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Rights….and all that!This article is about equal opportunities. You may or may not have heard much about this. You might also think that it has nothing to do with you……but already, it may be affecting your life. Have you been in a situation where you don't think you have been treated fairly? Were you trying out for the football team and found that you were left on the bench, but the coach's son managed to get on the first team? Have you been queuing for ages in a shop and watched in disbelief when a new checkout was opened for the pretty girl stood three spaces behind you? We all have a sense of how it feels if we are not treated fairly. |
There are lots of reasons why people can be unfairly treated and this can result in discrimination. For example :-
Billy, who lives on Estate A wasn't allowed to go on a club trip because there weren't enough spaces.
But Lisa and Paul, who live on Estate B, were allowed.
It could be that Billy was discriminated against because the person deciding who could and couldn't go, also lives on Estate B and has unfairly chosen people from his preferred area.
In other words, Billy didn't have an equal opportunity to go on the trip because of a difference of where he lives. This is not a fair way of making a selection.
This example would be the same if Billy wasn't chosen because he was a different
colour, religion, sex, sexuality or age to everyone else. Think about it.
If Billy couldn't go on the trip because he was in a wheelchair and the bus
couldn't allow wheelchair users onboard, would it still be fair to exclude
him? Is it Billy's fault, or the trip organisers?
It's not just about club trips, it is about everything you do in your lives.
Discrimination can be about ethnicity (white, asian, black etc), religion
(Christian, Jewish, Muslim etc), sexuality (gay, lesbian, straight etc), gender
(male, female, trans-gendered etc), age and anything else that shows a difference
between people. Discrimination isn't always obvious and can happen at school,
in your job, training, housing, in shops or any other place where you are
being selected or treated (e.g customer service) by someone else.
There are laws that exist to help protect people from this type of treatment. These include the Race Relations Act 1976, The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Now I am not suggesting that you pop to the library and read these laws word for word (although you can if you want to!) but you need to know that laws are there to protect people from unfair treatment and to help people receive equal opportunities in lots of different areas of their daily lives. The laws are always changing and trying to make sure that they cover all people, this can take time and there are lots of organisations who are there to help, advise and support you. These include :-
The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)
The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE)
But you might prefer to speak to someone such as your Connexions Adviser,
tutor or parents to get some help first. They can direct you to information
and websites with lots of useful tips and contact details. They can also be
helpful to talk to in the first instance, so that you feel supported when
taking any problems further.
Just because you haven't experienced discrimination, doesn't mean that you never will. I hope you don't but you have to think about the bigger picture. It is important that as young people, you start to understand what it means and try and think about how you would feel if it did happen to you. It can be another form of bullying and we already know from the "Bully Aware" article that it's not fair and we shouldn't stand for it. I hope that you would consider helping someone else in this position, because if you found yourself being treated unfairly, I'm sure you would want people to stand up for you too! Discrimination can have life long effects on people's opportunities and it is important that all people have equal chances, all of the time.
If you care….make sure it's fair!
Britkid - Young People and Racism
Future Citizens - Issues Facing Young People in the UK Today
The Disability Rights Commission
Commission for Racial Equality
EOC - The Equal Opportunities Commission
Good luck
Jennie Glitherow
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