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Katrina Tynan

English Composition 2

Professor Cassel

29 July 2020

What is Discrimination and how serious is it?

There are many forms of discrimination. It does not matter if you are young or old, or

Caucasian, Asian, or Hispanic. As a citizen in the United States the people are bound to

experience some form discrimination. Unfortunately, no matter who you are or what you do you

cannot always avoid being discriminated against Before now I did not know what discrimination

was let alone reverse discrimination, but I am not the only one who is unfamiliar with those

words. Everyone knows what racism is, but very few know what discrimination is. I have only

experienced reverse discrimination on a few accounts, but each time it had stuck with me like a

piece of gum. I remember one time when I was first starting school there was this group of

individuals that were of mixed ethnicity that would come up to me and say that my kind didn’t

belong here, that I was a piece of trash, a cracker. I was only eight when this happened, and I am

a Caucasian. I couldn’t understand why they were saying these things being that I was only eight

and I had no clue what was going on, but also because the main person in the group was best

friends with my brother who is also white. After that I started my journey to find out answers

and later, I discovered that they were being discriminating towards me. After telling my parents

what happened they told me what it was and from there I discovered two things. One,

discrimination and reverse discrimination can happen to anyone even without realizing and two,
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discrimination comes in two forms; regular discrimination and reverse, but the two are quite

different as well as they each effect lives differently.

After doing extensive research, I have discovered quite a few definitions on what

discrimination and reverse discrimination are. According to Findlaw reverse discrimination

“refers to situations where a member or members of a majority are discriminated against on the

basis of a protected factor, such as race or gender this meaning that in America’s case, the

African American, Asian population (the minority) are being rude and hateful to the majority

(white population). Another definition used to describe what discrimination is comes from

Robert Lerner and Althea K. Nagai who believed that discrimination is denying an individual of

a given privilege based on their skin color. They also explain what reverse discrimination is and

in other words, the white majority group is discriminate of the rest of the white population

because they favor the minority and that can be again African Americans, Asians, Koreans, etc.

Of course, this was seen when the United States segregated the black and white from pretty

much everything. Some examples were schools, bathrooms, restaurants and even

neighborhoods. Even though we are far from that era and are now in the 2000s, the general

population still deals with discrimination and reverse discrimination. In 2017, Yitting Nan

described reverse discrimination as being discriminate as towards the majority in favor of the

minority. Even when an individual that is of the male gender who believes that they are superior

to women is still a form of discrimination even though it is not solely focused on one race, but a

bodily group of individuals.

Discrimination and reverse discrimination did not start yesterday, like mentioned before

it has been around for years. Luckily, there have been a few amendments and acts that were put

into place to help with this situation. One specific amendment was the Equal Rights Amendment
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(ERA). This past January, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify this amendment. The

amendment is supposed to provide equality of rights to all citizens who live in the United States.

Little did women know they still were not going to be paid the same as white men. “But many

women, like Hartman, believe the amendment would bolster protections against employment and

wage discrimination and domestic violence. Opponents say other laws adequately protect women

and that the measure would make it illegal to restrict federal funding of abortions” (Roepe).

Denying women their rights is a form of discrimination, which in time later results to the term

feminism. In case you did not know, feminism is more or less females believe they should be

equal to the men population in all areas such as political, economic, and social. In 1964, the

Civil Rights Act was based under the Title VII (Title 7) which basically says that no matter what

the case, race, sex, gender, religion or natural origin, the employer may not discriminate against

his/her employee as well as create a special group or team leaving them out. Everyone describes

discrimination differently, but the bottom line is it still happens and even amendments cannot

protect the people of the United States from in.

Discrimination and reverse discrimination can come in all forms and the discrimination

towards women that lead to feminist is not the only way. One example of reverse discrimination

is when a company hires or promotes someone because they are from the minority group, a

female, under the age of 40 years old or even based on their level of education. These things are

not acceptable. If the employer or company wants to hire someone it should solely be based on

the experience and how well they present themselves (“Reverse Discrimination”).

Discrimination and reverse discrimination can also happen at work. Even after the government

passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 it does not stop employees from experiencing some sort of

discrimination.
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Another form of reverse and regular discrimination comes in the form of

college/university admissions. One of the first questions a college application asks is your race

that you identify with and the gender you identify with. The thing that makes it the most

difficult is that colleges and universities must have a certain number or percentage of students

from different racial backgrounds as well as gender and different ethnicity. Because of this there

have been some cases that have been brought to the supreme courts attention because some

students who didn’t get granted admissions to say their dream schools believe that it has to do

something with their race and gender. In 2000 Lerner and Nagai investigated the admission

process for the University of Virginia in Charlottesville only after several students had filed

complaints about not being accepted because they were white. In the end, the study that they

conducted found that “In 1999, UVA admitted 31 percent of white applicants, 37 percent of

Asian applicants, 34 percent of Hispanic applicants, and 48 percent of black applicants” (Lerner

and Nagai). If you look at the table below you will notice that the white population had higher
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math and verbal SAT scores as well as they were at a higher rank in High School.
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So even though the white students performed better in all three things, African Americans were

accepted into the University of Virginia over the white group. Another case study was done, but

this time at the University of California in 1978. This case was focused more on Caucasian

medical school applicant who was challenging a university’s use of race in admissions as a

reason for her not gaining entrance (“Reverse Discrimination”). Of course, this did not really

prove any relevance because it was protected under the college admission policy at the time. Yet

another case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (2016), just like the one before another

student who was Caucasian, Abigail Fisher, was denied admission to a school in 2008. Like the

other school, she too argues that because she was white the school denied her admission and

claimed that it was a form of reverse discrimination (“Reverse Discrimination”). Unfortunately,

this time it was denied by the Supreme Court because it was protected under the Equal Protection

Clause. Almost every time someone is denied admission to a college or university and tries to

fight the decision, they get denied by the Supreme Court one attempt after another. This form of

discrimination should not be allowed, and something needs to be done. To get turned away by

the school of your dreams just because of the color of your skin is unfair and unjust. The bottom

line is white students get shot down more frequently then African Americans and other races

since colleges need to keep the school mixed with race to not get accused of segregation.

Even though the minority group does get accepted into university and colleges over the

white population, they do get more scholarships then the African American, Latino and Asian

population. According to Vann R. Newkirk II, “almost two-thirds of all institutional grants and

scholarship recipients, and over three-quarters of all merit-based grants and scholarships,

although white people only make up about 62 percent of the college student population and

about half of all people under 19. White students are more likely than black, Latino, and Asian
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students to receive scholarships”. In a poll that was conducted in 2016, “57 percent of all white

people, and 66 percent of the white working-class believe that discrimination against white

people is as big a problem in America as discrimination against black people” (Newkirk).

Because of this certain colleges and universities have created scholarships for Caucasian. One

example of this is the $250 Caucasian Achievement and Recognition Scholarship offered by

Boston University’s chapter of College Republicans. Students or near students have the chance

to file a lawsuit if they believe they have experienced some form of discrimination (Newkirk).

This of course is not the only scholarship out there, but it is the most popular one and has been

one of many.

Unfortunately, the thing that happens to students trying to apply for colleges happens in

the workforce as well. Employers will deny a white person a job just because of their skin color.

Some forms of workforce discrimination are based on disability leave, maternity leave or

retirement options, denying, or disrupting the use of company facilities, discrimination when

issuing promotions or lay-offs. It can also be seen when hiring or compensating an employee

based on benefits or equal pay (Doyle). Although this does occur, employees can file a charge of

employment discrimination and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)

handles all discrimination claims (“Reverse Discrimination”). Other acts have been put into

place as well. Some of them are The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and The Equal Pay

Act of 1963. The ADA says it is that being discriminating against a qualified worker or possible

job candidate is illegal. the Equal Pay Act of 1963 also says that regardless of the employees

gender the employer must give ever employee of the same rank equal pay (Doyle). On the bright

side discrimination in the workplace has gone down, but it is still a major problem in the

workforce area. Even though this is true women who have or are working in the military suffer
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brutal treatment from male drill sergeants just because they are a female and are the “weaker”

gender. Other forms of discrimination can be based religious values, LGBTQ, sex and gender,

age and that is just to list a few.

Discrimination in healthcare is another area that citizens of the United States go through.

A lot of the time though it is an accident, simple things like not understanding someone’s ethnic

background can lead to discrimination even if it was never intended. According to Sorkin et al.

minority patients are more likely to report being the subject of negative attitudes during the

health care process which can ultimately lead them to give their rating of pain or even

assessment a worse outcome compared to someone from the majority group. If patients are

taking the necessary medication than it can lead to more problems which ultimately put everyone

back where they started, which is not something doctors want. Discrimination in healthcare can

make patients think that that hospital is no longer a safe zone or a place to get adequate treatment

for the way they are feeling. It leaves the doctors untrustworthy in the patient’s eyes. Sorkin and

the rest of the author’s continue to say that even though Hispanic respondents face discrimination

and have limited health care access they are still left satisfied if the given facility provides as

long as they are culturally and linguistically acceptable and take their culture into consideration.

So even though in their study that they found that the Hispanic culture was discriminated against

they still felt like the care they had was sufficient. As a matter of fact, more studies have been

conducted and found that the people that receive poor healthcare based on their racial and ethnic

affiliation have worse mental and physical health. They also found that the people in society that

suffer the most are usually the African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. To fix this problem,

the United States needs to address this problem and provide a more ethic and racial acceptance

so that they can feel more comfortable coming in for professional help (Sorkin et al.). To suffer
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from psychological issues based on the care someone receives at a place that should help you no

matter what is just wrong and very sad.

Discrimination and reverse discrimination are a very serious thing that they have law

firms that specialize in cases of discrimination. One credible law firm is Van Kampen Law

North Carolina Employment Attorneys. They specialize in all types of discrimination. One case

they represented was in March 2018 after a former YouTube employee, Arne Wilberg, sued

Google based on an employment discrimination. In this case he sued them for the fact that he

personally felt that the company was favoring women and the minority (Kampen).

Unfortunately, Mr. Wilberg was not the only one to file this case account. In another example

former Google engineers Hames Damore and David Gudeman felt that their company was

offering females and the minority group jobs based on their gender and status in life rather than

their experience. (Kampen). Attorney Kampen shares with his readers that the number of claims

for reverse discrimination has gone up more recently over the years. “The U.S. Equal

Employment Opportunity Commission keeps no official tally of reverse discrimination claims,

though Title VII claims for employment discrimination in general have continued to rise, from

36.2 percent in 2016 to 40 percent in 2018” (Kampen). This increase in numbers shows that it is

just as serious as regular discrimination and occurs just as much.

Now that we know what both terms mean, it is also just as important to know how it

affects society. Most commonly the biggest event has been the Black Lives Movement. This all

began with the killing of George Floyd died from a group of cops that were discriminate against

him based on his race. The movement’s focus is to gain better treatment for the black

community and to gain justice for Mr. Floyd and every other African American who was miss

treated by a cop because they were discriminate based on their race. This has been a statewide
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movement. Streets have been used has murals. This has caused major rioting and even looting.

In terms of punishment the cops that killed Mr. Floyd are in jail and they have been fired from

their job. This is a serious topic that not many people are able to take it seriously. Thankfully

though the more the riots continue the more people who are educating themselves which is

ultimately one step to realizing the major issue.

Discrimination and reverse discrimination are present in almost all areas of life, but what

about the effects that it has on someone’s health? Isn’t mental health important as well? A study

conducted by Vickie Mays, Gilbert Gee and Susan Cochran found that discrimination can lead

the minority group, African Americans, Asians, and Latinos, to abuse alcohol and drugs. They

also found that anxiety and sadness was very common mental health issue they were able to

identify. In another study done by Vu Milkie, et al. they came up with the minority stress theory

which ultimately is the minority group experiences discrimination that leads to an increase

chance of mental illness. Like the other study done my Mays et al. substance abuse was used

more in the minority group that has experienced discrimination on multiple occasions. The use

of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana is used more as a coping mechanism rather than as a form to

get high which is seen more to be more frequent during the time of adolescents and young

adulthood. This same group of writers, Vu Milkie, et al., did a questionnaire to the public and

found that 839 participants experienced discrimination, 412 of those participants were African

American and the other 427 were white. That data was solely based on the color of their skin.

They also found that 203 of the participants had experienced sexual discrimination. The study

found that because 839 participants had experience discrimination, 399 had used tobacco in the

last 30 days, and 278 had used marijuana. The use of drugs and alcohol has clearly increased
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with the number of participants that reported experiencing discrimination and reverse

discrimination.

Coming back to my earlier story, after finding out briefly what discrimination and reverse

discrimination was, I decided to speak to my older brother about it. In the end he spoke with his

friend and he did not mean what he said. He said that he was just messing around with me and

that he did not know that he was acting on reverse discrimination. Upon learning the definition

of both terms, I feel that I am in a better place of understanding and because I now have this

knowledge I can make sure not to treat others in a way that might be discriminatory, whether it

be people of the same color or different than mine. It will continue to be a problem until society

educates themselves and start to realize the problems that it causes. Discrimination is not

magically going to go away. I know I hated going through it so I cannot imagine what my

readers might have gone through. Learning and reading everything that was provided to me was

a real eye opener and made me think about a lot of different things. Like I said before,

Discrimination comes in two forms; regular discrimination and reverse, but the two are very

different as well as how they both affect lives differently. It all depends on the person if they

decide to act on it.

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Works Cited

Doyle, Alison. “Types of Discrimination in the Workplace”. 23 June 2020,

www.thebalancecareers.com/types-of-employment-discrimination-with-examples-

2060914. Accessed on 8 July 2020.

Kampen, Josh Van. “'Reverse Discrimination' Lawsuits Becoming an Increasing Concern.” Van

Kampen Law, North Carolina Employment Attorneys, 4 Feb. 2020,

www.ncemploymentattorneys.com/news/reverse-discrimination-lawsuits-are-

concerning/.

Gordon, Dan. 2016. “Discrimination Can Be Harmful to Your Mental Health.” UCLA. Retrieved

(https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/discrimination-can-be-harmful-to-your-mental-

health).
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Lerner, Robert, and Althea K. Nagai. “Reverse Discrimination by the Numbers.” Academic

Questions, vol. 13, no. 3, Summer 2000, p. 71. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12129-000-

1039-3.

Milkie Vu, et al. “Mental Health and Substance Use among Women and Men at the Intersections

of Identities and Experiences of Discrimination: Insights from the Intersectionality

Framework.” BMC Public Health, vol. 19, no. 1, Jan. 2019, pp. 1–13. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1186/s12889-019-6430-0.

“Reverse Discrimination.” Findlaw, Thomas Reuters, 6 Dec. 2018,

employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/reverse-discrimination.html.

Accessed 27 June 2020

Roepe, Lisa Rabasca. "The Equal Rights Amendment." CQ Researcher, 3 Apr. 2020, pp. 1-56,

library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqresrre2020040300.

Yiting, Nan. Ddirector. Reverse Discrimination. 5 May 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?

v=zOdTa1zaqFk. Accessed 28 June 2020.

Sorkin, Dara H, et al. “Racial/Ethnic Discrimination in Health Care: Impact on Perceived

Quality of Care.” 2010, link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11606-010-1257-5.pdf.

Accessed 8 July 2020.