Discrimination is unfair treatment linked to a person's group identity or characteristic. It can exclude people from opportunities or place them at an unjustified disadvantage.
Discrimination can appear in an individual's decision or in the way an organisation applies a rule. Examples include rejecting applicants because of ethnicity or nationality even though they meet the stated requirements, or excluding participants because of an assumption about their background.
The unfairness concerns what is done, not only what someone privately believes. A person may discriminate without openly admitting prejudice or recognising their own bias. Exclusion can restrict access, undermine confidence and trust, and prevent a group from benefiting from someone's contribution.
Different outcomes alone do not prove discrimination. A relevant requirement, a fair selection process or support matched to different needs can produce different treatment for good reasons. Criteria are the standards used to decide. Compare those standards, how they were applied and the reasons for the decision.
Worked example: Exclusion from a school team
A school photography team provides cameras and invites pupils who can attend training. Hana meets that requirement. The student organiser rejects her, explaining that pupils from lower-income families would not fit in with the team, while accepting other pupils with the same availability.
- The stated requirement is availability, and equipment is provided. Hana's household income does not establish that she cannot take part.
- The organiser uses an assumption about social background to deny her an opportunity. The decision is discriminatory treatment, beyond merely holding a belief.
- Hana loses access to training, and the team loses the chance to learn what she could contribute. The comparison with other available pupils helps identify how the criterion was applied unfairly.
Watch out for this
Any rejection is discrimination, but there is no discrimination unless the decision-maker admits hostility.
Examine whether the treatment is unfair and linked to an irrelevant group judgement. Use the decision, criteria and comparable cases. Disappointment alone does not prove discrimination, and an admission of hostility is not required.
Check your understanding
A library selects helpers using an advertised requirement to attend a particular shift. It rejects an applicant who cannot attend, after applying the same relevant requirement to everyone. What does this account establish?
- Every unsuccessful application is necessarily discriminatory.
- The library must secretly dislike the applicant's ethnic group.
- The stated reason is a relevant availability requirement; the account does not establish discrimination.