Psychologists claim that discrimination is wired in our brains, starting at early stages of our lives. Please read: “Even babies discriminate: a nurtureshock excerpt”
Since our brains are making many unconscious decisions most of the time, we have to try hard consciously and avoid behaviour that can be seen as discrimination and may upset people around us, colleagues, friends, family members…
Simple matters can cause it:
- skin colour (like in the news article below),
- nationality, language, accent,
- political opinions, religious beliefs,
- gender preferences,
- clothes we wear, tattoos,
- types of food we eat (vegetarian, vegan etc.),
- hobbies,
- devices we use (Apple vs others), cars we drive (expensive vs cheap),
- programming languages and tools/frameworks we use.
Worse bit is conscious discrimination! Some companies are trying to resolve that issue with formal training; many are ignoring it!
BBC: “Miss India contest: Why do all the finalists ‘look the same’?”
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