Good day (buen da), ladies and gentlemen! Today, we will talk about this thing called discrimination.

What is discrimination? Why do people tend to discriminate others? What are their reasons behind it?
According to the most reliable and easy-to-use dictionary for students, the Merriams Webster
Dictionary, discrimination is the act of making or perceiving a difference, the ability to recognize the
differences among people. It is the practice of unfairly treating a person or a group.

To give disrespect of another person by judging someone by their nature or origin is how it becomes
part of everyones life. Have you ever heard the term never judge a book by its cover? Discrimination
is an issue that everyone has concerns about; whether it is age, race, religion, gender or any person
different than another.

Discrimination produces immense effects in the psychological, social, political, and economic domains.
Whether intended or not, the effects are compounded by the loss of self-worth, a sense of alienation
from the wider society, political disempowerment, and economic inequalities. It also lowers the self-
esteem of a person and the worst is sometimes it would lead to suicidal acts.

There are at least four reasons why do people discriminate. First is, insecurity. It is an intensely negative
feeling. Feeling insecure often comes from a lack of confidence either in yourself or your situation in life.
When you have feelings of insecurity, you doubt yourself and your abilities to cope with a problem or
situation, or you fear a negative outcome. Subconsciously, we may feel a need to tear others down as a
way of raising ourselves up. We are all vulnerable to feelings of inferiority, insecurity, and inadequacy.
And in situations such as these, we usually either retreat or attack, and discrimination is a tool we may
use to attack.

Second is ignorance. We are created in the image of God, that God views us as equal in His eyes, that we
should do unto others as we would have others do unto us, and that God created diversity throughout
His creation, and He intends us to experience unity in the midst of diversity. We all know that is
ignorance is the lack of knowledge to something. So, if we don't know these things, were never taught
these things, or were taught the opposite, we may be more vulnerable to the temptations brought on by
insecurity.

The third would be a weakness. Our weaknesses are usually a result of over pursuance of our strengths.
We may have grown up in a culture of discrimination. Our family, our school, our town/city may have
had discrimination as a value, and though we may have known or sensed that it was wrong, we did not
have the personal strength to stand against it. But rather found discriminating as a tool to attack to
others.

And the fourth is pride. We may find some who are different from us genuinely off-putting, and out of a
sense of superiority, we look down on them. Again, this goes way beyond race. It may involve those who
are mentally or physically handicapped, those who are odd-looking, those who are above or below us
in the socio-economic ladder, those who are culturally different. And because there is a genuine
aversion, we indulge our aversion and discriminate against others.
There are surely other reasons why we discriminate, but we dont need to look at all the reasons why.
We just need to see a representative sample to conclude that it is wrong, and we need to forsake it. Just
because someone is unusual to us they should not be discriminated. Just because we know the past of
each specific person does not mean we have the right to discriminate people. So why should people
discriminate others without the knowledge of their life? I believe that discrimination should stop
because we are all human beings and should be treated equally. We share a common humanity, and we
all have a role in respecting the right of all to enjoy it equally, with dignity and with the same
opportunities to thrive. We are called upon, not to discriminate, but to love (Romans 13:8). We are all
unique individuals. All we need have is acceptance and respect. Accepting the fact that we do differ
from each other and respecting each difference.