Part of a necessity of living is having a source of income. Now, with the average person it is difficult to get a job and it may be difficult to maintain that job. However, as one ages, it becomes increasingly more difficult to secure that job. In fact, as one gets older, they deal with prejudice and discrimination purely for being older than their coworkers. There are some extreme cases, such as in the UK where they are facing lawsuits in their major corporations due to age discrimination. In fact, people above the age of 50 have reported being locked out of their workplace and being forced out of a job. These people have not done anything wrong in their jobs and have been noble workers, but they are being forced out of work due to their ages. People are having a difficult time with this subject because employers strive to employ people with an extravagant level of experience, but experience comes with time and as people age, they maintain more experience in their field of study. However, once they reach a certain point, all deciding factors of them being an adequate worker gets wiped out due to their age and discrimination due to that number.

This related to the readings in the textbooks and from the lecture this week because aging and ageism go hand-in-hand. As one’s age increases, the amount of prejudice that is projected upon them also increases. The textbook stresses the fact that everyone is different and everyone ages differently. For instance, chronological ages do not define aging as a whole. there are many other deciding factors, including biological factors and genetics. Some people have genes that will help them age slower than others around them. Sometimes there are people who, chronologically, are sixty years old but consistently exercise and are still in the workforce that are aging much slower than a forty year old person who does not exercise and works from home. These two people, although chronologically being different ages, may be aging at different paces due to the other outlying factors. Also, biologically, white women are predicted to live longer than the majority of the population. Therefore, a healthy white woman is biologically predetermined to live longer than a black male. Despite these results, people have been discriminating against the elderly population for many generations. They view elderly people as less capable and less worthy of time and benefits. This needs to stop and more people must gain knowledge about these topics in order to ensure that change.

Word Count: 425

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/age-discrimination-uk-work-old-jobs-women-equalities-committee-mps-a8450066.html

Through time, wholeheartedly embracing who you are has gone through many stages of acceptance in today’s society. There have been people who accept people of the LGBTQ community and welcome it into the norms but there have also been people who do the complete opposite. Unfortunately, the negative people in this scenario have had the tendency to take over the situation in multiple disciplines of one’s life. In comparison to race inequality, sexual orientation inequality occurs similarly. Sexual orientation may be found institutionally and in professional workplaces, in schools, in households, and among families. Institutionally speaking, there have been many cases where people have been seeking jobs and have been unable to land one due to their sexual orientation. In fact, at least one in five people reported being discriminated against while applying for jobs and entering the interview process. When it comes to education, roughly twenty percent of people have reported being discriminated against whilst submitting college applications. Although these instances are very serious, people of the LGBTQ community also receive backlash in the most serious situations. Many people have been known to withhold from calling the police or other emergency services and have also resisted medical care in fear of discrimination.

In many aspects of one’s life, discrimination and hardships regarding sexual orientation occur. Many heterosexual people do not have to think about these tasks because they hold the privilege of not seeing these go wrong. For example, from the lecture from this week, there is a severe lack of marital rights and parental rights, along with housing discrimination and medical discrimination. Gay marriage has recently become legal in all fifty states, which has helped the LGBTQ community to feel welcomed. However, the lack of rights in these marriages still fuels old fires. It is difficult in many states to be seen as holding the same power as a heterosexual married couple because many people do not understand gay marriages. In regards to parental rights, having homosexual parents is viewed as inferior in the court system in America. It is extremely difficult to adopt children when in a gay relationship and it is, again, difficult to be taken seriously as a gay couple. On a different note, discrimination against these groups exists everywhere, including housing and medical facilities. Being approved for housing becomes much more difficult when one is in a LGBTQ relationship and receiving medical care and insurance may be just as difficult.

Word Count: 406

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/most-lgbtq-americans-experience-harassment-discrimination-harvard-study-finds-n823876

Ethnic minorities are treated differently than the majority groups in many ways. One of these ways involves jobs and job security. For many people of color, it is difficult to get a job due to the lowered amount of job opportunities and it is difficult to maintain a job because they are constantly being observed and watched carefully. This article states that these people of color are three times more likely to be trapped by unreliable employment. For instance, a huge portion of the world’s jobs are located in warehouses and factories to perform the behind-the-scenes actions. These jobs are extremely labor inclusive and take a toll on the body, which results in increased risk of injury and disabilities. Also, the ideal stance for these companies is to have quantity of workers over quality of workers. Therefore, the employees are constantly changing and little to no care is going towards the employees, which is risky when trying to make a living. On top of this, workers tend to be required to sign a zero hours contract, which states that the employer is not required to give them any hours and the worker is not required to accept the work offered.

Personally, my stepfather works in a warehouse that distributes seafood to all major grocery stores in Western Washington so he has witnessed this firsthand. He is the assistant general manager and is in charge of hires, among other things. He has stated that, as a manager, he has hired thousands of workers and has fired thousands of workers. Also, the workers he hires mostly speak Spanish and very few of them speak English. However, the President of the company has recently required that they learn basic English in order to be employed at the company. This is upsetting because they are required to put their cultures aside and conform to the “norm”. This is similar to the boarding schools that the Native American children have been forced to enter, as stated in the lecture. These children were ripped from their families and forced to cleanse themselves of their cultures to fit in with the European white norms. The racial inequality is very apparent in both situations, which is very unsettling.

401 words

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/ethnic-minority-equality-employment-insecure-work-tuc-a8866521.html

For this assignment, I chose to research the income gap that increases the chances of being released into poverty. The income gap is shocking because not only is there a gap between spouses in a household, there is a gap in the time frame in which the income is being earned. However, although there may be gaps in the wages of many different types of people, the biggest wage gap is between the rich and the poor. For example, for multi billion dollar corporations, inflation and other factors are aimed to benefit the rich, with little thought paid towards the poor. If the company is succeeding, the people in power in the company are pocketing more money as the white collar workers in the company are still suffering to pay their rent and live comfortably. This wage gap varies from state-to-state as well and the regions who suffer from this gap the most also happen to be the regions who suffer from high poverty rates the most. Many of the people who are employed and experience this wage gap soon recognize that the funds are not feasible to live comfortably and may seek help from the government in housing, food stamps, etc. which could lead to more debt for the poor people. Therefore, the wage gap increases the chances of being released into poverty and it is extremely difficult to overcome poverty once you are subject to it.

This source also connects to multiple sociological topics regarding poverty. Specifically, it connects to the consequences of poverty and the regions of poverty. The income gap results in poverty which has many different consequences. For example, when the workers are not making as much, it sparks large amounts of stress on families and stress is never a good thing. When there is stress in the household, it could lead to divorce of parents, mental health risks, and may even reach further and affect the housing situations of those families. Many families end up homeless due to wage changes and gaps in income, which affects children immensely and may follow them throughout their lives. Also, the regions in which these income gaps are in the most effect are the same regions where poverty rates are the highest. The southern states in the U.S. are the most affected by these wage gaps and are also the states who are the deepest in poverty. When poverty rates rise, it becomes extremely difficult for the families to put money aside for any type of emergencies, which can be disastrous. The people who are affected by the wage gaps are all living in a financial house of cards, as one mistake or accident can be the difference between life or death.

Word Count: 454

Source:

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/in-plain-sight/income-gap-widens-poor-lose-ground-recession-recovery-report-n496551

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
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• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.