Discrimination happens all the time, all over the world. It’s different from discernment in that it not only categorizes people by racial, ethnic, cultural, gender-based, sexual orientation related, religious and/or spiritual affiliation, but also attaches a negative label to those groups AND treats people from those groups differently.
There’s nothing wrong with categorizing the world around you. It’s necessary to create a personal framework in order to simply function. But when you treat people differently based on inherent characteristics instead of as individuals, well, you’re part of the problem.
Discrimination can be traumatic. Being judged or treated based on a general characteristic instead of as an individual person can affect you adversely. It can be detrimental to a person’s mental health, leading to depression and personality disorders.
This article will be updated with further research and sources soon.
Sources
DEVELOPING THE COVERT TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE SCALE (COTES): A RETROSPECTIVE EARLY PSYCHOSOCIAL TRAUMA ASSESSMENT TOOL
Tiffany E. Vastardis PhD, LMHC, CCTP, CMHIMP
Clinical Education Specialist • Florida Residential Clinical Training Liaison • Mental Health Researcher • Licensed Psychotherapist • Clinical Trauma Specialist • Integrative Medicine Practitioner
Discrimination
Researchers note that racial, ethnic, cultural, gender-based, sexual orientation related, religious and/or spiritual affiliation discrimination imposes detrimental impacts
on individuals. Experiences of racial, ethnic and cultural discrimination have been
correlated with depressive symptoms, especially in the face of exposure to other
childhood traumas (Priest, King, Bécares, & Kavanagh, 2016; McQuaid, Bombay,
McInnis, Matheson, & Anisman, 2015). Furthermore, a meta-analysis found strong
correlations between racism and negative mental health outcomes in Asian-American and
Hispanic-American samples (Paradies et al., 2015). Gender-based discrimination and
chronic childhood trauma has been linked to the diagnosis of BPD in affected females.
However, some theorists suggest that this association is false, and that such victims, more
likely, suffer from cPTSD. This proclivity further exemplifies a form of gender-based
discrimination, as there are associations in the symptom spectrum between the two
disorders, yet a bias in favor of designating females as the primary expressers of BPD
remains (Nicki, 2016). Discrimination has also affected transgender asylum-seekers,
limiting their opportunities for social inclusion and educational attainment (Cheney et al.,
2017). Finally, an exploration of developmental and contextual factors regarding the
prevalence of religious discrimination suggests that in the observed population, religious
discrimination was more pervasive during the early stages of childhood, more prevalent
in homogeneous schools than in heterogeneous school settings, and more diffuse amongst
children whose parents exuded messages of mistrust in reference to other religious groups
(Van der Straten Waillet & Roskam, 2012).
