Diversity In Organisation For Social Exclusion And Discrimination

Socially Disadvantaged and Advantaged Groups

Discuss about the Diversity in Organisation for Social Exclusion and Discrimination.

As a firm believer of social service I have always tried to help people and this has contributed to my overall faith and belief in the concept of well being. This is because of the reason that social help cannot be replaced by anything else. I feel immense pleasure and satisfaction in working for others. I have been a part of both socially advantaged as well as socially disadvantaged groups. There is a very distinct difference between both the advantaged groups. The group of people who have a great risk of poverty, social exclusion, discrimination and violence than the overall general population are socially disadvantaged groups. The socially disadvantaged group of people might include the ethnic minorities, migrants, people with disabilities, isolated elderly people and children. These section of the people are extremely downtrodden and vulnerable and they are not properly cared for. It is needed that people be conscious towards their needs which can help them in the achievement of a probable bond between them. There have also been barriers of language, culture and other factors which have kept this section of the community deprived from even the basic amenities of life. 

Being a member of a socially disadvantaged group I had experienced a sense of detachment from the common people of the community. There is a strange sort of dis-balance towards the downtrodden and this socially disadvantaged group of people. The experiences of the members and the thoughts which they share have made me understand clearly that they have never been able to see the brighter side in their lives. I was going with a few other disadvantaged people in the local stores where I found an overall interest in the shop owners towards our needs. It was as if the needs and requirements of socially disadvantaged people do not matter. This was demonstrated so normally that I was forced to think what led to such a disparity in the society.

I have also been a member of a socially privileged group.  The scenario in this group is entirely different. The outlook of the people towards the members of such a group is also different. At the time a member who is socially advantaged needs something there are already ten people to assist him or her. Such a difference between both the types of social or racial groups is huge. At the time when I visited a local store with the socially advantaged group of people a shocking incident was witnessed by me. At the local store the people were buying things according to their needs. At the time of creation of a line, it was suddenly found that the people belonging to the line were asked to wait and they were abruptly removed from the line. I could not understand the situation at first but later found out that the people who were at the beginning of the line were socially disadvantaged group members and therefore they were not being given the preference to clear their dues initially. The people who were at the end of the line, were socially privileged and therefore they were not given the trouble of waiting for their turn to arrive. This was a remarkable and very wrong and unjust practice according to my moral and ethical understanding. This made me realise that social demarcations were very much prevalent in the society. The people who were socially deprived continued to remain deprived and the people who were socially advantaged were socially advantaged. There is a vast existential disparity between the two social groups. This is very much prevalent in several parts of the world which need to be addressed at the earliest (Bonevski et al., 2014).  

Impact of Social Class and Religion

I am a person who comes from a family where there is always a sense of equality and there is no discrimination among people on the basis of anything. This has been reflected in my decisions and my personality in terms of helping me develop to the person I am. I am very liberal and understanding as a person. Being a student I have never differentiated between people. I do not advocate the ideas of depriving people from the basic amenities of life. I have never seen too much of anything in my life. There has never been a situation in my life where things have come more easily to me than they should. I have had my share of struggles and my share of problems and responsibilities which I had to face in my life. I feel that unless a person has to deal with problems or shortcomings in his or her life it will not be possible for the person to understand the importance of struggle in life. I feel that my struggles have taken me where I am today. I have always believed that people need to be treated equally despite their shortcomings. I never misbehave with people depending on their place of origin or whether they have been socially deprived.

The situations of privilege are connected in a specific situation and it is not possible for one to exist without the other. It can be stated that these are on opposite ends of a particular spectrum. The people who have always seen a privileged life do not understand the meaning of disadvantage. This also causes them to feel that they will always continue to remain privileged in their whole lives. These people behave with others based on their status or their background which is not correct. I have met and mixed with people of different cultural backgrounds and this has impacted my ideas about life. I feel that every person has his or her personal battles to deal with. This is extremely crucial to understand because the impact of negative behaviour with a person goes a long way in harming the relationships which we share with people. In countries all over the world, the impact of social class has several far reaching consequences. The social class is actually the grouping of individuals in a stratified hierarchy which is based on their wealth, income, education, occupation and social network. The position in the social class hierarchy has a chance of considerably impacting the overall situation of a person. Social class is a very strong determinant of the heath of a person.

Family and Community Disadvantage

There is also the prevalence of the inequality of health which refers to the unequal distribution of environmental hazards of heath and also the access to the health services between the demographic groups including that of social classes. I am of the opinion that the affluent communities are much more likely to have a certain access to the fresh produce and the recreational facilities for the exercise, preventative programs of healthcare and the medical visits which are routine in nature. The affluent communities are much more likely to have better health outcomes than those which are impoverished. Therefore I feel that there should not at least be any amount of discrimination in case equal opportunities of service can be provided to the people.

There is also a considerable impact of the religious practices within the specific society the religious practices often are seen to promote the well-being of individuals, families as well as that of overall communities. It is seen that in case religious practices are being followed there is a noteworthy reduction in the incidents of domestic abuse, crime and any other forms of addiction. I feel however that there are benefits and drawbacks of both types of situations. In case the concept of religion is considered, the positive aspects of the concept need to be utilized. The negative aspects should not be allowed to cause harm to the organisation. There are positive aspects of religion in the sense that the ideas in several disciplines help people in dealing with the problems which they are facing in their lives and there is also the possibility of a natural counselling for those people who seek answers to the most important questions in their respective lives (Healey & Gunby, 2012).

Another very significant aspect which impacts the lives of the people is the concept of family. This is because of the reason that family life is responsible for making a person understand the value of life, values and principles. Community disadvantage is a result of the complex play between the characteristics of the residents who live in a specific community which can include unemployment, low income and also the effects of issues in social as well as environmental contexts. It is not true that financial factors alone are the cause of advantage and disadvantage. There are new perspectives which are true with respect to the concept of society.

It has been seen that there is a cognitive basis for the prejudices which are rooted in the minds of the people and this is because they need to make sense of the world. There are three different ideas which govern such thoughts. These ideas are categorization, assimilation and the search for coherence. There is a certain amount of human thinking by means of which the objects, people and events are identified and the differences between the categories are exaggerated. This is known as stereotyping. There is also another process of learning the norms, values and beliefs of a culture and the world is seen through the lens of a culture. The people also wish to make sense of a world which constantly changes and then the attitudes and outlook of their own group or sect to provide a coherent explanation of the world (Major, Mendes & Dovidio, 2013).

The social identity theory states that the ideas of prejudice and discrimination are possible only if the people can be categorised into certain groups. This leads to the identification regarding the development of groups and out-groups. The identification of the groups is responsible for giving people their individual social identity. The categorisation of people can be due to social class, ethnicity, religion, nationality, region, orientation, gender, occupation and so on. The social identity theory also assumes that people desire that they be seen in a positive light and this is clearly explained by the strive of people to be seen in a positive light. As people tend to always remain connected to the groups they belong in this also causes a certain degree of favouritism in the groups (Mares, 2013).

The concept of disadvantage is not very simple as there are several factors of disadvantage and its indicators. The concept of community disadvantage emerges out of the complicated interplay between the characteristics of the residents of specific communities. Usually the ideas of advantage and disadvantage have been considered to be related to the ideas of financial factors. However there are several reasons and factors which impact the ideas of socially advantaged and disadvantaged groups. There is a certain level of literacy in the country of New Zealand and this is because of the reason that majority of the males and females are educated due to their inclination towards learning (Rowlands & Handy, 2012).

It is seen that there is a certain amount of political change in the country of New Zealand and there are strong rules and regulations as well. There are strict rules and laws which are difficult to be understood. Therefore the factors can impact the people who are desirable of thinking about prospects in their country. The economic situation is also favourable in the country. Therefore the people who want to forge financial relationships in the country are at a specific advantage. These people are able to understand and experience the positive outcomes of their business endeavours. This is however not possible for people of socially disadvantaged groups. Therefore the economic condition of the country brings about discrimination in the factors which impact the lives of people belonging to socially advantaged and socially disadvantaged groups (Dar et al.,2013).

The social system of the country has been found to be good enough and this is dependent on the business with other countries. There is a constant demand in the financial system and this is capable of impacting the financial situation in the country. There are several situations where there are chances of provision of newer and better technology. There is a specific amount of emphasis on the economic situation in the country. The people who are at a social disadvantage have to bear the brunt of the problems which crop up due to the reason of being underprivileged. These demarcations affect the situation in the country.

Privileged people get the best of all situations. This is applicable with respect to the situations which are prevailing in a particular country in a specific situation. This helps in the overall understanding of a country and the developments regarding specific situations (Witten et al., 2012).  

It is possible for the service providers and policy makers to make a noteworthy difference in the disadvantaged communities. It is possible for them to improve the lives of the people who belong to disadvantaged communities. Therefore it is clear that the people who are socially disadvantaged have to sacrifice a lot in their lives due to their general existing perceptions. The poverty line measures have a tendency to belie the complexity and even the scope of disadvantage. 

References and bibliography:

Becker, J. C., Wright, S. C., Lubensky, M. E., & Zhou, S. (2013). Friend or ally: Whether cross-group contact undermines collective action depends on what advantaged group members say (or don’t say). Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(4), 442-455.

Bonevski, B., Randell, M., Paul, C., Chapman, K., Twyman, L., Bryant, J., … & Hughes, C. (2014). Reaching the hard-to-reach: a systematic review of strategies for improving health and medical research with socially disadvantaged groups. BMC medical research methodology, 14(1), 42.

Dar, M. H., De Janvry, A., Emerick, K., Raitzer, D., & Sadoulet, E. (2013). Flood-tolerant rice reduces yield variability and raises expected yield, differentially benefitting socially disadvantaged groups. Scientific reports, 3, 3315.

Doise, W., Mugny, G., James, A. S., Emler, N., & Mackie, D. (2013). The social development of the intellect (Vol. 10). Elsevier.

Healey, N., & Gunby, P. (2012). The impact of recent government tertiary education policies on access to higher education in New Zealand. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 27(1), 29.

Major, B., Mendes, W. B., & Dovidio, J. F. (2013). Intergroup relations and health disparities: A social psychological perspective. Health Psychology, 32(5), 514.

Mares, D. (2013). Climate change and levels of violence in socially disadvantaged neighborhood groups. Journal of Urban Health, 90(4), 768-783.

Pearson, A. L., Pearce, J., & Kingham, S. (2013). Deprived yet healthy: Neighbourhood-level resilience in New Zealand. Social Science & Medicine, 91, 238-245.

Rowlands, L., & Handy, J. (2012). An addictive environment: New Zealand film production workers’ subjective experiences of project-based labour. Human Relations, 65(5), 657-680.

Witten, K., Blakely, T., Bagheri, N., Badland, H., Ivory, V., Pearce, J., … & Schofield, G. (2012). Neighborhood built environment and transport and leisure physical activity: findings using objective exposure and outcome measures in New Zealand. Environmental Health Perspectives, 120(7), 971.