Discrimination

Whereas prejudice refers to people attitude or mental representations, the term discrimination refers to the behavioral manifestations of that prejudice. Thus, discrimination can be thought of as prejudice in action. Discrimination can occur in many forms. From the extremes of segregation and apartheid to biases in the availability of housing, employment, education, economic resources, personal safety, and legal protections, discrimination represents unequal treatment of certain individuals solely because of their membership in a particular group. Because our focus in this book is intercultural communication, we will emphasize the ways in which ones communication behaviors contribute to and worsen discrimination against people from other cultures.

One form of communication-based discrimination involves a kind of remark that is more subtle in its effect, as it is typically said by individuals from the dominant culture who are well meaning, who do not intend to insult and who are unaware that their words may be offensive. Called a micro aggression it is brief comment or communicative act that presumes negative attributes about others because of their cultural membership. One noteworthy micro aggression happened in 2007 during the presidential primaries, when candidate Joe Biden described candidate Barak Obama as the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. While intend as a compliment the message heard by African Americans was Obama is an exception most African Americans are unintelligent, inarticulate dirty and unattractive. More commonly micro aggression can occur, for example when native born Latinos or Asian Americans are presumed to be from someplace else and are therefore asked where are you from? Or are told you speak English. Similarly when European Americans presumes she is free from prejudice because I have several black friends or a person colors mistaken as a service worker other hundred of other ways that a small slight misdirected towards other because of their culture, that is a micro aggression provides list of micro aggression and the likely messages they convey to others.

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The subject is IBUS chapter Culture identity and culture bias