“If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society…. If we desire a society in which men are brothers, then we must act towards one another with brotherhood. If we can build such a society, then we would have achieved the ultimate goal of human freedom.”
-Bayard Rustin, 1969.
For decades, deep-rooted hate and discrimination in societal institutions and systems have placed increasingly large numbers of individuals and groups on the margins of conventional society. This discrimination not only takes away power from people but also restricts them from availing opportunities essential to healthy development. As a result, marginalised communities fall behind their non-marginalised counterparts— socially and economically. Horrors such as the Holocaust and Apartheid have irreversibly tainted history, depicting the severity and magnitude of this hate against marginalized communities. Bigotry, racism, ableism, and classism plague our society even today, with 1 in 5 individuals facing discrimination due to their religion, race, disability, societal status or gender.
The response to such atrocities has been widespread and impactful, to say the least. Demands for social equality across the globe have driven several governments to pass laws and policies in favour of marginalized communities, which aim to provide access to equal resources and treatment as their privileged counterparts. Although such modern-day systems allow us to consciously acknowledge blatant discrimination, the implicit biases that we hold due to countless direct and indirect experiences still play a major role in shaping our opinions and behaviours towards other people. It is due to these unconscious, negative implicit biases that we face the blaring issues of systemic oppression even in the 21st century.
Implicit biases can also manifest in the form of microaggressions, defined as subtle insulting messages— either verbal or nonverbal— toward a marginalised individual or group. Usually unintentional, it leaves the responder confused and wondering whether their race, gender, religion or disability had anything to do with the interaction. In an attempt to explain racial microaggressions, Dr Derald Sue Wing, an Asian-American researcher at Columbia University, asks privileged individuals: “Do you know what it’s like to be a black person in this society where you go into a subway and you sit down and people never sit next to you? Do you know what it’s like to pass a man or a woman, and they suddenly clutch their purses more tightly?”
Such accounts of microaggressions often go untold due to their covert nature. However, it is important to note that although microaggressions are usually unintentional, they are essential to our understanding of discrimination; specifically, hidden discrimination.
Indirect or hidden discrimination has been described as being more subtle, unintentional and structural than direct discrimination. A relevant example is that of the achievement-focused Indian education system, built largely on the ableist assumption of typical abilities being superior. Additionally, the prevalence of hidden classism in India is depicted by the plight of the Dalits, with more than 1.3 million Dalit women being compelled to work as manual scavengers in sewers across the country. In many parts of the world, individuals identifying as non-binary and/or transgender have difficulty accessing safe healthcare, which along with increased risks of depression and anxiety, puts them in a much-disadvantaged position as compared to their cis-gender counterparts.
A discussion on systemic discrimination would be incomplete without understanding positive discrimination. In an attempt to compensate for historical injustice, systems that favour marginalised communities solely due to their ‘protected characteristics’ have become increasingly common today. Usually being implemented in educational or professional settings, positive discrimination is blind to ability and competence. Though it is aimed at increasing the number of marginalised individuals in industries, it is illegal in countries such as the United Kingdom and Sweden. The Indian Constitution, however, through Articles 16(a) and 15, legalises positive discrimination in the form of reservation. This was done to encourage the participation of minorities and systemically oppressed communities in predominantly mainstream societies.
The ethicality of positive discrimination remains a topic of intense global debate, with some claiming that it leads to reverse discrimination against majority groups by favouring minority groups. Many industries and corporations, in the name of being inclusive and supportive of diversity, indulge in tokenism: the act of hiring a small number of otherwise underrepresented people to prevent criticism and be perceived as anti-discriminatory. Tokenism affects token employees heavily, with their high levels of visibility causing most to experience performance pressure— the need to unrealistically live up to the stereotypes most commonly associated with their minority. Thus, representation, in certain circumstances, can even be detrimental to the communities being represented. Another example of its misuse lies in the portrayal of marginalised communities in content produced by non-marginalised creators through characters and storylines. Though the intention may be to promote diversity, the portrayals made are often inaccurate. By promoting stereotypes, they contribute to implicit biases; additionally, they take away voices of minority-group creators and those being wrongly represented. Due to the illusion of inclusivity, audiences interact with this content, unknowingly funding the monetisation of the struggles of marginalised communities by non-marginalised individuals.
In conclusion, equality and equity– despite sounding similar– are significantly different in meaning. While equality aims to provide all with equal opportunities, equity allows us to recognise the varying circumstances of marginalised groups. This realisation, along with the acknowledgement of the role of our implicit biases in our behaviour towards minority groups, will facilitate much-needed change. Anti-discriminatory movements such as the Feminist Movement, Black Lives Matter Movement, and Dalit Movement have raised great awareness about systemic oppression and discrimination. Similar modern-day movements continue to inspire millions to contribute to the dismantling of our deep-rooted beliefs and biases; essentially, paving the way towards a more compassionate, safe and equitable future.
Masumi Pradhan
