Running head: Discrimination and Affirmative Action

Seminar on Business and Society Chicago

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

Kimberly Young
International College of the Cayman Islands

BE/SO 425
Instructor: Dr. David Marshall
June 25th, 2016

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

Abstract
Discrimination continues to be a significant problem in the 21st century and even though
there are now laws in effect to help protect people from discrimination acts of any kind, it still
occurs and remains an issue anywhere in the world, whether it be the workplace, moving to a
new country, school or among new friends. Some discrimination cases are so severe, they have
been reviewed by the highest court jurisdictions and there are people in this world that feel
embarrassed when they can't get a job because of something as simple as their race or gender. "I
believe discrimination still exists in today's society and we must fight it in every form" Andrew
Cuomo
The purpose of this paper is to mention Discrimination and Affirmative Action, The
Chicago Experience, Application of Learning, Limitations and my Summary and Conclusion.

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

Introduction
Discrimination is the act of disrespecting another person by judging someone based on
their age, race, religion, or gender. Many people say "never judge a book by its cover?", but we
don't always stay true to this saying, most people still judge other people based on how they
portray themselves, how they act in public, sometimes even how they smell, these all acts of
discrimination. Some people feel uncomfortable with the topic discrimination because they don't
want to be aware when they are judging others. In the 21st century we should now be able to
overcome our ignorance in accepting that this is one world with many cultures, nations, age
range, races and even if someone wants to become something they were not originally born as,
such as a boy changing into a girl, in the end we should all be aware to not judge someone on
their reputation outside, but focus on the inside which is what counts.
There are still so many incidents where this act happens every day, causing people to be
abused physically, emotionally and mentally because of this crime. For a long time, people have
struggled for the right to feel accepted, however this is a battle we have to fight every day,
different types of discrimination involve Racial, Gender, Age and Religion.
Firstly, there is Racial Discrimination, Racism discrimination is known to be an act of
discrimination against people of colour or the ethnic minorities.
According to Byrd (1998), she hypothesized that "minorities would report higher level of
discrimination than whites. She also stated that "minorities may view their race/ethnicity as a
central part of their identity, whereas whites do not because they are placed at the higher end of a
socially stratified racial hierarchy."

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

So you may now be wondering what the real impact of racial discrimination may be and
it's simple, members of racial and ethnic oppressed groups struggle daily for equal opportunity,
particularly during times of a hard economy. Often, the targeted race has a difficult time doing
things such as finding a decent paying job, buying a house, or even shopping in a store without
the store clerk following them around as if they are about to commit a crime. Racism is
significant in all cases of employment, a lot of studies have shown that coloured people are the
last people to be hired on a job when there are no other options, but the first person to be fired
when something wrong occurs in the company.
Racial discrimination is highly focused on judgment towards ethnic groups at the
minority level such as blacks and Hispanics.
Secondly, the next act of discrimination is Gender, Gender Discrimination is
discrimination towards the opposite sex. In today's society, the main gender discrimination is
against women, where women can have the same position as a man but only get paid 70% of
what men would make. In most companies, it is hard for women to get a raise of pay or move
higher quickly in a company, and most people believe this discrimination occurred because some
people think that women should be housewives and complete the daily living tasks at home.
Gender discrimination occurs with issues based on treatment, equality, respect, fairness and
rights and privileges of persons with regards to their gender." Grey-Bowen, J & McFarlane, D.
(n.d)
In addition to gender discrimination will be Age discrimination, Age discrimination is
predominant because in the 21st century, most people are stuck in ways of the past, where two

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

age groups in particular such the young (teenagers) and the elderly are mostly discriminated
against.
Age discrimination can be harsh or blunt, some actions might be refusing to hire elders,
limiting their job duties, forcing the elders to retire and most teenagers aren't hired by most
companies because they may be considered lazy or incapable of performing day to day tasks,
these acts of age discrimination formed The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
(ADEA) was passed by Congress to make it unlawful for an employer to base employment
decisions on a workers age.
The last form of discrimination will be Religion, Religion is another form of
discrimination, and some people are judgmental and hostile towards other's people choice of
religions if it's different from their own. Some stereotypes of religion discriminations would say
"Catholics are foolish people", "Mormons are weird", "Jews are inconsiderate" and "Christians
are hypocrites", with these stereotypes being said, and causing rumours, causes a lot of people to
judge them. It is best to research a religion if unsure, before stereotyping and to think about how
you would feel as an individual if the same was being done to your religion.
According to Lawrence and Weber (2014) (pg. 391) Affirmative action is a positive and
sustained effort by an organization to identify, hire, train if necessary, and promote minorities,
women and members of other groups who are underrepresented in the organizations workforce.
However affirmative action has both positive and negative impacts on the plan.
The Positives of Affirmative Action is to make sure that diversity is accepted in the
schools and work environments to allow communities to be aware of different cultures from their

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own. It helps ethnic minorities who come from poor or high crime communities to be able to find
jobs and opportunities. Affirmative Action is a way to make sure every race is considered equal.
The Negatives of Affirmative Action is that some people consider it "reverse
discrimination", Some examples would be people receiving jobs because of affirmative action,
when they are not qualified, which causes the superior race "whites" to think of the minorities as
stupid and helpless, it also shows that people of the same race are from a lower class and
majority of the time need help.
The topic on discrimination is important as it is a serious matter that occurs in the 21st
century based on judging someone because of something that is different to you, there are a
numerous of ways to overcome discrimination one being affirmative action which I just learnt, I
was not aware of the meaning of affirmative action and consider it to be a beneficial factor in
providing ethnic minorities with opportunities to feel just as equal and important as other
superior races.
The next chapter in this essay will be the Chicago Experience. From May 17th-22nd,
2016 there were 16 participating students from the International College of the Cayman Islands,
along with their president Dr. David Marshall, who travelled to Chicago for their Business and
Society Seminar. They resided at the Grand Courtyard Chicago Marriott Downtown, Magnificent
Mile. The experience was a once in a lifetime experience, we visited two exceptional
Universities National Louis University and Depaul University.
Our first to third day in Chicago was a busy but an enjoyable experience, we visited the
Willis tower, where we explored the sky deck which allowed me to face my fears of heights. We
went to the CME building which was amazing to see the stock traders in action and hearing all

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

the commotion and excitement that occurred during their hectic day at work. Another wonderful
visit on the first day was meeting the Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel, he was very down to
earth and laid back, which was scary but interesting to see knowing that he has the responsibility
of so many lives in his hands.
At National Louis University we learnt from Professor Jams Nowotarksi, who presented
on Ethical Considerations of Emerging Technologies I found his presentation very detailed and
inspirational, I learnt about the detailed information of how the Brand Store "Target" can "reach
out to pregnant women based on their habits such as purchasing lotion, in their trimester,
purchasing vitamins and so forth and then sending coupons through emails but also distracting
them with items not involved in pregnancy. I also found it interesting on how he spoke about
when an individual has travelled and searched for a weather, you can almost always receive
emails on areas to shop, places to go and more based on that country, it shows how developed
and sometimes dangerous the emerging of technology can be.
We also visited the Millennium Park where it showcased the water tower, during the first
day we got to see the beautiful antique structured buildings that showcased how beautiful
Chicago really is.
Our fourth and fifth day in Chicago was even better than the first few days mention. We
helped out at the Allstate Community Outreach Exercise at YMCA. The task that I chose to do
was the gardening, I learnt to pull weeds, lay soil and dig proper size holes knowing the depth to
plant trees, I even found some huge earth worms which was creepy at first but I got used to it.
I never knew how relaxing gardening was and how it made me feel at ease, I will now be able to
help with gardening at home and have no complaints.

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

We also volunteered at the Cornerstone Community Outreach and I would have to say
that this was the most interesting field trip. I really enjoyed the experience and was grateful to
help with providing a helping hand to the homeless, I appreciated the trip to become more
grateful for what I do have now.
During the Chicago Seminar, I learnt numerous things, however the day that stood out to
me the most was meeting Dr. Vernese Edghill-Walden. Dr. Vernese is the Senior Associate Vice
President for Academic Diversity and Chief Diversity Officer at the Northern Illinois
University.Dr. Vernese provides vision, leadership, and counsel on matters of diversity and
inclusion.
Dr. Vernese talked about Diversity, describing it as a variety of thoughts, perspective,
identity, race, sexual orientation, belief systems, backgrounds and culture.
She explained to us situations that occurred and allowed us to give examples of situations based
on stereotype and racial comments. We then watched a video on YouTube from Mellody Hobson,
named Color Blind or Color Brave, which basically talks about race and how it can affect you.
Dr. Vernese left us with a great quote saying you can value someones identity and belief, but
maintain your own.
From her presentation, I learnt about diversity, and this was very interesting to me as it
relates to my topic based on discrimination. What Ive learned based on the topic of Business and
Society and how it relates to the text (Lawrence & Weber, 2014) (pg. 379) states that diversity
refers to variation in the important human characteristics that distinguish people from one
another. The primary dimensions of diversity are age, ethnicity, gender, mental or physical

Discrimination and Affirmative Action

abilities, race, and sexual orientation. The secondary dimensions of diversity are many; they
include such characteristics as communication style, family status, and first language.
What was most surprising to me in regard to the Chicago Seminar trip would have to be
learning about whistle blowing, I had no idea what it meant, so I never chose it for my topic,
however upon listening to Dr.Kohen she explained the types of whistleblowing, which she said
sometimes refers to government employees who divulge to a governmental regulatory or
investigative bureau unethical practices in their division or office and/ or to employees within a
firm that has government contracts who report fraud against the government. These kinds of
disclosures are called governmental whistle blowing.
She allowed us to interact in a case study where she wanted us to verify, if it was right for
the gentleman to whistle blow or not to whistle blow, it was a case study that stated a Vice
President of a company who noticed that his company was involved in fraud and collected data
for seven months before resigning to provide information to the government to collect a decent
lump sum of money, he then went on for the next eight years to collect more data for the
government and informed on his old company that allowed the government to receive $883
million where he collected $126 million and retired at the age of 53 with his wife and daughter.
I am able to use this course as a tool to help my professional growth in the future by
using the techniques that I learnt to my everyday work duties, I am now aware of terminology
and how they give to the business society on a whole, I learnt the negatives and positives on a lot
of techniques to imply in a business setting. I have changed in a positive way as a result of this
experience, I am now more considerate in my spending and when I waste food, from our trip to
the Cornerstone Community Centre and assisting in feeding the homeless, it is saddening to see

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so many children without a home and this opened my eyes to realize I have so much to be
appreciative for. The tool that I gained that I did not have before would have to be
whistleblowing and when to use it or not in a workplace setting. I can use this experience to
accomplish my goals since my return in Cayman by allowing me to understand how different
other peoples country and culture is different to my own, how not to judge people or be
ungrateful and complain because there is always someone who has it worse than you think, so I
will now be forever grateful and hope to volunteer more to lend a helping hand to organizations
providing to people in need.
I dont think there was anything important that I was not able to accomplish or complete
in terms of my learning during this trip, unfortunately the unfulfilled goal I would mention, even
though I prepared the meals at the Cornerstone Community Centre for the homeless, I was
unable to take part in the real serving part of the time we had there, I wanted to get close and
personal to really see what people go through. However, when I did return home to the Cayman
Islands, I volunteered with Meals on Wheels to raise money to feed the elderly and will
continue to take part in more voluntary jobs.
In conclusion, I would like to thank the International College of the Cayman Islands and
Dr. David Marshall for making this trip possible, and allowing myself to be able to travel to a
new country and see both the negative and positive sides. I've learnt an impeccable amount of
information and got to volunteer at some wonderful organizations and because of this journey I
am now able to be appreciative of what life has to offer me and be grateful to God for all of the
blessings and guidance that was given to us.

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References
Byrd, D. (2012, October 18). Race/Ethnicity and Self-Reported Levels of Discrimination
and Psychological Distress, California, 2005. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from
https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2012/12_0042.htm
C, M. (2007, June 6). Intro: To Discrimination in our world. Retrieved June 25, 2016,
from http://hrmelissac.blogspot.com/2007/06/discrimination-in-our-world.html
Fan, P. (n.d.). Religion Stereotyping. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from
http://www.teenink.com/opinion/discrimination/article/527795/Religion-Stereotyping/
Grey-Bowen, J., & McFarlane, D. (n.d.). Gender Compensation Discrimination: An
Exploration of Gender Compensation Gap and the Higher Education Connection. Retrieved
June 25, 2016 from http://jbsq.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/JBSQ_5F.pdf
Lawrence, A. T. & Weber, J. (2014). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public
policy (14th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
May, L. (n.d.). Racism and its Effect on Society. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from
http://www.teenink.com/nonfiction/travel_culture/article/464320/Racism-and-its-Affect-onSociety/
McRae, S. (n.d.). Age Discrimination in the Workplace. Retrieved June 25, 2016, from
http://students.washington.edu/aliss/silverfish/archive/april2003/mcrae.pdf
Arguments For and Against Affirmative Action. (n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2016, from
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~jesan20l/classweb/pright.html

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Racism and Discrimination in the Labour Force. (n.d.). Retrieved June 25, 2016, from
http://www.profilesinjustice.com/racism-and-discrimination-in-the-labour-force-custom-essaysample

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