Discrimination

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Discrimination
BSc (Hons) Social Work SOW 1032M Values Ethics
and Equality
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What is Discrimination?Discrimination is a
process through which certain groups and
individuals are disadvantaged and
oppressed.Neil Thompson (1998)
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Definitions and MeaningsDirect Discrimination
a person directly discriminates against another
person when factors that are not related to
merit, ability, potential are used as a reason
for treating them differently and discriminating
against them.www.bangor.ac.uk
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Definitions Discrimination set up or act on
the basis of, a difference between another, make
a distinction especially on the grounds of race
or colour or sex The concise Oxford Dictionary
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• Discrimination can work at and within different
  levels
• Individual or person to person
• Institutional or organisation to individual or
  organisation to organisation
• Cultural, societal or structural, dominant
  discriminatory themes or ideas that we are
  inculcated into as part of our socialisation

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Types of Negative Discrimination

• Individual Discrimination
• When an individual treats somebody differently
  because of external characteristics or lifestyle
  and not in terms of individual value or worth.
• Examples assuming older people have little to
  contribute, avoiding someone you believe to be
  gay.

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Institutional Discrimination

• What is institutional racism?
• "The collective failure of an organisation to
  provide an appropriate and professional service
  to people because of their colour, culture or
  ethnic origin which can be seen or detected in
  processes attitudes and behaviour which amount
  to discrimination through unwitting prejudice,
  ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist
  stereotyping which disadvantages minority ethnic
  people." From the Macpherson report

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• Racism in general terms consists of conduct or
  words or practices which disadvantage or
  advantage people because of their colour,
  culture, or ethnic origin. In its more subtle
  form it is as damaging as in its overt form.
• Taken from
• The Stephen Lawrence inquiry
• Chapter 6 6.5

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Structural and Societal Discrimination

• The roots of discrimination are embedded in the
  structures of wider societyinformed by history,
  culture, dominant ideology, policies and
  practices.
• Promoting Equality in Care Practice

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• Examples of Societal Discrimination
• Study by Booth, McConnell and Booth 2006
• 2/3 of parents with learning difficulties known
  to agencies and receiving services were recorded
  as presenting child protection concerns.
• 15.3 of children in care proceedings has at
  least one parent with a learning disability.
• 2 out of every 5 children born to mothers/
  fathers with learning disabilities are
  permanently removed from the care of their
  parents.
• Quote from Social work involved in study
• A lot of social workers wont have ever met an
  adult with learning disabilitiesthey dont get
  on with people with learning disabilities, they
  dont like working with them because of the time
  that they take, and they do take time
• British Journal of Social work (2006)36, 997-1015

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Disabled people are twice as likely to live in
poverty because of the barriers they face in
finding paid employment, a wide-ranging report on
social exclusion finds. The number of disabled
adults of a working age living below 60 per cent
of the average income has increased by 10 per
cent over the past decade, says the report by
think-tank the New Policy Institute, and funded
by the Joseph Rowntree Trust. (Community Care
7/12/2006
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The survey follows the commission's mental health
and ethnicity census, which last year found black
people were three times more likely to be
admitted to psychiatric hospitals in England and
Wales than the rest of the population.
Simeon Brody Community Care 15.11.2006
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How Discrimination can be displayed

• Overt Discrimination
• Covert Discrimination
• Use of Language

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How are people with disabilities discriminated
against?

• What words are used to describe people with
  disabilities?
• How are people with disabilities portrayed in the
  media?
• What restrictions does Society place on people
  with Disabilities?

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Legislation that informs anti discriminatory
Practice

• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Age Discrimination Act 2006
• Disability Equality (amended by DDA)
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Race Relations Act 1976
• White Paper Our Health, our Care, our say a
• new direction for community services. Jan 2006
• The Equality Act 2006