90 Unit 06 | All men are created equal Read the text from a sociology textbook. How does the information apply to the statements in 2 and the diary entries you read in 5? READING 6 a There is no pride in prejudice One of the human being’s most notable traits is that we can make judgements within the first couple of seconds of meeting another human. This was essential some thousand years ago when such snap decisions decided whether the person opposite was a friend or an enemy – in other words, whether they belonged to the in-group or the out-group. Unfortunately, the dominant in-group (in Western societies mostly men, mostly white) has at times used our innate predisposition to divide the world into ‘us’ and ‘them’ to disadvantage ‘them’: Women, people with a different sexual orientation, people of colour and many more groups have long been discriminated against. This often means being blocked from various rights and denied full access to the opportunities and resources a society might offer. Historically, women have often been regarded as the ‘private property’ of the man they were married to, by law excluded from owning property themselves. Their identity and social position are a result of the fact that they bear children and are these children’s primary caretaker, while men traditionally belong to the ‘public spheres’ of politics, business and war. This results in disadvantages for women outside marriage, be it as single mothers, on the job market, or when they attempt to remedy their underrepresentation by choosing a career in politics. Out of the 9.9 million people living in poverty in the UK in 2018, 5.2 million were women, and 46% of those were single parents. Persons belonging to an ethnic minority face similar problems of exclusion from the benefits of society, such as education or healthcare. In the UK, for example, ethnic minorities are more likely to be educationally disadvantaged, have poorly paid jobs, struggle at school, live in deprived areas and poor-quality housing and suffer from health problems. Women and ethnic minorities are over-represented among the low-income families because they work in the less well-paid industries such as services or nursing. Economically, prejudice further disadvantages ethnic minorities in a tangible way. For example, pictures of baseball cards on eBay held by black hands are likely to receive lower bids than the same cards held by white hands. According to sociologist Judith Butler, the stereotypes we associate with gender, for example, are something we’re taught. Similarly, our misconceptions about ethnic minorities are something we learn, and we can, therefore, unlearn both and embrace, with tolerance and respect, the multiplicity of the human experience. Now talk about these questions with a partner: 1 Why is the ability to make judgements at first sight problematic in modern society? 2 What has caused women to be disadvantaged? 3 What examples are given that ethnic minorities are overrepresented in less well-paid industries? 4 What solution is mentioned to the problems of discrimination? Expand your vocabulary: Discrimination against social groups – part 1 Find the highlighted expressions in the text which match the explanations below and circle them. a people with whom you don’t identify b the insufficient presence of people from a certain group c a group which has different national or cultural traditions d the act of not allowing sb. to take part e an opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience Choose five other expressions in green, write definitions of them and pass the definitions to someone else who then has to find the correct terms in the text. b LANGUAGE 7 a b Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum de Verlags öbv
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODE3MDE=