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Laura Johnson <br />RAMS <br />Mr. Ueland <br />Honorable Menflon <br />Human Rights Essay <br />Discrimination was outlawed nationally by the Civil Rights Act in 1964. In <br />documents like The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Bill of Rights, <br />people in the United States are supposed to be free from discrimination, illegal or <br />not. But discrimination still exists today. In the essay, points of why discrimination <br />still exists will be covered, as well as the differences between discrimination and <br />illegal discrimination. <br />Discrimination is the unfair treatment of a person or group because of <br />prejudice. Some people may think that all discrimination is illegal. That is not true. <br />Only certain types of discrimination are unlawful. These types have to deal with <br />race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, martial status, familial status <br />(housing only), disability, public assistance, age, sexual orientation, or local human <br />rights commission activity (employment only). <br />In employment, illegal discrimination is refusing to hire a person based on <br />above traits, :discriminate with respect to benefits, denying membership or rejecting <br />job applications. <br />In housing and property, illegal discrimination consists of actions like owners <br />or agents refusing to sell or rent to a person based on their traits, realtors holding <br />available property, or lenders denying or discriminating in terms of conditions. <br />School and public places are also known to be possible spots for illegal <br />discrimination. Not being al lowed an education because of traits like gender and <br />race, or not being allowed the benefits of a public place are examples of illegal <br />discrimination. <br />There is adifference between prejudice and illegal discrimination. If for <br />example, someone refuses to talk. or associate with someone of a different race, <br />gender, sexual orientation etcetera, that is based on prejudice or bigotry. But, if that <br />carried over into the workplace or school, where that person would not be allowed <br />what he/she has the right to have, it then becomes illegal. <br />After all of the documents stating that discrimination is wrong, there is still <br />illegal discrimination and prejudice in this state, as well as the country, if not the <br />world. These following reasons are why I think that discrimination still exists. <br />My first reason that discrimination still exists is the media. It tends to lead us <br />in a certain direction. Different people are portrayed in different ways, which are not <br />always true representations. In television shows, different races act stereotypical ly, <br />as well as different genders, ages and sexual orientations. These portrayals lead us <br />to think that everyone who looks like or acts like those characters are that way and <br />that way only. In the popular Disney Channel show "That's So Raven", the characters <br />portray certain qual'ties that could lead to discrimination in the real world. One of <br />