Disparity and Discrimination

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Disparity and Discrimination

According to Webster’s Dictionary, the proper definition for discrimination is:

1 a : the act of discriminating b : the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently

2 : the quality or power of finely distinguishing

3 a : the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually b : prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment (Webster’s dictionary).

Discrimination has been around for centuries and even though there have been improvements in the way society deals with discrimination, we still have a long way to go. One of the biggest problems in America today is racial discrimination. We see it happening all over the world and also we see how it affects our criminal justice system. For example, there have been many problems with police officers using racial profiling with mostly people of African American and Mexican decent. Police officers do pull over minorities more than they would if the person was white. Even though the minority races have a higher criminal rate compared to the white community, we should not be labeled automatically without reason or just cause. And we should not be treated any differently when you are comparing the two.

Another example of discrimination is what can happen in our court systems. For example, minorities may not be able to provide for a good lawyer, which leaves them to a public defender and in most cases, they e...

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