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Racial Pay Bias

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For millions of people, media often acts as a gateway to communicate or gain perspective on different ideas and information. However, media is often misinterpreted, giving the reader a different understanding on the topic then is portrayed. Bias plays a significant part in this misconception, which is why it is important to recognize when reading articles that address problems such as discrimination based on unequal pay in the workplace. For instance, Shafi Musaddique is the author of, “We Need to Address Our Ethnic Pay Gap with Mandatory Reporting – Just as We're Doing with Gender”, an article in which they advocate that the racial pay gap should be equally as emphasized as the gender pay gap. This article can be seen as biased due to the …show more content…
In this article, the author compares the gender pay gap to that of the racial wage gap. S/he advocates the need for mandatory ethnic pay gap reporting just as women in order to understand the significance of diversity in the workplace. Seeing as to how the author specifically demands the need for pay gap reporting, the article would most likely be directed towards business’ who pay little to no attention to their racial wage gap. The author calls these business’ out, seeking change to correct the issue at hand. However, the author makes a few fallacies in an effort to persuade the readers. In particular, Musaddique claims that, “While some private sector firms finally wake up, London’s BAME [Black Asian and Minority Ethnic] public sector workers face the indignity of knowing they were paid up to 37.5 per cent less than their white colleagues last year.” (Musaddique, “We Need to Address…”) This section of the article demonstrates one of the many fallacies the author presents. Musaddique creates generalizations seeing as to how s/he focuses on the situation in only London, while making assumptions that the rest of the world is being paid unequally due to their race. The author also fails to make accurate claims. Throughout the article the author forms statements based on false …show more content…
The CNN article emphasizes the difference in wage gaps between white and black workers and its increase since 1970. Using statistics from different sources, the author makes it known of the racial wage gap. Similar to the second source, the article uses facts supported by trustworthy documents and could be addressed towards the general public in order to inform them on the ever growing wage gap between black and white workers. However, unlike the other two articles, she successfully provides information on the racial wage gap without creating a stance on the situation. Vega simply states the facts relating to the topic at hand, pulling quotes and statistics that originate from a variety of reliable sources. For instance, the authors mentions, “‘Race is not a skill or characteristic that should have any market value as it relates to your wages, but it does,’ said Valerie Wilson, the director of the program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the EPI…” (Vega, “Wage Gap Between…”) In this portion of the article, it can be seen that Vega states another opinion on the wage gap rather than her own. Due to the fact that the article shows no bias, there is hardly an fallacy. The author uses relevant and reliable facts to make a point of the growing wage gap. Her article can be seen as effective due to the fact that the data is trustworthy and unbiased, giving the readers a

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