YOU discriminate. And you will always discriminate. But that’s not something to be ashamed of…

The monologue of equality and the sentiment against discrimination persistently drones on in the modern-day narrative. And yet discrimination, be it in terms of gender, ethnicity, sex, age, caste, disability, nationality, color, religion,or even species is widespread, even in our “developed” world. So widespread that I can assure you that every single person does it, including you and me.

For clarity’s sake, discrimination is prejudiced treatment towards a being, based on the group to which they are perceived to belong. Discrimination is undoubtedly a detriment towards an equal and just society, creating unnecessary boundaries and rifts between groups. The fact that we fear and recoil from those who are different is unfortunate and potentially dangerous. But you know that discrimination is bad, and I wouldn’t be writing an article to tell you what you already know, so let’s find out what makes us discriminate, from the base up.

Humans, the wonderfully complex and intelligent beings that we are, have evolved over time to categorize things, people and objects based on what we sense about them. Discrimination is what gives us the ability to differentiate threats from safety. On a fundamental level, we discriminate between objects. We instinctively know not to eat something smelly as it is likely to be poisonous (big fan of durian though). We know not to touch something sharp as it may cut us. We would much rather eat something sweet-smelling, or hold something soft. These are basic instincts steeped in discrimination, a part of what makes us such an intelligent species.

Before we move on to people, we must look at something between things and humans. Animals. You see, that in itself is a manifestation of discrimination. We treat other species as lesser than us, as “under our control”. That’s because of our bias towards our selves, and of course, the belief that our greater intelligence makes us superior to them. Egalitarianism between species simply doesn’t exist, and perhaps that is for the better. After all, it is what has enabled us to obtain innumerable medicines, clothing, food for the non-vegans, and of course, the lovable pets. Had we truly treated animals as on par with us, as some of the more extreme animal activists claim, we would simply not be in the same state of development as we are now.

Now, we get to discrimination between people. As aforementioned, it is ingrained in us to categorize what we see. It is also human nature to form social groups based on people of their own kind, which lends the evolutionary advantage of the power of groups. This means that we naturally tend to create divides between “us” and “them”. All of us are likely to have done this at some point in our lives. I know I have, I used to spend most of my time with boys, because I am a boy too. I would generally prefer to spend a day with people of my age rather than a group of adults. And consciously or not, for the rest of my life, most of my friends will share similar interests, hobbies, and abilities to what I do. So I’m a sexist, ageist and classist (Please don’t take my words out of context…) And unless you didn’t pass through childhood, or live in complete isolation, you are likely to be one of them as well. It’s human. 

Now let’s add the external, non-human factors, to our discrimination soup. Here’s where it gets spicy. This is what distinguishes the average person from the kind of person we associate with discrimination. Discriminatory attitudes are a reflection of a complex set of factors including discriminators’ history, sociocultural practices, economic forces, sociological trends and the influence of community and family beliefs.

Being brought up in an oppressive environment is a large amplifying factor of discrimination. For example, a person’s stress and anger caused by unrelated factors can affect how discriminatory they are. Past good or bad experiences can also affect a person’s discriminatory tendencies; a bad encounter with a person of one nationality may subconsciously affect the way a person treats all people of that nationality as a result. And by far the biggest factor amplifying discrimination is society. What people around us say, think, express and tell us to do make the largest impact on our prejudices. 

In extreme extensions of human skepticism and close-mindedness, some groups carry out major forms of discrimination. Nazi Germany, apartheid, slavery, islamophobia, homophobia, misogyny, genocide, the gender pay gap, are all effects of human discrimination of varying degrees but are all vile and deplorable.

As much as discrimination is an inseparable part of being human, the notion that we can be as discriminatory as we please under the excuse of science is ridiculous. We all discriminate, and we can’t escape our natural tendencies. But we can drive out what is in our choice. You can stop yourself from being discriminatory with ease, and best of all, it’s free. All it requires is a conscience. Next time you are about to disregard someone based on their age, or make a crude statement about someone’s body, or degrade someone for their race or religion, reflect. Don’t feel bad that you’re flawed because we all are. Feel good that you can do better.

-Samud Shetty, Grade 10