Influence of Accent on Credibility.”  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , vol. 46, no. 6, 2010, pp. 1093–1096., doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.05.025.

Gluszek, Agata, and John F. Dovidio. “Speaking With a Nonnative Accent: Perceptions of Bias, Communication Difficulties, and Belonging in the United States.”  Journal of Language and Social Psychology , vol. 29, no. 2, 2010, pp. 224–234., doi:10.1177/0261927×09359590.

Egger, Matthias, et al. “Language Bias in Randomized Controlled Trials Published in English and German.”  The Lancet , vol. 350, no. 9074, 1997, pp. 326–329., doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(97)02419-7.

Hwang, Kumju. “The Inferior Science and the Dominant Use of English in Knowledge Production.”  Science Communication , vol. 26, no. 4, 2005, pp. 390–427., doi:10.1177/1075547005275428.

Agyekum, Kofi. “Linguistic imperialism and language decolonisation in Africa through documentation and preservation.” In Jason Kandybowicz, Travis Major, Harold Torrence & Philip T. Duncan (eds.), African linguistics on the prairie: Selected papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 87–104. Berlin: Language Science Press.

Phillipson, Robert. 2009. Linguistic imperialism. In Jacob L. Mey (ed.), Concise encyclopedia of            pragmatics, 2nd edn., 780–782. Amsterdam: Elsevier Ltd.

Smith, Woodruff D.  The Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism . Oxford University Press, 1986.

Matson, Laura. “Educational Equality: Mitigating Linguistic Discrimination in Second Language Teaching.”  Leviathan: Interdisciplinary Journal in English , 2019.

Huang, Laura, et al. “Political Skill: Explaining the Effects of Nonnative Accent on Managerial Hiring and Entrepreneurial Investment Decisions.”  Journal of Applied Psychology , vol. 98, no. 6, 2013, pp. 1005–1017., doi:10.1037/a0034125.

Harry, and Klinger. “Why Are so Many Minority Students in Special Education?: Understanding Race and Disability in Schools.”  Choice Reviews Online , vol. 52, no. 05, 2014, doi:10.5860/choice.185613.

Boucher, Cheryl J., et al. “Perceptions of Competency as a Function of Accent.”  Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research , vol. 18, no. 1, 2013, pp. 27–32., doi:10.24839/2164-8204.jn18.1.27.

Mufwene, Salikoko S. “African American English.”  Encyclopædia Britannica , Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/African-American-English.

“America’s Cultural Role in the World Today.”  Access International , 2008, access-internationalvg2.cappelendamm.no/c951212/artikkel/vis.html?tid=385685.

Huttner-Koros, Adam. “Why Science’s Universal Language Is a Problem for Research.”  The Atlantic , Atlantic Media Company, 14 Sept. 2015,  www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/08/english-universal-language-science-research/400919/ .

“Did You Know Many English Words Come from Other Languages? Here Are 45!”  FluentU English , www.fluentu.com/blog/english/english-words-from-other-languages/.

Levitina, Olena. “Is Language Discrimination Still a Thing?  • TEDxVienna.”  TEDxVienna , 21 Feb. 2020, www.tedxvienna.at/blog/is-language-discrimination-still-thing/.

Miller, Bridget. “Avoiding Language Discrimination in the Workplace.”  HR Daily Advisor , 7 Jan. 2018, hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2016/03/14/avoiding-language-discrimination-in-the-workplace/.

Agarwal, Dr. Pragya. “Accent Bias: How Can We Minimize Discrimination In The Workplace?”  Forbes , Forbes Magazine, 30 Dec. 2018,  www.forbes.com/sites/pragyaagarwaleurope/2018/12/30/bias-is-your-accent-holding-you-back/?sh=1a2b81181b5a .

R.L.G. “Deep Impact.”  The Economist , The Economist Newspaper, www.economist.com/prospero/2015/07/16/deep-impact.

Stevens, Paul. “Viewpoint: The Silencing of ESL Speakers.”  SHRM , SHRM, 28 Feb. 2020, www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/behavioral-competencies/global-and-cultural-effectiveness/pages/viewpoint-the-silencing-of-esl-speakers.aspx.

Marques, Nuno. “How And Why Did English Supplant French As The World’s Lingua Franca?”  Babbel Magazine , 2017, www.babbel.com/en/magazine/how-and-why-did-english-supplant-french-as-the-world-s-lingua-franca.

Loehrke, Katie. “Language Discrimination Is a Real Issue: Here’s How to Avoid It.”  Bizjournals.com , 2017,  www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/human-resources/2017/11/language-discrimination-is-a-real-issue-here-s-how.html .

Poplack, Shana. “’It Don’t Be like That Now’ – the English History of African American English.”  The Conversation , 20 Nov. 2020, theconversation.com/it-dont-be-like-that-now-the-english-history-of-african-american-english-129611.

Understanding Literacy in Our Lives by Anonymous English 102 Writer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Essay on Discrimination

Students are often asked to write an essay on Discrimination in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Discrimination

Understanding discrimination.

Discrimination means treating people unfairly because they are different. It can be based on race, religion, gender, age, or disability.

Types of Discrimination

Direct discrimination occurs when someone is treated worse because of their differences. Indirect discrimination happens when rules or practices disadvantage certain groups.

Effects of Discrimination

Discrimination can lead to feelings of sadness, anger, and loneliness. It can also cause mental health problems.

Fighting Discrimination

We can fight discrimination by treating everyone equally, standing up against unfair treatment, and promoting diversity and inclusion.

Also check:

• Speech on Discrimination

250 Words Essay on Discrimination

Discrimination is a pervasive social issue that transcends geographical boundaries and cultural contexts. It is the unjust or prejudiced treatment of different categories of people, often based on aspects such as race, age, sex, or disability.

The Roots of Discrimination

Discrimination is deeply rooted in stereotypes, biases, and societal norms. These are often perpetuated through socialization processes, media representations, and institutional practices, leading to systemic discrimination. This systemic discrimination is often invisible to those not affected, making it a challenging issue to address.

Impacts of Discrimination

Discrimination has far-reaching effects on individuals and societies. It can lead to social exclusion, economic disparity, and mental health issues among those discriminated against. It hampers social cohesion and economic development, creating divisions and tensions within societies.

Combating Discrimination

Addressing discrimination requires a multi-faceted approach. Education plays a vital role in breaking down stereotypes and promoting empathy and understanding. Legislation can also provide protection against discriminatory practices. However, to truly combat discrimination, societal attitudes must change, and this requires collective effort.

Discrimination is a complex issue that requires a comprehensive approach to address. While significant strides have been made, there is still much work to be done. It is crucial for everyone to take responsibility and play their part in creating a more inclusive and equitable society.

500 Words Essay on Discrimination

Introduction.

Discrimination is a pervasive social issue that exists in various forms across the globe. It is an unjust practice that involves the unequal treatment of individuals based on their particular attributes such as race, gender, age, religion, or sexual orientation. This essay explores the nature, impacts, and potential solutions to this complex issue.

The Nature of Discrimination

Discrimination is deeply embedded in societal structures, often perpetuated by stereotypes, prejudices, and biases. It manifests in both overt and subtle ways, from explicit laws and policies that disadvantage certain groups to unconscious biases affecting interpersonal interactions. Discrimination can be systemic, where it is entrenched in societal institutions, or individual, where it is enacted by individuals in their daily interactions.

The Impact of Discrimination

The effects of discrimination are far-reaching, affecting individuals and communities at multiple levels. At the individual level, it can lead to psychological distress, lower self-esteem, and reduced opportunities for employment, education, and social participation. At the societal level, discrimination hampers social cohesion and economic progress. It perpetuates social inequality, fostering environments of hostility and tension.

Intersectionality and Discrimination

Intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, is crucial in understanding discrimination. It refers to the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, and how they create overlapping systems of discrimination. For instance, a woman of color may face discrimination that is different from what a white woman or a man of color experiences. Acknowledging intersectionality allows for a more nuanced understanding of discrimination and its impacts.

Combatting Discrimination

Addressing discrimination requires concerted efforts at multiple levels. Legal measures, such as anti-discrimination laws and equal opportunity policies, can provide a framework for preventing discriminatory practices. However, laws alone are insufficient. There needs to be a societal shift in attitudes and behaviors. This can be facilitated through education, promoting diversity and inclusion, and challenging harmful stereotypes and biases.

Discrimination, in its many forms, remains a significant challenge in contemporary society. It is a multifaceted issue that requires comprehensive solutions. While legal measures provide a basis for addressing discrimination, they must be complemented by efforts to change societal attitudes and behaviors. Only through a combination of these approaches can we hope to build a society where every individual is treated with fairness and respect, regardless of their identity or background.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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• Essay on Discipline
• Essay on Diabetes
• Essay on Depression

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Essay About Racial Discrimination

Racial discrimination has been ranked as one the most pervasive issue in the world around today. Anyone judged by the skin colour, nationality, religion rather than by the content of character can be very dehumanizing experience that can have lasting effects on an individual’s life (Fischer 2008). Racism disturbs both individual and the learning environment in schools. It generates tension that alter cultural understanding and narrow the educational experiences of all students. According to (Berlak 2009) discrimination occurs in any stage of education from preschool through college and can be practiced by teachers or students. Racism occur in various forms such as teasing, name calling, teasing, verbal abuse and bullying. Therefore this literature review, discusses the types, effects and solution to this unstoppable issue in education system.

Types of Racial Discrimination

Racism is frequently thought of as individual demonstrations of inclination. While discrimination is still particularly a reality, concentrating on individual demonstrations of prejudice can darken the substances that make and keep up racial disparity all the more comprehensively. According to De la luz, there are three types of racial discrimination which are individual racism, instituinal racism and systematic racism. To completely address the effects of racism it is essential to address all parts of racial disparity. Individual racism, likewise called personal racism, is the sort of prejudice that a great many people consider when they consider “racism.” Individual prejudice happens when a man’s convictions, states of mind, and activities depend on inclinations, generalizations, or preferences against another race. Institutional racism refers to an establishment settling on decisions that deliberately single out or hurt ethnic minorities. Systematic racism, is maybe the most upsetting and slightest examined type of racism. It systematizes individual, social, and different sorts of prejudice in ceaseless frameworks. Like institutional prejudice, basic racism centre around associations instead of individuals. However, while institutional racism may intentionally attempt to single out a specific gathering, auxiliary bigotry is unbiased all over. This impartiality makes basic prejudice hard to gauge and significantly more hard to end.

Effects of Racial Discrimination

It is believed that racism is one term that describes the whole issue, however it is a complex system that describes many types of biased behaviours and systems (Jonnes 2018).According to the Human Rights Commission (2017), racism as an act that humiliates human behaviour and affects the life of an individual physically, mentally and socially. It takes various forms such as name calling, comments, jokes, verbal abuse, harassment, bullying or commentary in the media that inflames hostility towards certain groups. In serious case, it results in physical abuse and violence. Racial discrimination is a deadly virus that affects all, individual, families, communities and the learning and working environment. Racism can unpleasantly affect the educational outcomes, individual happiness and self-confidence, cultural identity, school and community relations and most commonly is the student’s behaviour and academic achievements (Kohli, 2017). Hence if it is unaddressed than racism can generate tensions within the school communities and these will affect the educational experiences of all students. It can demoralise students self -confidence and can result in students displaying a range of negative behaviours Students who are disaffected with school are less likely to attend school regularly and more likely to drop out of school earlier than other groups of students. The increase rate of the incidence of absenteeism and stress is due to racism been link to diminished morale and lower productivity (Fields 2014),The presence of racism in schools affects the educational outcomes due to lower participation rates, behavioural problems and feelings of alienation. Hence the educational success depends on the regular sustained attendance of each students and the ability to participate in the classroom. With racism in the learning environment, the balance is disrupted and educational outcomes maybe limited as a result (Triaki 2017).

Moreover, racism could be minimised even though it will decade to erase it from our beautiful world. Advancing positive ethnic and racial character decreases sentiments of detachment or prohibition and enhance students capacity to focus in the classroom. Teachers can enable students to create positive opinions about their ethnic and racial personality by presenting them to assorted good examples, and making a sheltered space for them to commend their disparities. A definitive answer for this issue is diminishing understudy introduction to racial separation and enhancing race relations in the U.S. In the interim, there are ways minding and concerned grown-ups can enable understudies to manage the pressure be minimised even though it will take time to prevent it from being practiced in schools. (Collins 2015).Racism has been around everlastingly however it can be diminished, just with a lot of exertion. Education is the key for some muddled issues we look in this world. Education can change the manner in which people think and lead us to a superior world. We can battle racism with education (Hwang 2008). On the off chance that we instruct and show sympathy, at that point there will be less need to discuss how we can stop racism. It will be difficult to stop racism if racist considerations are still with us. It is dependent upon us to get ready for the future by teaching our family and others on the difficulties of racial discrimination. At exactly that point will we overcome racial discrimination in our societies and schools.

Racial discrimination could be described as a weapon that destroys the society and the education system as whole. It affects the students in various ways that hinder their academic achievement and also affects them mentally, physically and socially. It was also stated that racial discrimination can occur at any stage either preschool, high schools or even tertiary institution. Hence there are possible ways where racism could be minimized even though it will take time to be erased. Therefore education is an important tool in everyone’s life since it can change the world and every individual.        

A Personal Experience of Discrimination Essay

Introduction, my personal experience.

We live in an integrated society where various elements color our view and understanding of what goes on around us. One of the defining characteristics about me is my optimistic outlook towards life. Always looking at the bright side of people and situations has been my mantra and despite how bad things get, I do not let any situation tear me down. I am always open to the possibilities that people have the inborn ability to love, care and understand each other with very little inhibitions. This is a virtue that is especially useful to me in a world constantly battered by the winds of uncertainty.

Due to this positive perception on life and humanity, I have never really thought about the existing problems of racism and its associated vices such as discrimination or stereotyping. This is mainly because I have never really encountered them on a personal level even though people around me always shared their experiences as to how they witnessed them at some point in their lives. I think that my long term belief that people exercised equality was biased and as a result, blinded me from seeing the truth. Evidently, people in their varied capacities have the potential to be unjust, cruel and discriminatory depending on their culture and environment that they dwell in. Incidentally, reality finally dawned on me as I experienced the most horrific event in my life.

I am a well travelled youth who believes in living life to the fullest and making the most out of it. Two years ago, I embarked on a trip to France in a bid to further fulfill my life principle. It was then that I experience ostracism and discrimination in the hands of the joyous Parisians. My friends had always praised the shopping district in Paris and I finally had a chance to witness the marvels. I always had a fetish for designer handbags and France was home to one of the famous designers dealing with these bags. I wanted to experience entering the Louis Vioutton boutique on Champ Ellyses and purchase my first LV designer handbag. I could have easily purchased one in the states but the thrill of knowing that I would be the owner of a designer handbag purchased directly from the source in Paris was overwhelming.

I was totally exited as I approached the store. I imagined the looks on my friends’ faces as I narrate this enduring event to them. I expected to be received with a warm welcome by the sales personnel but that was not the case. The minute I walked into the store, I was ignored by the sales people. I figured that maybe they identified me as an American so I decided to speak in Spanish. Funny enough, they responded in English but only to one question then turned away to assist other people that had just walked into the store. I was beyond myself with anger as I contemplated on what I could have done to receive such a cold response.

I lingered in the boutique for about twenty minutes trying to get someone’s attention but to no avail. It was like I didn’t matter. I was ignored and as I looked at them I saw them laughing at me a fact that made me feel totally alienated and looked down upon. Needless to say, I felt humiliated and belittled. I finally gathered enough courage and walked out of the boutique feeling blue and undeserving.

This stereotyping and discrimination exerted a prime jolt to my ego which made me realize the horrible and uncalled-for situations that many Americans experience in their day to day interactions. I finally understood that racism and its associated vices are territorial concepts that people employ to feel empowered and for self gratification. I also realized that such incidences affect people irrespective of their age, race and religion. It pained me as I imagined how difficult it is to encounter these situations on a daily basis.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, March 18). A Personal Experience of Discrimination. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-personal-experience-of-discrimination/

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Bibliography

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Sample Essay on Racism and Discrimination, with Outline

Published by gudwriter on January 4, 2021 January 4, 2021

Sample Racism Research Paper Outline

Introduction, elevate your writing with our free writing tools.

Did you know that we provide a free essay and speech generator, plagiarism checker, summarizer, paraphraser, and other writing tools for free?

Although racism is assumed to be less grievous compared to other global issues, it has continuously lagged most communities behind as it exists in different societal spheres. Racial discrimination can be a hard topic to write essays on but seeking help with history from a venerated company will make things easier and will guarantee you a high quality paper that will get you good grades.

• Racial Discrimination in the Workplace
• Racial discrimination is a common phenomenon in the workplace.
• Here, it tends to portray itself in a variety of forms some of which can be overt or obvious. It can also be subtle and difficult to detect.
• A good example is a situation where an employer fails to promote a particular employee because they are of a specific race.
• Racial discrimination is not limited to insults but also involves violation of an employee’s dignity that creates an offensive environment.
• Any Federal and state laws condemn racial discrimination in the workplace.

Racial Discrimination in the Sports Industry

• Racial discrimination in sports is a prevalent problem all across the world.
• The group that suffers more in this category are African-Americans.
• In 2007, HREOC reported that racial abuse and vilification are a common thing when it comes to international sports.
• In 2017, research revealed that discrimination in sports rose from 31% in 2016 to 41% in 2017.

Racial Discrimination in Education

• The education sector is the most affected when it comes to racial discrimination.
• It has been reported that children of black origin receive heavy punishments compared to those of white origin even when they commit the same crime.
• According to Cokley, (2016) black children make at least 18% of pre-school enrollment.
• However, they represent 47% of students that receive one or more suspensions in their education cycle.

Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System

• The United States is known to have the most significant number of incarcerated citizens compared to other developed nations.
• According to statistics on arrests, incarcerations, and prison population, blacks are disproportionately represented compared to any other people of color.

Undoubtedly, although racism is assumed to be less grievous compared to other global issues, it has continuously lagged most communities behind as it exists in different societal spheres. The existence of racial discrimination means that people are not productive as they ought to be, not active as they should receive a poor education, and sent to jail for the slightest crimes committed.

Essay about racism – Racism in our society -This topic offers a lot to write about. You can write about how racism is manifested in various spheres in society. You can document issues such as racism in employment, sports, education, politics, neighborhoods, and government. (3 pages) . Feel free to also read through a free research paper sample on racial profiling .

Essay on Racism. Racial Discrimination in Society

The world is continuously faced with different issues ranging from economic downturns, warfare, natural calamities, and many other problems. However, a problem that tends to bedevil many communities is the issue of racism. Racism refers to the act of discriminating or looking down upon an individual from a different race. It is based on the unfortunate idea that a particular race is more superior to another. Although racism is assumed to be less grievous compared to other global issues, it has continuously lagged most communities behind as it exists in different societal spheres.

Racial Discrimination at the Workplace

Racial discrimination is a common phenomenon in the workplace. Here, it tends to portray itself in a variety of forms some of which can be overt or obvious. However, it can also be subtle and difficult to detect. A good example is a situation where an employer fails to promote a particular employee because they are of a specific race. Sometimes, one might be denied a job because of his or her race despite having fulfilled all other requirements (Offermann et al., 2014). It is important to mention that racial discrimination is not limited to insults but also involves violation of an employee’s dignity that creates an offensive environment.

Federal and state laws condemn racial discrimination in the workplace. For instance, in the UK, the Equality Act of 2010 protects employees from any form of racial discrimination. In the U.S., the same case applies where legally, race encompasses color, ethnicity, national origin, and nationality. The U.S. protects its employees from racial discrimination through the Civil Rights Act of 1964: Title VII (Equal Employment Opportunities). The legislation is an important piece that continues to protect employees from any form of discrimination, especially during employment.

Racial harassment is a common form of racial discrimination in the workplace. For example, in a hypothetical situation, if Mohammed is working as a plant machine operator in a company and the manager keeps on questioning his dress code, appearance, and Islamic customs, the treatment can be termed racial discrimination. This would be so since Mohammed might feel that the workplace environment is hostile and intimidating. He may also feel that the boss is becoming intrusive and this might affect his performance in the long-run.

There is thus need to eliminate workplace discrimination given that a workplace that is devoid of discrimination serves to create an environment that is free of practical, psychological, and health consequences and/or costs of discrimination. It is an environment in which workers are not denied such important resources as promotion-related pay increases and neither do they have to suffer loss of employment. People working in such an environment are also less likely to report health or psychological problems associated with discrimination. The implication here is that these problems are real in workplaces where discrimination is rampant. Shi, Young and Bucher (2013) observe that “racial discrimination in the workplace positively predicts an increased number of physical health problems among Filipino Americans.” The scholars also note that African-American workers experience higher depression rates owing to “being the token minority member in the organization” (Shi, Young & Bucher, 2013). These people would regain their self-esteem if discrimination is eliminated.

Racial discrimination in sports is a prevalent problem across the entire world. The group that suffers more in this category are African-Americans. The group that is tasked with the responsibility of dealing with this problem is the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). In 2007, HREOC reported that racial abuse and vilification are a common thing when it comes to international sports. Here, vilification refers to addressing someone in an abusive language.

In the modern times, racial discrimination in sports is still experienced. In 2017, research revealed that discrimination in sports rose from 31% in 2016 to 41% in 2017 (Lapchick, 2018). For instance, in May 2017, Adam Jones who is a Baltimore Orioles center fielder claimed that he was berated with racial slurs and that a bag of peanuts was thrown at him during a match. Other athletes also contended that the same happened to them including Draymond Green. Most of the times, sports fans tend to be the culprits of racial discrimination in sports through writings, actions, and speech. The affected sportspeople cannot play effectively and at their best when surrounded by a racial crowd.  

The education sector is probably the most affected when it comes to racial discrimination. Usually, children from certain races are considered inferior and not given the same resources as those considered from superior races. It has been reported that children of black origin receive heavy punishments compared to those of white origin even when they commit the same mistake at school. For instance, an African-American child could be suspended from school due to a violation of school regulations while a child of white origin could just be reprimanded for the same offense.

Statistics show that black children make at least 18% of pre-school enrollment. However, they represent 47% of students that receive one or more suspensions in their education cycle. Most of the times, misbehavior from African-American children are criminalized compared to other students (Cokley, 2016). The issue of suspension is essential to consider because it correlates to the number of blacks that get arrested and sent to jail.

The United States is known to have the highest number of incarcerated citizens compared to other developed nations. The people that are most affected are African-Americans who are subjected to different forms of racial discrimination. According to statistics on arrests, incarcerations, and prison population, blacks are disproportionately represented compared to any other people of color (Burch, 2015). These statistics might reinforce stereotypes that blacks are criminals, but they are in reality just victims of an extended system characterized by superiority and systematic discrimination.   Crucial criminal justice topics you can choose for your assignment.

Undoubtedly, although racism is assumed to be less grievous compared to other global issues, it has continuously lagged most communities behind as it exists in different societal spheres. It is widespread in the workplace, sports industry, education, and the criminal justice system. The existence of this vice means that people are not as productive as they ought to be, nor are they as active as they should. This is because they receive poor quality education and are sent to jail for the slightest crimes committed, for instance.

Burch, T. (2015). Skin color and the criminal justice system: beyond black‐white disparities in sentencing.  Journal of Empirical Legal Studies ,  12 (3), 395-420.

Cokley, K. O. (2016). “What it means to be black in the American educational system” . The Conversation . Retrieved June 18, 2020 from https://theconversation.com/what-it-means-to-be-black-in-the-american-educational-system-63576

Lapchick, R. (2018, January 12). “Racist acts in sports were on the rise in 2017” . Kwese . Retrieved June 18, 2020 from http://kwese.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/22041345/racism-continued-rear-ugly-head-sports-2017

Offermann, L. R., Basford, T. E., Graebner, R., Jaffer, S., De Graaf, S. B., & Kaminsky, S. E. (2014). See no evil: colorblindness and perceptions of subtle racial discrimination in the workplace. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology ,  20 (4), 499.

Shih, M., Young, M., & Bucher, A. (2013). “Working to reduce the effects of discrimination: identity management strategies in organizations.   American Psychologist , 68(3), 145-157.  

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Essay on Gender Discrimination

• Updated on  
• Jul 14, 2022

One of the challenges present in today’s society is gender discrimination. Gender discrimination is when someone is treated unequally based on their gender. Gender discrimination is not just present in the workplace but in schools, colleges and communities as well. As per the Civil Rights Act of 1964,  gender discrimination is illegal in India. This is also an important and common essay topic in schools and competitive exams such as IELTS , TOEFL , SAT , UPSC , etc. Let’s explore some samples of essay on gender discrimination and tips for writing an impactful essay.

Tips for Writing an Impactful Essay

If you want to write a scoring and deep impact essay, here are some tips for writing a perfect informative essay:

• The most important and first step is to write an introduction and background information about and related to the topic
• Then you are also required to use the formal style of writing and avoid using slang language
• To make an essay more impactful, write dates, quotations, and names to provide a better understanding
• You can use jargon wherever it is necessary as it sometimes makes an essay complicated
• To make an essay more creative, you can also add information in bulleted points wherever possible
• Always remember to add a conclusion where you need to summarise crucial points
• Once you are done read through the lines and check spelling and grammar mistakes before submission

Essay on Gender Discrimination in 200 Words

One of the important aspects of a democratic society is the elimination of gender discrimination. The root cause of this vigorous disease is the stereotypical society itself. When a child is born, the discrimination begins; if the child is male, he is given a car, bat and ball with blue, and red colour clothes, whereas when a child is female, she is given barbie dolls with pink clothes. We all are raised with a mentality that boys are good at sports and messy, but girls are not good at sports and are well organised. This discriminatory mentality has a deeper impact when girls are told not to work while boys are allowed to do much work. This categorising males and females into different categories discriminating based on gender are known as gender discrimination. Further, this discriminatory behaviour in society leads to hatred, injustice and much more. This gender discrimination is evident in every woman’s life at the workplace, in educational institutions, in sports, etc., where young girls and women are deprived of their rights and undervalued. This major issue prevailing in society can be solved only by providing equality to women and giving them all rights as given to men.

Essay on Gender Discrimination in 300 Words 

Gender Discrimination, as the term signifies, is discrimination or discriminatory behaviour based on gender. The stereotypical mindset of people in the past has led to the discrimination that women face today. According to Kahle Wolfe, in 2015, women earned 83% of the income paid to men by working the same hours. Almost all women are not only discriminated against based on their salaries but also on their looks.

Further, most women are allowed to follow a certain dress code depending upon the work field and the dress women wear also decides their future career.

This dominant male society teaches males that women are weak and innocent. Thus women are mostly victims and are targeted in crimes. For example, In a large portion of the globe, women are blamed for rapes despite being victims because of their clothes. This society also portrays women as weaker and not eligible enough to take a stand for themselves, leading to the major destruction of women’s personalities as men are taught to let women down. This mindset of people nowadays is a major social justice issue leading to gender discrimination in society.

Further, gender-based discrimination is evident across the globe in a plethora of things, including sports, education, health and law. Every 1 out of 3 women in the world is abused in various forms at some point in their lives by men. This social evil is present in most parts of the world; in India, women are burnt to death if they are incapable of affording financial requirements; in Egypt, women are killed by society if they are sensed doing something unclean in or out of their families, whereas in South Africa baby girls are abandoned or killed as they are considered as burden for the family. Thus gender discrimination can be only eliminated from society by educating people about giving equal rights and respect to every gender.

Top Universities for Gender Studies Abroad

UK, Canada and USA are the top three countries to study gender studies abroad. Here’s the list of top universities you can consider if you planning to pursue gender studies course abroad: 

We hope this blog has helped you in structuring a terrific essay on gender discrimination. Planning to ace your IELTS, get expert tips from coaches at Leverage Live by Leverage Edu .

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Gender Discrimination Essay

500 words gender discrimination essay.

Gender discrimination is when there are unfair rights between male and female. It differs because of their gender roles which ultimately leads to unequal treatment in life. Gender discrimination has been around for many centuries. However, as we are evolving, it is time to do away with such notions of gender roles. Thus, gender discrimination essay will take us through it in detail.

Causes of Gender Discrimination

There are many causes of gender discrimination. The first one has to be illiteracy . When people do not educate themselves, they continue to live in the old times. Thus, they follow the old-age sexist traditions and norms.

Education can bring about a change in this mindset because educated people will less likely partake in gender discrimination. Further, poverty is also another reason which is interlinked in a way.

It is the root cause in many places because the economic dependence remains on the male counterparts mostly. Thus, women suffer a lot from it because of the same reason. They never get out of this and stay financially dependent on men.

Furthermore, the patriarchal setup in our society plays a big role. In this setup, the male dominates almost every aspect of life. Thus, they consider themselves to be superior to others.

This way, a lot of violence and injustice is meted out against females. Thus, when there is a gender considering themselves to be superior, it becomes difficult for everyone to avail equal opportunities.

Impact of Gender Discrimination

Gender discrimination has a deep impact on society as a whole. It does not just impact a specific section of the society but every part of it. First of all, it impacts children as they fall prey to gender stereotypes from a young age.

Further, it impacts young people because it impacts their behaviour, study choices, ambitions, attitudes and more. Thus, many girls do not participate in many sports and women experience physical violence more than men.

Next up, we have gender discrimination affecting adults because there is a gender pay gap between the working class. Men earn more for doing the same work as women. In addition, older women have more risk of becoming homeless than men.

It also impacts the aboriginal women because they have it a lot worse. It is more likely to happen that they can die from family violence, 11 times more than men. Even for men, it is not beneficial as it sets difficult standards for men to follow.

It draws a line on men being emotional. Thus, they can never showcase their emotions truly without being judged. Similarly, men do not parental leave in many places. Ultimately, all this results in more suicide in men. Thus, it impacts everyone.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of Gender Discrimination Essay

Gender discrimination must be checked at every stage so that no person should be denied a chance to learn and grow. Thus, everyone, no matter male or female, must get a start in life in terms of educations and other opportunities. We must come together as a society to do this.

FAQ on Gender Discrimination Essay

Question 1: Who is affected by gender inequality?

Answer 1: Gender inequality affects everyone, which includes men as well. Stereotypes about how women and men, girls and boys should be, start from their childhood and follow us to adulthood. Thus, it does not affect just one but all.

Question 2: Give an example of gender discrimination.

Answer 2: There are many examples of gender discrimination. For instance, restriction on clothing. If a man wears shorts, no one will bat an eye. However, if a woman wears shorts, she will be seen in a bad light and be called names. Similar is the case for housework.

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Guest Essay

The Problem With Saying ‘Sex Assigned at Birth’

By Alex Byrne and Carole K. Hooven

Mr. Byrne is a philosopher and the author of “Trouble With Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions.” Ms. Hooven is an evolutionary biologist and the author of “T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone That Dominates and Divides Us.”

As you may have noticed, “sex” is out, and “sex assigned at birth” is in. Instead of asking for a person’s sex, some medical and camp forms these days ask for “sex assigned at birth” or “assigned sex” (often in addition to gender identity). The American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association endorse this terminology; its use has also exploded in academic articles. The Cleveland Clinic’s online glossary of diseases and conditions tells us that the “inability to achieve or maintain an erection” is a symptom of sexual dysfunction, not in “males,” but in “people assigned male at birth.”

This trend began around a decade ago, part of an increasing emphasis in society on emotional comfort and insulation from offense — what some have called “ safetyism .” “Sex” is now often seen as a biased or insensitive word because it may fail to reflect how people identify themselves. One reason for the adoption of “assigned sex,” therefore, is that it supplies respectful euphemisms, softening what to some nonbinary and transgender people, among others, can feel like a harsh biological reality. Saying that someone was “assigned female at birth” is taken to be an indirect and more polite way of communicating that the person is biologically female. The terminology can also function to signal solidarity with trans and nonbinary people, as well as convey the radical idea that our traditional understanding of sex is outdated.

The shift to “sex assigned at birth” may be well intentioned, but it is not progress. We are not against politeness or expressions of solidarity, but “sex assigned at birth” can confuse people and creates doubt about a biological fact when there shouldn’t be any. Nor is the phrase called for because our traditional understanding of sex needs correcting — it doesn’t.

This matters because sex matters. Sex is a fundamental biological feature with significant consequences for our species, so there are costs to encouraging misconceptions about it.

Sex matters for health, safety and social policy and interacts in complicated ways with culture. Women are nearly twice as likely as men to experience harmful side effects from drugs, a problem that may be ameliorated by reducing drug doses for females. Males, meanwhile, are more likely to die from Covid-19 and cancer, and commit the vast majority of homicides and sexual assaults . We aren’t suggesting that “assigned sex” will increase the death toll. However, terminology about important matters should be as clear as possible.

More generally, the interaction between sex and human culture is crucial to understanding psychological and physical differences between boys and girls, men and women. We cannot have such understanding unless we know what sex is, which means having the linguistic tools necessary to discuss it. The Associated Press cautions journalists that describing women as “female” may be objectionable because “it can be seen as emphasizing biology,” but sometimes biology is highly relevant. The heated debate about transgender women participating in female sports is an example ; whatever view one takes on the matter, biologically driven athletic differences between the sexes are real.

When influential organizations and individuals promote “sex assigned at birth,” they are encouraging a culture in which citizens can be shamed for using words like “sex,” “male” and “female” that are familiar to everyone in society, as well as necessary to discuss the implications of sex. This is not the usual kind of censoriousness, which discourages the public endorsement of certain opinions. It is more subtle, repressing the very vocabulary needed to discuss the opinions in the first place.

A proponent of the new language may object, arguing that sex is not being avoided, but merely addressed and described with greater empathy. The introduction of euphemisms to ease uncomfortable associations with old words happens all the time — for instance “plus sized” as a replacement for “overweight.” Admittedly, the effects may be short-lived , because euphemisms themselves often become offensive, and indeed “larger-bodied” is now often preferred to “plus sized.” But what’s the harm? No one gets confused, and the euphemisms allow us to express extra sensitivity. Some see “sex assigned at birth” in the same positive light: It’s a way of talking about sex that is gender-affirming and inclusive .

The problem is that “sex assigned at birth”— unlike “larger-bodied”— is very misleading. Saying that someone was “assigned female at birth” suggests that the person’s sex is at best a matter of educated guesswork. “Assigned” can connote arbitrariness — as in “assigned classroom seating” — and so “sex assigned at birth” can also suggest that there is no objective reality behind “male” and “female,” no biological categories to which the words refer.

Contrary to what we might assume, avoiding “sex” doesn’t serve the cause of inclusivity: not speaking plainly about males and females is patronizing. We sometimes sugarcoat the biological facts for children, but competent adults deserve straight talk. Nor are circumlocutions needed to secure personal protections and rights, including transgender rights. In the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision in 2020, which outlawed workplace discrimination against gay and transgender people, Justice Neil Gorsuch used “sex,” not “sex assigned at birth.”

A more radical proponent of “assigned sex” will object that the very idea of sex as a biological fact is suspect. According to this view — associated with the French philosopher Michel Foucault and, more recently, the American philosopher Judith Butler — sex is somehow a cultural production, the result of labeling babies male or female. “Sex assigned at birth” should therefore be preferred over “sex,” not because it is more polite, but because it is more accurate.

This position tacitly assumes that humans are exempt from the natural order. If only! Alas, we are animals. Sexed organisms were present on Earth at least a billion years ago, and males and females would have been around even if humans had never evolved. Sex is not in any sense the result of linguistic ceremonies in the delivery room or other cultural practices. Lonesome George, the long-lived Galápagos giant tortoise , was male. He was not assigned male at birth — or rather, in George’s case, at hatching. A baby abandoned at birth may not have been assigned male or female by anyone, yet the baby still has a sex. Despite the confusion sown by some scholars, we can be confident that the sex binary is not a human invention.

Another downside of “assigned sex” is that it biases the conversation away from established biological facts and infuses it with a sociopolitical agenda, which only serves to intensify social and political divisions. We need shared language that can help us clearly state opinions and develop the best policies on medical, social and legal issues. That shared language is the starting point for mutual understanding and democratic deliberation, even if strong disagreement remains.

What can be done? The ascendance of “sex assigned at birth” is not an example of unhurried and organic linguistic change. As recently as 2012 The New York Times reported on the new fashion for gender-reveal parties, “during which expectant parents share the moment they discover their baby’s sex.” In the intervening decade, sex has gone from being “discovered” to “assigned” because so many authorities insisted on the new usage. In the face of organic change, resistance is usually futile. Fortunately, a trend that is imposed top-down is often easier to reverse.

Admittedly, no one individual, or even a small group, can turn the lumbering ship of English around. But if professional organizations change their style guides and glossaries, we can expect that their members will largely follow suit. And organizations in turn respond to lobbying from their members. Journalists, medical professionals, academics and others have the collective power to restore language that more faithfully reflects reality. We will have to wait for them to do that.

Meanwhile, we can each apply Strunk and White’s famous advice in “The Elements of Style” to “sex assigned at birth”: omit needless words.

Alex Byrne is a professor of philosophy at M.I.T. and the author of “Trouble With Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions.” Carole K. Hooven is an evolutionary biologist, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, an associate in the Harvard psychology department, and the author of “T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone That Dominates and Divides Us.”

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