Unjust Forms of Social Inequalities

Sitti Mika Isnang

12 HUMSS Deran
 Classism
• Class discrimination, also known as
classism, is prejudice or discrimination on
the basis of social class. It includes
individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of
policies and practices that are set up to
benefit the upper class at the expense of the
lower class.
 Racism
• Racism, also called racialism, the belief that
humans may be divided into separate and
exclusive biological entities called “races”; that
there is a causal link between inherited physical
traits and traits of personality, intellect, morality,
and other cultural and behavioral features; and
that some races are innately superior to others.
 Sexism
• Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on
one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone,
but it primarily affects women and girls. It has
been linked to stereotypes and gender roles, and
may include the belief that one sex or gender is
intrinsically superior to another.
 Gender bias
• Gender bias is a form of discrimination against
women because their practices reflect the values of
the men who created the setting, which is often the
workplace. Gender bias is one of the most regularly
appearing biases shown in the workplace, as opposed
to racist bias or personal bias.
 Ageism
• Ageism, also spelled agism, is stereotyping
and/or discrimination against individuals or
groups on the basis of their age. This may be
casual or systemic. The term was coined in 1969
by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination
against seniors, and patterned on sexism and
racism.
 Disability bias
• refers to the unequal treatment and systematic
oppression of a group of persons based on their
physical or mental impairments or challenges.
Due to their inability to cope up with the rest
they are viewed as useless. Persons with
disabilities are usually laughed at, barred from
entering school, and denied employment (Abenir,
2020).
 Ideological bias
• refers to the intense commitment to certain religious,
political, or philosophical ideas that results in the
oppressive dismissal of other ideas. Such bias curtails other
people’s freedom of expression, speech, especially those
who are not aligned to a group’s favoured ideology. It is
expressed when a certain religious, political, philosophical
regime imprisons, ostracizes, or tortures people who
express views that are contrary to the views of the ruling
regime (Abenir, 2020).
 Predatory Capitalism
• Is the term that refers to the unregulated actions and
strategies of corporations to make profit at whatever cause or
profit-making is prioritized over public interest. In this
manner, corporations become predators instead of being
protectors of the public. Transnationals Corporation (TNCs)
or Multinational Corporations (MNCs) are the perpetrators
of predatory capitalism in many developing countries like
the Philippines
• According to the United Conference on Trade and
Development (2013), TNCs are “incorporated or
unincorporated enterprises comprising parent enterprises and
their foreign affiliates.” A parent enterprise is a business that
controls assets of other entities other than its home country
and usually owns a certain equity capital stake.
The following are the predatory profit making schemes of TNC (West’s Encyclopedia of American
Law 2008; Polychroniou 2014; Forum ZFD and Commission on Higher Education Regional Office XI
2013), namely:

1. The always seek to minimize the payment of taxes by avoiding high tariffs, but not always in honest
ways;

2. They always seek to eliminate or control their competition by acquiring businesses or purchasing
companies, which leads to the creation of huge monopolies;

3. They always seek to reduce their labor costs by using foreign labor at a cheaper price than they would
in their home country. This often results to loss of jobs in their home country;

4. They always seek to avoid all environmental restraints. During the process, this results to the rapid
depletion of natural resources, which undermines the sustainable and long-term use of the environment
where they are operating in;
The following are the predatory profit making schemes of TNC (West’s Encyclopedia of American
Law 2008; Polychroniou 2014; Forum ZFD and Commission on Higher Education Regional Office XI
2013), namely:

5. They are often tempted to sell dangerous and harmful products and use
cheap and inappropriate and environmentally dangerous technologies to the
detriment of their laborers, consumers, and surrounding local residents;

6. They are not loyal to all of the countries they operate in. They are mainly
concerned about the best for them at the expense of the values and standards
of their host countries; and

7. They exercise political influence in weak governments, such that they use
their power to convince some governments to support their unethical profit-
making practices.
Reasons why developing countries still accept TNCs in their
country despite of numerous unethical profit-making practices:

1. TNCs provide opportunities for capital, technology, employment and

access to international market;

2. They generate large revenues, which governments anticipate to get a

share through the collection of taxes;

3. The results of research and development activities of TNCs can be

used in building domestic industries which can contribute to the
development of import substitution industries.
 Occupational Injustice

• are situations when people are exploited, barred, confined, restricted,

segregated, prohibited, undeveloped, disrupted, and/or alienated from
meaningful occupations or have preferred occupations imposed upon
them, thereby limiting the achievement of their optimum health,
quality of life, and life satisfaction (Hammell and Iwama 2012;
Braveman and Bass-Haugen 2009; Townsend and Wilcock 2004).
People who are vulnerable in experiencing occupational injustices are
usually ethnic minority groups, excluded religious minorities, child
laborers, prisoners, persons with disabilities (PWD), refugees and/or
women (Whiteford 2000).
Terms related to Occupational Injustice

• Occupational alienation – refers to the prolonged experiences of

disconnectedness, isolation, lack of identity, and emptiness due to lack of
access to resources and opportunity structures that could enrich one’s life.
Example, refugees who are forced to do tasks for little or no wages and
confined in harmful conditions (Townsend and Wilcock 2004).
• Occupational apartheid – refers to the segregation of groups of people
through the restriction or denial of access to dignified and meaningful
participation in occupations of daily life on the basis of race, color,
disability, national origin, age, gender, sexual preference, religion,
political beliefs, status in society, or any other characteristics
(Kronenberg, Algado, and Pollard 2005).
Terms related to Occupational Injustice

• Occupational deprivation – refers to external factors that stand outside

the immediate control of an individual, which prevents him or her from
engaging in meaningful occupations. Example, prisoners, slaves, and
victims of human trafficking represent a group of people that
experiences occupational deprivation (Whiteford 2000).
• Occupational imbalance – refers to the condition in which an individual is
underemployed, unemployed, has too little to do, or is left out of occupations
that can enrich one’s life. This may also involve the case of a person who has
too many occupations or is overemployed, which usually happens to single
parents or people with complex family duties and multiple work demands
(Wolf, et al. 2010).
Terms related to Occupational Injustice

• Occupational marginalization – refers to the process of

unjustly limiting or excluding people to participate in certain
occupations due to situations wherein people are stigmatized
by their gender, illness or disability (Townsend and Wilcock
2004; Wolf, et al. 2010). Example, women who are not
assigned or promoted to do managerial work because of the
perception that they are weak and emotional or a person who
has HIV/AIDS is removed, demoted, or barred from his/her
job.
 Climate Change Injustice

occurs when the least responsible for climate change (the

oppressed, marginalized, and vulnerable sectors of
society) are the ones who are greatly affected by its
negative impacts. Example, developing/poor countries
emit lower greenhouse gases than developed countries
but poor countries greatly suffer the ill-effects of global
warmings (Athor, Watson, and Fuller 2016).
 Salient Features of Climate
Change Injustice
1. The top three emitters of greenhouse gasses in the world and contribute to 40% to the global
share in greenhouse gas emissions are USA, China and Russia. Other significant contributors this
type of pollution are Canada, Australia, Brazil, and most of Western Europe. These countries are
called FREE RIDERS, because they receive the benefits from the industries that emit greenhouse
gases that results to their population’s increased well-being and they are the least vulnerable to
the negative effects due to the resources that they possess to mitigate and cushion said effects.
2. African countries, island nations in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans are
considered as FORCED RIDERS. These countries have low greenhouse emissions but they
are the most vulnerable and affected to the negative impact of climate change and receive
the least benefits. This vulnerability is due to a low GDP, slow economic growth, and large
social inequalities that results to fewer resources to be utilized in order to cope up with the
negative effects of climate change.
 Salient Features of Climate
Change Injustice

3. Both countries have a common responsibility in reducing greenhouse gas

emissions although their levels of emission reduction obligations vary. Free
rider countries are unwilling or slow to cut down their greenhouse emissions
because this will affect their economic growth. Further, the financial
contributions that forced rider countries receive from free rider countries are
not enough to mitigate and adapt to the negative effects of said emissions.