Introduction

Discrimination and prejudice has gradually become one of the major impacts and burdens in the workplace and all over the world. Research shows that both have existed for thousands of years and have been transmitted throughout generations. There are many phases to prejudice and discrimination and over time each has become more sophisticated. Even today, it is hard to believe that in some individuals mindsets they feel that are not prejudice nor have they ever discriminated against someone. People suffer through discrimination because they have differences amongst one another: different beliefs, different cultures, and different skin color. For this paper, I will discuss prejudice and discrimination, some characteristics of both and why individuals still suffer from prejudice and discrimination today.

What is prejudice?

If an individual stated that he/she didn’t like a certain color or a certain type of food would that be considered prejudice, however if the same person stated he/she didn’t like the color black because made them feel sad would that be considered a prejudice? Prejudice is an internal entity, a product of experience, an emotion felt or a belief structure. Prejudice is a set of factors that can cause an individual to develop a conclusion which favors one person to another. It could be a positive or negative judgment about someone or something based on pure feeling alone. Prejudice is a pre-judgment about someone or something based on the individual interpretation (Young, 2003). What causes an individual to become prejudice? Believe or not, parents, school systems, the media and even church help aid in development of prejudice characteristics. A person that grew up in an isolated segregated community would have a difficult time adapting to the cultures and beliefs of others based upon how the individual was raised and his/her feeling and assumptions. Prejudice brings about fear of the unknown. Prejudice is always the expression or experience of a negative attitude or feeling towards another person or group, based on some group-based characteristic. For example, statements such as “I hate Jews” or “Homosexuals disgust me” would be expressions of prejudice. Like stereotypes, prejudice can develop at a very early age, especially if a child is surrounded by family and friends who express such negative beliefs. How often have people been guilty of pre-judging something or someone based upon looks and certain characteristics without any knowledge about a person? An individual walks into a professional interview dressed in all black, with tattoos and face paint, although he/she have met the desired job requirements and has exceptional etiquette he/she will most likely not make it passed the initial interview because of inherited prejudices of the interviewer. Would this be a fair assumption, no, however based on society this type of attitude is acceptable.
What is discrimination?

Discrimination is defined as the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually. Prejudice and discrimination go hand in hand, often times it is difficult to be prejudice against someone or something without signs of discrimination. Discrimination can be viewed as an external representation of prejudice. Michael LeMay’s states that” Discrimination is applied prejudice”, I happen to agree with this definition because prejudice is usually kept inside of the individual, so as to have a quiet judgment among people. Discrimination, however, is prejudice put into practice. Those who discriminate actively practice prejudice; it is no longer kept inside, but rather openly practiced against the people. Prejudice is best described as an attitude towards a certain group of peoples based solely on their membership in that social or ethnic group, whereas discrimination are actions taken against those members, the behavioral manifestation of prejudice. Discrimination can be honest or dishonest behavior. For instance, in the Cracker Barrel case one waitress states she would make African Americans pay for their food first because she had experience and instance where the African Americans left without paying. Although this was not proven, what the waitress did was she took her prejudice emotion about African American and turned it into a discriminatory act by making the customers pay. The act the waitress displayed is dishonest discrimination; her behavior was rude, inappropriate (Young, 2003).
Prejudice and Discrimination in the workplace

The workplace increasingly is more diverse than ever before. For decades African Americans,
Women, and many minorities were excluded from participating in most of the desirable jobs and be eligible for equal promotions. Even when declared unconstitutional, the discrimination against minority groups often persisted (Beauchamp & Bowie, 1993). Although some work organizations are making progress in their efforts to combat discrimination, Minorities particularly still face a series of unique problems imposed on them through the complex interactions of racially motivated negative attitudes and actions of individual and organizational policies and practices (Chima, 1999; Stromen & Seltzer, 1991) not shared by Caucasians. Some of the major problems Minorities face include: employment process biases and promotion and advancement (Queralt, 1996). Abercrombie was sued because of discrimination and prejudice acts towards employees and unfair hiring and promotions practices. Abercrombie was originally geared towards young Caucasian college athletes and cheerleaders between the ages of 18-21. Abercrombie did not view African Americans as the elite and therefore were not displayed in promotional advertisement. An African American employee for Abercrombie stated she was told she would be “an excellent window washer” and was not seen as a cashier or model. Abercrombie only wanted the elite to represent their attire, because of this type of prejudice and discrimination Abercrombie was sued and changed the hiring process to offer a more a diverse culture.
Types of Discrimination and Prejudice

Although many claim we live in an age of enlightenment, discrimination in the workplace remains prevalent. For example, personnel officers, whose stereotyped beliefs about African Americans contribute to their hiring African Americans for low-level and low-paying jobs exclusively, ignoring their potential experience or qualifications for higher level jobs. Administrators who rely on personal connections or by word-of-mouth recruiting limit potential applicants only to their friends of the same race. Discrimination in hiring and promotion accounts for a sizeable difference in job status between African Americans and Caucasian workers. When employment decisions are based on an employee’s race, sex, religion, the impact is felt on many levels. Economically, qualified employees are denied decent jobs, advancement and the ability to maintain and pursue a quality discrimination degrades, abuses, belittles ad destroys one’s self-esteem. Both federal and state laws decisions based on a person’s sex, race, creed, religion, national origin, age and physical impairments. Moreover, laws prohibiting discrimination are not only concerned with the hiring and firing process.
Denny's restaurant was involved in a series of discrimination lawsuits involving several cases of servers denying or providing inferior service to racial minorities, especially African-American customers. In 1994, Denny's settled a class action lawsuit filed by thousands of African-American customers who had been refused service, forced to wait longer, or pay more for services render. In this case the prejudice attitude lead to the discriminatory behavior of the employee’s displayed while serving the African American customers.
Discrimination may be subtle, as when a person refuses to associate with targets of the prejudice. It may be accepted social practice, as when members of one group refuse to hire or promote people who are different from them. Abercrombie is an example of discrimination based on group ideas and what the organization wanted to represent. In 2004 lawsuit González v. Abercrombie & Fitch, the company was accused of discriminating against ethnic minorities by preferentially offering desirable positions to White American employees. The company agreed to an out-of-court settlement of the class action suit. As part of the settlement terms, Abercrombie and Fitch agreed to pay US$45 million to rejected applicants and affected employees.
Discrimination and prejudice is not only based on color and race, several individuals have had entered lawsuits based on age discrimination in the workplace. In July 2001, Ford Motor Co. was faced with six suits filed by 57 employees including one suit in which the AARP joined on behalf of current and former workers. These individuals were discriminated against based on their age. Ford had adopted a performance process that required that 5% of senior managers be assigned a "C" grade each year. Approximately 18,000 management employees were force ranked into three categories, with A representing the top 10 percent, B the middle 80 percent, and C the bottom 10 percent. The A group was eligible for raises and bonuses, the B’s received smaller raises and bonuses, and the C’s received nothing. A second C in the next evaluation cycle could mean immediate termination. The suits contended that this system was meant to weed out older workers. In response to the legal pressures, Ford eliminated the mandatory 5% mandate but denied any discriminatory intent.
In March 1994, six African American Texaco employees filed a lawsuit on behalf of 1,400 African American employees claiming discrimination Lawsuit based on allegations that Texaco had discriminated against them in terms of promotions and fostered a hostile corporate environment Critical documents shredded that related to the promotion of minority employees. Ethical Issues Executives lacked proper ethical behavior skills and training; which resulted in discriminatory actions Texaco did not have proper diversity and sensitivity programs.

ECONOMIC DISCRIMINATION

Women and minorities have felt the presence of economic discrimination. Research shows that in 1996, women in the United States made seventy-five cents for every dollar that men earned. For the 46.3 million American men aged twenty-five to sixty-four years, the median income is $31,200. For the 35 million women in the same age group, median income is $23,000. Because of the great difference in women and men"s wages, many women have begun to fight back, depending equal pay for equal work. In 1993, 54.1 percent of these families made less than $15,000 a year; 19 percent made less than $5,000. Women face considerable barriers in their access to well paying, higher status jobs (Bergen, 1991). Although employment and pay discrimination is prohibited by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the law did not end the pay discrepancy between men and women. Salaries are about 30 to 50 percent higher in traditionally male occupations, such as truck driver or corporate executive, than in predominantly female or sexually integrated occupations, such as secretary or schoolteacher.

How to reduce Prejudice and Discrimination

Learning about prejudice within our country, and within us, is important in order to move toward a more humane world. Prejudice and discrimination are current and critical issues in the United States, and they recur again and again in this society due to our troubled history. Plant and Devine (1998) argue that there are two main reasons for wanting to overcome prejudice. First is those internally motivated this refers to one’s dedication to equality and the belief that to be prejudiced is morally wrong. The other is those externally motivated where the individual is not motivated by a sincere change in their personal attitude; rather they are motivated by societal pressures and wanting to avoid social disapproval. Because of our many upbringings and diverse cultures prejudice and discrimination will always have many issues, until someone is willing to change the old way of thinking. It is important that they have accurate information about our turbulent race history, as well as about the courage of people who have worked hard to secure human and civil rights in this country. Teaching always involves imparting values, consciously or subconsciously. Based upon what history has told us, prejudice and discrimination brought years of destruction and lawsuits and which in turns brings Title VII of 1964 into play. Because of unfair labor practices Title VII was enacted to aid in workplace discrimination with organizations that have 15 or more employees. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a federal law that prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion. An individual may have prejudice thought or discrimination about an individual based on fear and jealousy.

Conclusion
After reviewing several articles on discrimination and prejudice I asked myself could this problem be resolved with education, time and patience. Although, I would generally like to believe yes, a part of me believes this problem will continue to be a worldwide issue that will likely take more generations in the future to overcome. Prejudice is a feeling and discrimination is an action as a result of the feeling based on judgment. Although the term discrimination could be thought to be negative, research shows that discrimination can be both positive and negative dependent upon the reason. As a result of our families prejudice and handed down ideologies, prejudice and discrimination will be present in the future, however organizations are making improvements to reduce such things from taking place in the workforce.