Clayfield Counselling Services

Newsletter Archive

November 2011

What is discrimination?

Everyone has a point in their lives where they have been discriminated against. Perhaps it was being refused service at a restaurant because of the way you dressed or a football game for cheering the opposing team. Discrimination can be unfair and even harmful when it disadvantages an individual by making a big deal out of unimportant or irrelevant differences so that it affects someone’s education, employment, housing, or status in society.

People are discriminated against every day for various reasons:

• Race, colour, national or ethnic origin
• Sex, pregnancy or marital status
• Age
• Disability
• Religious affiliations
• Sexual preferences
• And many more.

Australia is no stranger to discrimination. Over history, Australians have dealt with all types of discrimination be it racial, religious, gender, etc. That is not to say that we are behind on the times when it comes to discrimination, Australia was one of the first nations in the world to give women the vote and allow them to sit for parliament.

Why do we discriminate?

Humans are social beings and prefer to affiliate in relatively small groups of similar others. In order to achieve this, barriers are sometimes put up to protect the group’s identity and keep out people who are “different”. The barriers generally focus on negative stereotypes of an individual or group outside their own. These negative stereotypes can help justify the desire to exclude certain people. They can also fuel even more prejudice and discrimination against the group or person. As human beings we can be quite cautious or even fearful of anything or anyone new or different. This may be biologically rooted, but that doesn’t make it acceptable or mean we as humans cannot progress past such primitive emotions.

How can we stop discrimination?

In this the 21st Century, with round the clock access to television and the internet it is a lot easier to become more familiar with outside groups than it was for our forefathers. Just as easily as it can help alleviate discrimination, the media can also add fuel to the discrimination fire. Discrimination must be targeted on both a personal and community level in order to decrease it. Over the past 30 years the Federal Government as well as the state and territory governments have introduced anti-discrimination legislation to protect people against discrimination and harassment. The effectiveness of these laws could be aided by an increase in education about discrimination, to help distinguish between what is and isn’t discrimination.

Discrimination can cause psychological distress, which in turn can lead to more serious mental health problems. If you or someone you know needs support, counselling can be an effective way to determine the next step and learn coping strategies. For more information on our services please visit our website www.clayfieldcounselling.com.au or call us on 07 3862 6622 and we would be happy to assist you with your enquiries.

Quote of the Month

“One day our descendents will think it is incredible that we paid so much attention to things like the amount of melanin in our skin or the shape of our eyes or our gender instead of the unique identities of each of us as complex beings.” - Franklin Thomas

References

Australian Human Rights Commission
http://www.humanismforschools.org.uk/pdfs/Discrimination%20and%20Prejudice%20%28final%29.pdf
Anti Discrimination Commission Queensland