Hill 1

Erin Hill

Mrs. Price

English 1 Honors

March, 20th 2019

The Effects Discrimination has on Life

Discrimination can affect a person's mental health. Discrimination can happen in many

ways but gender and racial are the most commonly seen. The American dream is all about living

the good life while having good health and joy, but it is hard to do that while being discriminated

against. The effects of being put down for something that a person have no control of can often be

poor mental health. There is no way one could live the life they want for themselves while being

constantly told they can not do it because of something as uncontrollable as race or gender.

Gender discrimination against women limits them from doing what they want with their

lives especially in a workplace. “Women not only denied for superior leadership positions, but

also stopped from availing to higher education which will make them more developed in terms of

skills, and also gives them with lot of experience in learning & applying managerial

decision-making methods, help them in enhancing their self-confidence in holding & controlling

leadership positions” (Mansi Tiwari, Gender-Based Discrimination Faced by Females at

Workplace: A Perceptual Study OF Working Females). Women are not given as many

opportunities as men in terms of workplace, which can make them question the skills they have.

Making them question how and advanced their skill level might be. Opportunities are taken away

from them because a man seems like a better fit to do a certain job. “Another thing which has

been seen that male counterparts perceive females as a weak employee who cannot contribute
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effectively” (Mansi Tiwari, Gender-Based Discrimination Faced by Females at Workplace: A

Perceptual Study OF Working Females). Females are viewed weaker than men which makes men

more likely to be hired. Although there are many things that show discrimination against women

people are also judged based of race or ethnicity.

Racism is a common thing in America that makes people feel unworthy. Being racist is

not subject to one person but focus after attacking an entire group due to prejudice opinions.

“When the view that members of a certain group are inferior, and not to be associated with,

becomes so widely held in a society that members of that group are denied access to important

goods and opportunities” (​Billy Gazard​, Wrongful Racial Discrimination in Moral Analysis:

Some Recent Accounts, an Alternative Conception, and Attempts to Extend Theoretical Models).

Discriminating against a certain group or ethnicity of people can take away their opportunities an

deny them access to happiness. Not trusting a race can affect the long term mental health of

someone just because they constantly feel pressured to change to fit into society. “Once a practice

of discrimination exists, decisions that deny important goods to members of the group

discriminated against--and do so without sufficient justification” (​Billy Gazard​,Wrongful Racial

Discrimination in Moral Analysis: Some Recent Accounts, an Alternative Conception, and

Attempts to Extend Theoretical Models). Prejudice opinions on a certain group of people are

unreasonable because not everyone that is part of a ethnicity have the same values. Once opinions

are made discrimination starts happening quickly and certain opportunities are taken away from

an entire group of people. Having unnecessary pressures to change the unchangeable can make

you unworthy, and eventually can make mental health suffer.

Discrimination overall has a traumatic effect on lifestyle and the way that a person
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carries themselves. “Discrimination is a well-established stressor that substantially contributes to

common mental disorders (CMD) and poor physical health” (J.L.A. Garcia, Barrier or stressor?

The role of discrimination experiences in health service use). Discrimination can lead to effects

and pressures on life that shouldn't be there. The way a person appears is uncontrollable and

should not cause mental health to become unstable. “Ethnic minority groups and those who had

recently migrated to the UK, and that cumulative exposure to discrimination experiences has

incremental negative long term impacts on mental disorder” (J.L.A Garcia, Barrier or stressor?

The role of discrimination experiences in health service use)). Those who have been exposed to

discrimination are more likely to have long term mental health problems than others.

Discrimination makes a person feel less worthy and lead to worry about how to succeed while

having the conflicts that include prejudice opinions.

The American dream is just living the good life which is having good health and

overall happiness. In Martin Luther King Jr’s speech he says that discrimination is getting in the

way of living the life that everyone wants. The life that everyone want is just a simple as living a

life of perfect health with no discrimination. The American dream sounds like the ideal dream to

most people in the United States. Overall people dealing with discriminatory pressures in their

lives are not going to be able to live the happy and healthy lifestyle everyone wants. The happy

and healthy life is also known as the American Dream.

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Billy Gazard, et al. “Barrier or Stressor? The Role of Discrimination Experiences in Health

Service Use.” BMC Public Health, BioMed Central, 7 Dec. 2018,

bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-6267-y.

Mansi Tiwari. GENDER-BASED DISCRIMINATION FACED BY FEMALES AT

WORKPLACE

...www.abacademies.org/articles/Gender-based-discrimination-faced-by-females-at-workplace-15

28-2651-21-3-202.pdf.

Wrongful Racial Discrimination in Moral Analysis: Some ...

www.law.georgetown.edu/public-policy-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2018/11/16-S-Wron

gful-Racial-Discrimination-Moral-Analysis.pdf