Poll: Have you, personally, ever been discriminated against?

[Sgt. Dante]

As a healthy, middle classed, 20-something, straight, white male.

Yes.

I once got refused for a job because I wasn't handicapped or a minority, because they apparantly had a quota to meet, In another job they needed more women in the office so I wasn't considered and a third bacause they didn't want to seem ageist they went for a guy in his late 50's.

I think anyone that isn't discriminated against in someway thoughtout their life is an increadably lucky soul. It's so easy to judge or be judged based on the most meaningless things. It will happen to many if not most of us at some point.

EDIT: Oh yeah, i'm an atheist too, not that that matters here in Britan but I hear that can be a huge problem for people in parts of the ole US of A.

 

[ShadowStar42]

Which is of course why white males have such a difficult time finding employment and advancing in this world.

How is that relevant? The question was if someone was ever discriminated against. Not if they can find employment.

Although if I were to try and become a policeman, I would be turned down no matter what, if any other applicant was either an ethnic minority or a woman. And even if I got the job, they'd be forbidden from promoting me because of my gender and ethnic background. I'm not making this up, I'm paraphrasing the official hiring and promotion rules for the Dutch police, instated by minister Ter Horst, and this discrimination was legalised by the (highly mislabeled) Law on Equal Treatment.

If that's not discrimination, I don't know what is.

Please point out to me where I said that there was no such thing as discrimination against white people? That posts was specifically in response to a post claiming that the White Male is "possibly the most discriminated demographic there is". That claim is completely full of crap until white males hold a disproportionately small amount of power and opportunity in society, and clearly they do not. Putting a high horse on top of the throne of privilege just makes you look silly.

 

[Gardenia]

In the late 90's there was a very profilic racially motivated murder in Norway. A black 15 year-old was killed by 2 neo-nazis. Being 11 at the tinme, all you really associated with any form of nazism was Germany.
Now, I have a German surname, which meant some beatings by my fellow classmates, harsh words and generally being shut out of any social group.
I went to the principal with this (a very nice man who looks like Santa Claus), and he made the whole school sit through an assembly clarifying the motives behind the murder. Every single one who had been mean to me then, upon realizing that I has nothing to do with nazis, personally apologized to me.
That's the closest I have ever been to being discriminated against.

 

[Leadfinger]

I live in Japan. I've been discriminated against at work, in regard to access to shops, and renting an apartment. Ironically, there was less hassle and discrimination getting a mortgage than there was to rent a place.

 

[GigaHz]

Im a white male, possibly the most discriminated demographic there is.

Blacks, Asians, Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, woman and merpeople would like to speak to you.

Good. We can all have a nice get together and discuss how just about anybody can be discriminated against. Maybe it will make the world a better place?

But seriously, I'm surprised how many people took that out of context. If you actually read my entire post where I listed the 'prejudices' against white people, you should get a clue that I'm not being sincere. That is, except for the end.

Feeling discriminated against is counter productive, and while there are legitimate times I have been discriminated against for whatever reason, I always shrug it off. As with anything similar, if you make a big deal about what the other person thinks, or even believe it yourself, you are letting them win. Discrimination should only bother you if it's from someone you care about. In that scenario, you are more likely to properly educate them to the contrary.

Discrimination can sometimes lead to another ugly concept, entitlement. It's like a psuedo-acceptance where if a person falls under a certain demographic, they are treated different from the rest. And while I could list real life examples, considering the amount of crap my first post got me into, I will keep it to myself.

 

[Avistew]

Well, I'd been made fun of or have received bad comments about a lot of things... My weight (despite it being normal), my hairs, being poly, being French, being vegetarian... It went from jokes that hurt but weren't meant to hurt to hateful comments that caused me to feel terrible and were obviously meant to hurt (the usual "you're sick" "you're disgusting" or "you're going to hell").
But I wouldn't call any of these discrimination. For me, discrimination means being refused a service or something similar.

The only time I felt discriminated against was while trying to get gym memberships for my husband and myself. I wanted to get a "family" membership, which is cheaper than two adults one, but that wasn't possible because we had no kids. If it had been one parent and a kid, it would have been fine, so it wasn't that at least 3 people were required.
I would understand if the gym had special services for kids or something, but it didn't. It was your average gym with weight, workout machines and a pool.

I can understand reduction when there are more people and stuff like that. I would have been fine paying the same for a family without kid as it would have cost a family without them. But paying less with more people, that just didn't seem fair. And I also felt like I was being told we weren't a family, which was hurtful.
I didn't end up getting the memberships at all, even though there was no other gym in that town.

Interestingly considering the context, my captcha is "white as snow".

 

[Kadoodle]

ROFL,In israel hmm,Let me explain by this sentence:Here cops public uranite themselves

Here you can get beaten up, the inside of you car torn up, or shot, because you 'disrespected' the cops. (First world country my ass)

at what country do you live in?

The US. Chicago specifically. The cops aren't as bad here as in Florida though.

and I thought that america is one of the best countries, Can I ask some questions about the laws that is in the US?

1)will pirating games will get you in real trouble?
2)Do you have to show your ID for games that are over 16+?
3)If a someone proveks you is it okay to beat him up?
4)at what age you can work,drink booze,have sex?
5)what counts as 'disrespecting' the cops. (First world country my ass)
6)if someone is try to steal from your house at night and you are in the house you can kill him?

1) only if they catch you, which doesn't happen often.
2) Yes, if they think you are underage
3) No
4) 16, 21, and 16.
5) Depends on the cop.
6) That's a good question. In some states (like California) you can. In some you cannot. However, if the guy tries to hurt or kill you, you can kill him in self defense.

wait, thought you were considered underage in the us untill 18 for sex

Whoops, you're right. I was thinking of the age of consent.

I think it also varies slightly from state to state. Then again, they won't throw you in jail if you're a few years underage.

 

[DesiPrinceX09]

Definitely! I'm a Muslim immigrant from Africa to America so I could write a novel about the things I've had to (and still have to) go through.

 

[Phasmal]

Yes, unfortunately. For a few things.
I've lost friends because of my atheism, but I expected that.
The worst, I'd have to say, came from being a girl gamer.
When I had to replace my Xbox the man on the microsoft helpline literally would only speak to my boyfriend (when it was my bloody Xbox).

 

[thylasos]

Oh, occasionally for my appearance when I was rather more hippyish, and in Russia on the basis of being foreign.

 

[Colour Scientist]

It's fairly low level, but back in primary school I had "LEFT HANDED" stamped on all my books in red ink. I also was forced to use special pens and other inks to the other children. Also because we had a communal pen pot my pen was always stolen because it was different.

The woes of my youth.

I feel your pain. In university there are these chairs with a little table attached at the side to write on and there is rarely one in a room for left-handed people. Oh, the humanity! I've been in therapy for it. When you prick us, do we not bleed?

 

[ShadowStar42]

Putting a high horse on top of the throne of privilege just makes you look silly.

Now there's the flaw in your reasoning. You equate a group generally being succesfull, with being priviliged. And this is not true. For instance the policy I mentioned makes for me having, ceteris paribus (meaning all other circumstances are assumed equal), less chance at getting a job than a woman, or someone from an immigrant group.

Besides, you don't solve a backwards position of one group, by discriminating the other groups.

People in the majority often overlook the level of privilege they receive, even ignoring the fact that you're average person in the majority have much higher odds of growing up with both parents, have a much higher average household income, live in areas with lower average crime that are cleaner than average etc. etc. etc. People in the majority have the advantage of not feeling a pervading and permanent sense of outsiderness, something that people who live in the majority cannot generally even comprehend it is so alien to their experience. No if your understanding this policy you speak of, and if it is consistently applied and if you happen to be applying for a job with the police (or for a promotion) and if there are a number of minorities going for the same job and if your qualifications are similar to those of the minorities seeking the job then yes, you have found an example of a place where you are at a disadvantage for being a white male. Congrats. That one disadvantage however does not mean that you are not coming from a place of privilege, I mean if Warren Buffet found out that he couldn't be a janitor because a woman applied for the job that doesn't place him below the woman in general terms.

 

[EneMalicious]

1. Sexually and based on sexual preference are seperate options?
2. I've been discriminated against for having Aspergers.
3. I think your options in the poll has a massive hole where "Disablities" should be.

 

[Slade Brown]

Being smart hurts jocks feelings. Then they insult you.

 

[TheLaofKazi]

Everybody is discriminated against in every social interaction they have with others. Humans naturally judge people, and sometimes those judgments can be quite negative, even if they are only going off of more superficial things (interests, hair, clothes, sexuality, beliefs, ect.).

 

[Avistew]

It's fairly low level, but back in primary school I had "LEFT HANDED" stamped on all my books in red ink. I also was forced to use special pens and other inks to the other children. Also because we had a communal pen pot my pen was always stolen because it was different.

The woes of my youth.

I'm very curious as to why that would ever be necessary. I could understand special pen if their shape made them not as practical to use with your left hand, but why use a different ink from anyone else? That makes no sense to me, did they ever give you a reason for that?

1. Sexually and based on sexual preference are seperate options?

That's because "sexually" here is "based on sex" (male, female, intersex) and "sexual preference" is, well, your orientation, so they're two different things.

 

[Dagny]

Everybody is discriminated against in every social interaction they have with others. Humans naturally judge people, and sometimes those judgments can be quite negative, even if they are only going off of more superficial things (interests, hair, clothes, sexuality, beliefs, ect.).

Agreed. Unfortunately I can't really think of a word that means specifically what the OP was talking about. It would be a lot easier if there were one word for "choosing between multiple things based on their characteristics," and another word for "depriving a person of his basic dignity or rights on the basis of one or more of his characteristics, which are unrelated to his character."

I would say that in this context, it's valid to say that you have been discriminated against on the basis of religion/ethnicity/etc if a large enough proportion of your peer group treated you with derision on that basis that it made your daily life consistently miserable; or if you've been harassed or physically assaulted on that basis; or if a former friend (previously unaware of this characteristic) rejected you on that basis; or if you've been denied services on that basis; or if you've been denied employment on that basis; or if you've been denied admission to an institution on that basis; or if you've been treated negatively by law enforcement on that basis. I'm probably forgetting a few things.

 

[Albert Whisker]

For the past five years, I've been getting beaten up, shouted down, ignored by teachers/faculty, and generally viciously swarmed by people I don't even know, just because I'm not a Christian.
The swarm is 300+ strangers, by the way.
It seriously sucks. They would burn me as a witch if they could.
And in addition, since everyone who isn't Christian is obviously a satanic homogay, I get that flavor of hate, too.