Diversity and Discrimination
多様性と差別

When people with different backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and skills come together, ideas and perspectives are more likely to intersect and generate new ideas and innovations. It is easy to imagine that this is the benefit of diversity and its contribution to solving society's problems.

However, not many people may be aware of how this diversity is established.
Discrimination, prejudice, exclusivity, cultural assimilation, unequal systems, and educational imbalance are factors that hinder diversity, and are issues that we must be aware of when engaging in creative and social activities, and that everyone must be aware of now that the Internet has made multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities the norm. The issues of prejudice and discrimination are not only a matter of study but also a matter of concern.
The issues of prejudice and discrimination are something that everyone is at risk of doing without being aware of it unless they study up.

Today, because of the principle of non-retroactivity of law in all worlds and the principle of non-retroactive application prior to the time of enforcement, it is inherently difficult to overturn history that should have been affirmed. However, for example, in the Americas, since the Black Lives Matter movement, there have been cases where statues of Christopher Columbus, who created a structure of domination based on colonial policies, slavery, and white supremacy, have been removed, and people's awareness and ethics of equality and human rights have also changed People's awareness of equality and human rights, as well as ethics, are changing. We are growing our civilization in a world of ethics that demands another level of awareness than the law.

While discriminatory attitudes and behaviors are still and have always been a factor in creating conflict, one might imagine that a reduction in discrimination has the benefit of creating empathy and strengthening social cohesion. Knowing the precedents and history of various forms of discrimination and persecution may also be important to avoid making the wrong decisions on contemporary issues.

Diversity is a delicate thing that can easily be lost with the slightest lack of consideration. Diverse opinions and values are sacrificed in a variety of situations, from society to family, and there are several that you may recognize in your daily life. Below is a list of some of the major factors that inhibit diversity.

• Discrimination and prejudice: Discrimination and prejudice within a society can lead to unequal treatment and exclusion of certain racial, religious, gender, sexual orientation, physical characteristics, and cultural groups. This can result in diversity not being welcomed and some people being excluded or oppressed.
• Organizational Culture: When the culture of an organization or society is directed toward people with certain attributes or characteristics, diversity is unwelcome and a culture of uniformity permeates. This prevents people with different backgrounds and perspectives from fully flourishing within the organization.
• Education: If the educational system does not respect diversity and emphasizes only certain perspectives and cultures, the ability of the next generation of individuals to understand and respect diversity may be diminished.
• Economic factor: Economic inequality reduces diversity by limiting the opportunities and resources to which the less affluent have access.
• Policy and Law: It affects diversity in society depending on whether policies and laws are discriminatory or promote diversity.
• Social pressure: General societal pressures and norms may encourage or discourage certain behaviors and opinions. If a culture of diversity is not nurtured, individuals may have difficulty embracing diversity.
• Lack of communication: When people from different backgrounds do not communicate well, misunderstandings and prejudices can develop, making diversity less acceptable.

These factors are interrelated and are commonly found in societies and organizations. Fostering a culture of respect for diversity is important not only for the world of creatives, but for society as a whole, as the promotion and respect of diversity brings many benefits, including social equity, creativity, innovation, and problem-solving skills.

Groups form loosely in society, and it is inevitable that majorities and minorities will emerge.
Minorities are often the targets of persecution due to various factors such as race, religion, sex, disability, age, and economics, and are often unreasonably discriminated against because of their natural attributes that cannot be resolved through individual efforts.
The Holocaust of the 1930s, Apartheid that lasted from 1948 to 1994, the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the Rohingya crisis of 2017, and other instances of minorities being persecuted by the majority ethnic group have historically occurred around the world and are not issues of the past.

In addition, we can see examples of failed assimilation policies and colonialist ways of creating communities in various nations throughout the two world wars, which focused only on the majority and used the values of the majority to dominate and control the minorities as a whole.
Often in these situations, the explanation is given by the strong as the contribution of the strong to the weak who lack civilization, but from the perspective of the weak, colonial rule would seem quite different. In such nations, diversity of expression is denied and creativity is stagnant.
It could be said that the major artistic change of the 20th century was that ethnic minorities persecuted in Europe found asylum in the United States, which was not a war zone, and created a new culture and history.
In addition, many of the behaviors that majorities direct toward minorities are discriminatory.

Efforts to ensure legally and ethically that there is an equal, fair, and transparent relationship between majorities and minorities, and that diversity and equality are respected, are essential to resolving this issue.
It is important for a culture to embrace people of different backgrounds and identities, to respect diverse points of view, and to create an environment where everyone can flourish fairly.

Discrimination against women is a social injustice that negatively affects individuals and society as a whole. International organizations, governments, and civil society groups are working to protect women's rights and narrow the gender gap, and efforts to eliminate discrimination against women are underway in various organizations.
For example, countries such as Iceland and Norway are actively working to narrow the wage gap through policy, legal, and social cultural changes. However, there are still many countries, including Japan, where improvements have not yet been made. The fact that discrimination against women is still ongoing is a deep-seated problem that has not been solved for millions of years since the beginning of mankind.
Below is a summary of typical discrimination against women.

• Wage differential: The gender pay gap refers to the inequality in pay between men and women in the same job category or with comparable skills. This disparity is caused by a number of factors. For one, women are placed in lower positions than men and have limited opportunities for advancement. Another is that women often take parental leave, which can create a disconnect in their careers. The wage gap is one of the reasons why women are placed at an economic disadvantage.
• Promotion inequality: In many workplaces, there are few women in top-level positions, and women have limited opportunities to advance to senior management and leadership positions. Women also tend to be less likely to have the support of their supervisors and other key stakeholders, which is important for promotion. Women may also miss out on promotion opportunities because their leadership style differs from that of men.
• Work-life balance: In many societies, women feel pressure to balance family and work. Lack of parental leave and flexible working conditions, as well as the disproportionate division of household labor, are factors that limit women's ability to continue their careers. To address this challenge, it is necessary to promote gender equality and develop childcare support systems.
• Access to education: In some regions, women have limited access to education, and limited access to education increases the likelihood that they will be disadvantaged in economic opportunities and career choices. In addition, in some regions, women are expected to marry and have children early, which may affect their ability to continue their education. Early marriage and childbearing can interrupt studies and limit access to education. Social gender stereotypes and role divisions may dictate that women should focus on family and marriage rather than education.
• Sexual harassment: Sexual harassment refers to offensive behavior based on gender, such as verbal abuse, inappropriate gestures, or uncomfortable attention that women receive in the workplace or in public. Sexual harassment can harm the victim's mental health and undermine the safe environment of the workplace. It can expose women to an uncomfortable work environment and cause them to lose confidence in their ability to advance.
• Violence and abuse: Domestic violence and sexual abuse are serious problems against women, not only because of their physical and psychological effects, but also because they are forms of social discrimination against women. Legal protection and support systems need to be strengthened to combat these acts of violence.
• Underrepresentation of politics: In many countries, women have fewer representation opportunities than men in political decision-making. In order for women to actively participate in the political arena and influence policy decisions, the political system must be reformed.

The problem that naturally creates an uncomfortable and disadvantageous situation for minorities due to some kind of "privilege" that has favored some majorities even without a sense of discrimination is called "structural discrimination.
In some societies and organizations, people on the majority side are unaware of the "privileges" that come with the attributes they automatically acquire without effort on their part. In many cases, minorities may be labeled as "reverse discrimination" for their actions to correct disparities, because they are unaware of the privileges they have.

The concept of structural discrimination is particularly important to be aware of in the context of discrimination against women in male-dominated societies, which is often identified as a barrier to women's advancement in society. Although half of the world's population is female, structural discrimination must often be the cause of the lack of women in their organizations. In many cases, the gender wage gap stems from men and women choosing different occupations and industries. Men often go into high-paying STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields, while women often go into lower-paying fields such as nursing and education, resulting in differences in average wages.
It is also well-documented that female office workers can have a big difference in career advancement and salary after a few years depending on whether their boss is of the same or opposite gender.

Male organizations selected by men in charge of human resources create a culture that favors men, resulting in an organization that is uncomfortable for women, even if this is not intentionally so. In such organizations, it is extremely difficult for women to rise above their male counterparts. Structural discrimination occurs in environments where there is no awareness of male privilege.
There are many attributes that give rise to privilege, including gender, race, religion, education, economic status, and area of residence, but gender privilege in particular is often used most unknowingly and has become an important issue in building companies and organizations these days.

Discrimination is something that everyone does unknowingly unless they study it, and in many cases, they are even unaware that they are discriminating.
However, the discriminated party will never forget it for a long time.
In considering discrimination, it is important to be aware of the concept of "structural discrimination" that is implicitly created by the organization rather than an individual problem.

One of the most impactful discrimination issues in the history of mankind has been the issue of racism. However, not all discrimination is racism, and shelving other issues and focusing only on racism may also be a form of minority discrimination. Here I would like to consider the application of the principles of racism to a variety of other forms of discrimination.

In the past, colonial rule and industrialization depended on slavery. Racism was openly practiced and increasingly reinforced in the 18th and 19th century world to justify slavery for its economic benefits.
The benefits of cheap labor and economic growth were enjoyed not only by Europe but also by other countries around the world. Even in Japan, where I was born, fast fashion and food products based on cheap African labor still abound, and are not exclusive to Europe.
North Korea exports slaves to China and Russia to work in concentration camps, and in 2017, the UN sanctioned intercontinental ballistic missiles and repatriated slaves to North Korea.
In 2019, China admitted to having facilities called re-education camps in the Uyghur region, where Muslim Uyghurs are forced to work on cotton plantations and in factories. Fast fashion from big corporate brands made there could be in your home.

Even today, when slavery is supposedly being reconsidered as a negative history, an economy based on the exploitation of cheap labor remains deep-rooted in every region and on every scale, and even in Japan, where I live, there are still examples of exploitation of students, and female workers and "OTIT - Organization for Technical Intern Training" for foreigners.
In particular, the "OTIT" is a system that, according to the International Labor Organization's (ILO) definition of slavery, allows foreign nationals to be bought and sold without regard to their human rights, and, similar to the kafala system in the Middle East, companies confiscate their passports and force them to perform forced labor.
As many as 72.6% of businesses are in violation of the law by 2021. It is doubtful that we can say that this is different from the slavery of the Age of Discovery.

JILPT Website

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), in 2021 there will be 50 million slaves worldwide and 21.3 million people will be forced into forced labor, the highest number in history. There are more slaves today than there were in the past, when slavery was taught in history class.
3.3 million of these are children; 22 million women are trafficked into forced marriage or child marriage; 6.3 million women are forced into sexually forced labor; and more than half of all slaves are women. Women account for 70% of modern-day slaves.
Slavery as an institution may be over, but slavery as a reality is by no means over, we are just unaware of what exists so close to us.

Can you all say that you do not live in a structure that exploits those who are in a weaker position than your side for profit? I believe that becoming aware of the fact that minorities have always tended to be persecuted, ignored, and exploited is the first step toward a diverse and creative world.
The disadvantages brought about by attributes that cannot be changed by one's own efforts, such as gender, age, and origin, cannot be put away by the theory of self-responsibility; it is the consideration of those who have the privilege of being born with them that is important. Redistribution of wealth that is not limited to economic aspects is the way to contribute to the construction of a society in which diverse people can freely play an active role.

Linked also to war, perhaps the most foolish idea created by humanity in the 20th century is eugenics. This ideology is based on the eugenics idea that people who are biologically or genetically inferior or unproductive in aspects such as physical ability or intelligence have no value in life, and that artificial intervention in reproduction is used to encourage the birth of superior people and prevent the birth of inferior people.

However, I believe that everyone, especially creators, understands that the superiority of human beings cannot be measured only from one aspect of productivity or biological angle. There are many creators who are necessary for society, even if they are not the most popular creators or those who earn a lot of money. If we deny the existence value of such creators from the standpoint of productivity, the world will become a much smaller place.
In addition, when superiority or inferiority is judged based on a eugenicist approach, the reality is that judgments are often made based on the majority's values, a phenomenon that is no different from an imperialist, colonialist structure in which the majority simply assimilates and incorporates the minority.

So, can we say that this eugenic concept really came to an end with the mistakes of World War II?
Like the issue of slavery, this concept may have changed its language and still exists in our immediate surroundings today.
It is still fresh in our minds that the selection of human lives to be left behind was discussed as hospital beds became tighter in COVID-19.
It may be difficult to avoid in any country if we live in a modern society that human abilities are assigned a superiority or inferiority.
However, bringing danger to a person's survival or harming his or her dignity can be called eugenics without regard for human rights. We cannot think in the same way as racehorse breeding, food breeding, or Pokemon eggs. Human beings have human rights.

Have you ever seen cases where the strong, especially in a highly competitive society, deny the survival of the weak or show no concern for human rights? As with the issue of discrimination, unless we study and are aware of it, everyone may be prone to make eugenic-like judgments. These issues are often taboo subjects, but I believe it is important for us, as members of a diverse, rich, and open society, to continue to think about them.

I may not be in a pleasant mood because I have covered a serious topic.
However, I believe that if we eliminate discrimination and prejudice and act with respect for the human rights of people of all attributes, we will always find ourselves surrounded by a diverse group of people, and it is certainly true that creativity and innovation are more likely to occur in places where diverse people gather.
By embracing new cultures and perspectives from people of different backgrounds, we can improve our interpersonal skills and cognitive flexibility, which can lead to the acquisition of human richness. Wouldn't you be excited to be closer to such a world?

It may be difficult to understand diversity and practice expression when creators avoid this issue of discrimination. This may be the first thing that everyone should learn. I think there are still some things that I am not aware of. If you find something wrong, I would be happy to hear your comments using the form at the bottom of this page.