Intro to Discrimination

Discrimination is the unfair or harmful treatment of people and groups based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, ability, age, appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or class. It can be scary just being a part of a group that is often discriminated against, such as Indigenous Peoples, racial minorities or individuals who identify as Two-Spirit and/or members of the gender and sexually diverse community. 

Discrimination can happen anywhere and some places may have special laws or rules in place to help protect people against harassment. 

A lot of different things count as harassment, such as:

• Microaggressions
• Comments about your appearance, speech or actions
• Someone treating you differently because of your race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, age, ability or sexual orientation or more
• Someone being aggressive or even physically violent because they are stereotyping you
• Someone consistently following you because they are wary of you based on stereotypes

Discriminatory actions can happen even when people don’t realize it. A microaggression is an intentional or unintentional offensive act that targets a person because they are part of a racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, religious, ability, age or sexually diverse group. 

There are many ways microaggressions can happen. This can look like making fun of someone’s ethnic food or language, mispronouncing someone’s name, ignoring someone’s preferred pronouns, deadnaming (using a transgender or non-binary person’s former name without their consent), etc. Microaggressions can also occur without you realizing or recognizing that it is happening.

If you ever felt like you were dismissed or that achievements have been downplayed because you are part of a certain community, it’s likely that a microaggression happened.

Over time, microaggressions create a loss of self-esteem and can cause us to doubt our abilities and how we fit into the world around us. We often dismiss or overlook microaggressions, trying not to rock the boat or seeming “too sensitive.” By taking small steps to intervene, we can help disarm microaggressions and call attention to harmful behaviour.

When you notice a microaggression, try speaking up to the commenter, stating what you heard and why it can be seen as harmful. By challenging them and speaking up, you help give a voice to those whose voices might not be heard. Other things you can do to challenge microaggressions are to pronounce people’s names properly, not make assumptions about people’s identities, respect their pronouns and explore your own biases.

These microinterventions help create a safe and positive space for us all. For more information on how to navigate microaggressions, visit this discussion kit on how to respond to racism.

If there is an immediate concern for your safety or the safety of someone else, call 911 immediately. If English is not your first language, you can use various translation services to help you report.

You can always report an act of discrimination after the fact using the following resources:

• Use the erase Report It tool to anonymously send a message to your school
• Talk with an adult about what happened – try to provide as many details as you can
• Resilience BC has an email and toll-free number to report a hate crime or incident
• Call the non-emergency number for your local police department
• If you are an Indigenous person and you want to report something that happened in a healthcare setting, use the Safespace Network tool.  

Follow up with them and ask them how you can help. It’s important to listen to what they have to say without judgement and to be understanding if they say they don’t want to talk about it. Let that person know you support them with what they need and tell them you think that the discrimination they’ve experienced is wrong. 

You can also help them report what happened through one of the resources below.

Supports available to victims of discrimination are: 

1. The erase Report It tool for students 
2. The BC Human Rights Tribunal
3. Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network 
4. Phone and online chat resources

Reading this article is a step forward in understanding how you can help yourself or others who have been a victim of discrimination.

Our communities should be safe places where everyone has equal opportunities to learn, grow, and achieve their full potential and where diversity is celebrated.