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Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination against marginalized social groups in Serbia

liberated — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:21:27 +0200

This essay deals with some of the marginalized social groups in Serbia and attitudes of the majority towards them. Through it, both sides are equally dealt with, along with stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination expressed toward these social groups and the way that the marginalized groups deal with them. In the first part of the essay I have presented the results of an online questionnaire, to which 154 people responded, and in the second part I have presented the results of the interview with a few members of the each social group.

According to MacMillan Encyclopedia of Sociology a stereotype is one type of attitude. In current usage, a stereotype is a belief about the characteristics of members of some specified social group. A stereotype may be positive (Asian Americans are good at math) or negative (women are bad at math). (MacMillan Encyclopedia of Sociology Volume 5, year 2000, page 3055)

Prejudice is a form of a negative stereotype. Gordon Allport,, defined prejudice as ‘‘an antipathy based upon a faulty and inflexible generalization. (http://faculty.washington.edu/caporaso/courses/203/readings/allport_Nature_of_prejudice.pdf) This phrasing neatly captures the notion that both inaccurate beliefs and negative feelings are implicated in prejudice.

As defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary, discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on their actual or perceived membership in a certain group or category, "in a way that is worse than the way people are usually treated"( http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prejudice ). Many sociologists distinguish between direct and indirect discrimination (Pettigrew 1985). Direct discrimination occurs at points where inequality is generated and expressed, often intentionally. Indirect discrimination can be described as a legalized way to discriminate against a certain social group, for example anti-gay law in Russia. This distinction between direct and indirect discrimination is important because it was included in the questions I made for the second part of my research.

My main focus were the following social groups in Serbia: the Roma, people who are not Orthodox, and members of the LGBT group. For the first part of my research, I decided to create an online questionnaire in order to gather information from a larger number of people, in order to properly examine the attitudes of the majority. Also, I wanted participants to answer sincerely, therefore anonymously, since sometimes people hide that they have prejudices at all. I created 16 questions that dealt with four minority groups: the Roma, the people who practice a different religion, and members of the LGBT group. The questions were identical for each of the minorities:

1) Would you befriend a member of...

2) Would you date a member of...

3) Would you mind if a member of your family would date a member of…

4) Would you mind if your teacher/boss were a member of…

I shared the questionnaire on my Facebook and Twitter profiles, and some of my friends did the same. To my surprise, 154 people responded and the results were not what I expected.

The majority of my respondents were women, 65%, 62% of all of the respondents were between 15-25 years old, and 67% percent stated that they have graduated from the University.

The majority, over 80% of the respondents, stated that they would befriend people from all of the minority groups. Only 16% would not befriend a member of the LGBT group and 13% would not befriend a member of the Roma.

When it came down to dating, 56% of the respondents would not date a member of the Roma and 53% would not date a member of the LGBT group, or a bisexual person as I defined it not wanting my respondents to get confused by my question and think that they were asked to be in a same-sex relationship. There were just a few people who would not date anyone who would practice a different religion.

The majority, over 65%, would not mind if their cousin dated a member of any of the previously mentioned groups. A considerably high percentage of people, 35% to be exact, would mind when the Roma people were in question, and 30% would mind if the LGBT members were in question.

The highest percentage of people who would mind if their teacher or a boss were a member of the one of minority groups is 8%, when they considered having a member of the LGBT group as their teacher/boss followed by the Roma 7%.

To summarize, the least discriminated are the people who are not Orthodox. When taking into consideration the age of the participants this shows that the younger generations do not perceive the religious differences as a reason for discrimination. The majority stated that they would befriend a member of the Roma or the LGBT group, but the majority would not date them and would mind if a member of their family dated them which shows how much strong prejudices they have against these groups, since anything other than friendship with them is not desirable. In my opinion the one who would befriend a member of a minority group, but would mind if a member of one’s family dated them is not a sincere one, and a highly prejudiced one.

For the second part of my research, I interviewed several members of each social group and asked them the identical questions:

1) Have you ever had any problems befriending people outside of your social group?

2) Have you ever had any problems dating someone outside of your social group?

3) Do you know people who are dating someone outside of your social group? *For the lesbians and gays this question was slightly altered, and was addressing to dating members of the same social group.

4) Did you ever face negative comments from your family or the partner's family, because of your relationship?

5) Do you know any people from your social group who work as a teacher/boss and their experience with their students/employees?

6) Have you ever been discriminated against directly or indirectly?

7) What are the most common stereotypes that people usually hold against you?

The three female interlocutors from the Roma group were: R.S. (22), S.R. (20), and T.M. (24). Only S.R. has not attended high school while R.S and T.M. have finished it. All of them said that they never had any problems befriending anyone, or at least no one discriminated against them in that way. When it came down to dating both S.R. and T.M. experienced rejection just because of their ethnicity. All of them know a lot of the Roma members who are married or in long term relationships with members outside of the Roma group. Only R.S. answered positively to the fourth question, concerned with the disapproval of family members. Upon answering the fifth question they all stated that they knew at least one member of the Roma who works as a boss or as a teacher to a mixed group and they have never heard them complain about their employees or students. All of them have faced discrimination at least once in their lives. At times they have been called names in public and by their teachers, sometimes even being threatened to by random people on the street. As for indirect discrimination, they stated that they never experienced it. The most common stereotypes are usually negative and prejudiced. People perceived them as scruffy looking, poor, uneducated, occasionally as thieves and muggers. T.M. stated that people believed that they were good dancers and singers, and that she mostly agreed with that, but added that she was unfortunately not one of those people.

The three interlocutors from the non-Orthodox group were: A.B. a man who is 23 years old and a Catholic, A.I. a woman who is 20 years old and a Muslim, and J.R. a woman who is 21 years old and an Adventist. None of them have ever had any problems befriending anyone of different faith. When talking about problems with dating only A.I. said that she had experienced problems because some of her ex-boyfriends were afraid of her father. A.I. also knew only few people who decided to openly date or marry non-Muslims, while both A.B. and J.R. knew people who are married to people of different faith, their mothers for example. Neither A.B. nor J.R. faced any negative comments considering the people who they were dating, while A.I. believed that her father would disown her if he knew that she dated anyone other than the Gorani, not only non-Muslim. All of them knew at least one person who works as a boss or as a teacher and they have never heard them having any negative comments concerning their employees or students. To my surprise all of them were at least once discriminated against directly, and to make matters worse, by their own teachers at school. Furthermore, A.I. stated that she was indirectly discriminated at school since she was not able to attend civic education class because not enough students applied for it, and she had to attend a class taught by an Orthodox priest, once a week. As for typical stereotypes, they have not faced any negative ones. What stood out the most was the belief that they prayed a lot, the origin of which none of them understood fully.

As for the interlocutors from the LGBT group, there were four of them: A.S. who is 21 years old and a bisexual woman, F.D. who is 25 years old and a bisexual man, M.G. 28 years old and a lesbian, and M.K. who is 27 years old and gay. They all experienced problems befriending people, and even lost some of them when they came out to them. The second question was answered only by A.S. and F.D. who both experienced troubles dating people outside of the LGBT group. A.S. stated that her boyfriends had indecent proposals while women refused to continue dating F.D. Both A.S. and F.D. knew bisexual people who are in long term relationships or married to someone outside of the LGBT group. Both M.G. and M.K. knew people who are in long term relationships, M.G. being in one of them for the past 5 years. F.D. and A.S. have a lot in common, since both the brother of the former and the sister of the latter are homosexual. A.S. had not faced any negative comments, since her younger sister came out to their mother in 2012 and their mother, therefore, changed her attitude towards it. F.D. on the other hand used to have a lot of problems with his mother and has not yet come out to his father, since his father suffered a heart attack when his younger son came out to him. M.G. had not faced any negative comments from her mother but she faced a lot of them from her partner’s mother, while M.K. faced a lot of negative comments upon coming out and giving up priesthood in order to be with his boyfriend. All of them knew people who work as a boss or as a teacher, but none of them are out because they fear that their employees and students would not react positively. In addition, both M.G and her partner work at the faculty and fear that they might lose their jobs. All of them faced direct discrimination, such as threats, being called names, being thrown out of the clubs for kissing their partner, and some of them suffered physical violence. Furthermore, they all stated that they felt indirectly discriminated by the state itself, since they have no rights concerning inheritance, social care, hospital visits, and the right to form civil unions. The common stereotypes are usually negative, people perceive gay and bisexual men as feminine, promiscuous, HIV infected, and interested in fashion, while they firmly believe that lesbians and bisexual women are masculine, hate men, and have short hair.

These interviews show that unfortunately, the ones who are members of the marginalized social groups, even those who are rarely discriminated, have at least once been openly discriminated and opposed by a member of the majority. Their experiences are unique and mostly very painful, though at times can be described as humorous. The fact that some of them were physically attacked just because of their belonging to a certain social group is highly concerning. I concluded that only the older ones (over 40) discriminated strongly against the members of people of different faith, while the younger generations were mostly open-minded and accepting since none of the interlocutors had any problems with people of their age. I also concluded from my interviews that the older generations (over 40) have strong prejudices against the members of the LGBT group, and the process of changing their attitudes towards that social group takes longer than it would to someone younger. As for the stereotypes and prejudices towards the Roma, certain things have improved and mostly by the younger generations who refuse to accept the overgeneralized stereotypes and decide to openly approach a person, not caring about their ethnicity. I believe the younger generations are not as prejudiced as the older ones, not only because they are more open-minded and informed, but also more influenced by the mass media who are the major supporters of the human rights.

To sum up, the Roma, non-Orthodox people, and the members of the LGBT group are indeed discriminated groups in Serbia. The results clearly show that majority does discriminate a lot against the Roma and the LGBT members, and that only a handful of people discriminate against people of different faith. The younger generations are the most open minded and do not discriminate or disapprove as much as the older ones, but the ones who do can be very aggressive and dangerous at times.

References:

Encyclopedia of Sociology,Vol 1-5, published by: MacMillan in 2000.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hsYLYBrAgrpgkUbo6luB0gr3uTpwZJa2i41_UZDCq7U/viewanalytics

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discrimination

http://faculty.washington.edu/caporaso/courses/203/readings/allport_Nature_of_prejudice.pdf

To nisu ljudi, to su studenti

liberated — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 11:56:00 +0200

Pre nekog vremena, koleginica mi je saopstila da je ispred faksa cula zenu koja na tom istom faksu I radi kako izgovara “To nisu ljudi, to su studenti”. Mom zgrazavanju nije bilo kraja, medjutim,tek sada shvatam da je to krilatica vecine koja je u kontaktu sa nama i koja ima taj posao zahvaljujuci studentima.

U subotu sam isla na rucak u menzu. Inace, subotom i nedeljom nemamo veceru vec dobijamo neke pakete, hleb star vise dana i neko meso koje je pred istekom roka. Ovoga puta, meso nije bilo samo pred istekom roka. Od najobicnije salame, naime, dovitljivci su napravili sunku. Nasekli salamu, i preko originalne etikete zalepili drugu, onu sa sunke. Prvo i prvo, niko od nas nije glup i lud, znamo mi da uocimo razliku izmedju dva naizgled ista mesna proizvoda, drugo, kako se to niko nije pitao sta se sve moze desiti nasem zdravlju? Ocekuju od nas da jedemo meso kome je rok istekao a da nam pritom nista ne fali? Kaze: salama, proizvedena 15.08.2013 upotrebljiva do 09.09.2013 preko te etikete, nalazi se druga : Sunka, proizvedena 05.09.2013 upotrebljiva do 15.09.2013. Danas je 12.09.2013 i ja sam se umalo otrovala hranom. Tacno je da ne placamo mnogo ishranu u menzi, ali ovo stvarno nema smisla. Negde u aprilu sam umalo pojela budjavu cokoladicu. Svaki student koji je bio prinudjen da se hrani u menzi zna koliko nam taj dezert znaci jer je neretko i najukusnija i najsvezija stvar na celom meniju. Nas tridesetak je zena koja u toj menzi radi ubedjivala da su cokoladice i dalje jestive, ako se pritom samo ukloni ubudjali deo. Kada smo svi odbili da je poslusamo i kada smo sve cokoladice pobacali u kantu, doticna je izjavila kako smo nezahvalni. MI? Nezahvalni? Nezahvalni su oni koji bi da se bogate preko nase grbace! Tacno je da je ishrana u menzi jeftina i da su im resursi stoga ograniceni, ali.... ovo stvarno nema smisla. Ja svom psu ne bih dala ono da jede.

Pitam se kad li cu i da li cu docekati da me u ovoj drzavi tretiraju kao coveka!

Ono sto me nervira

liberated — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 13:50:47 +0200

Vec tri godine studiram i zivim Nisu. Ocekivala sam da cu moci da se ponasam slobodnije i da necu osecati stege koje sam osecala dok sam zivela u rodnom gradu. Naime, od kada znam za sebe, znam da me privlace osobe istog pola. U pocetku sam se mnogo plasila i to iz krajnje opravdanih razloga, medjutim kako je vreme proticalo sve manje i manje sam se plasila da pokazem i tu stranu svoje licnosti. Ocekivala sam da cu smeti da se prosetam gradom drzeci devojku za ruku.... Sve one male stvari koje zelite da radite dok je neko koga volite pored vas. 3 godine kasnije, ja jos uvek nisam upoznala osobu koja ima hrabrosti da isto to i uradi. Problemi sa LGBT zajednicom i uspostavljanjem kontakta sa istom su ogromni. Prva godina je bila neverovatno stresna, pored toga sto sam bila izgubljeni brucos isto tako nisam znala kome smem a kome ne smem da se otvorim. Ne postoje gay friendly kafici a kamoli gay klubovi. NVO koje se time i bave nisu dovoljno dobro organizovane na tom polju. Na netu nema dovoljno informacija o radionicama tog tipa kao ni informacija o bilo kakvim zurkama. Ne mogu da kazem da ne postoji interesovanje ljudi niti mogu da okrivim bilo koga za nekompetentnost u radu sa LGBT zajednicom, ali mogu da okrivim strah. Od trenutka kada sam u potpunosti prihvatila samu sebe sam se suocila sa strahom od okoline i njene reakcije na mene. Ne kazem da je taj strah bezrazlozan ali isto tako smatram da je ponekad preteran. Kada se upoznajem sa nekim sigurno mu necu pruziti ruku i reci,hej ja sam i gej. Nemam potrebu, jer mi seksualna orijentacija u tom smislu nikad nije bila ni bitna.Ne zelim da ljudi o meni sude na osnovu nje. Dopusticu da me taj neko upozna i kada taj neko krene da prica o svom emotivnom zivotu ili me direktno pita nesto o mom emotivnom zivotu, tada odbijam da cutim. Ne reaguju svi isto, nisu svi toliko ni odusevljeni, ali 90% reakcija je sasvim normalno i pozitivno.Moramo da shvatimo da se ovo drustvo samo menja i da su ljudi sve vise svestraniji. Moramo da shvatimo da je ovo nas trenutak da izadjemo iz tih ormara i da pokazemo ljudima da zapravo postojimo, a ne da smo samo tamo nesto sto je izmislila USA. Fascinira me to sto vecina LGBT zajednice zeli da vidi neki pomak, ali odbija da se direktno umesa u aktivnosti koje bi tome doprinele. I to me mnogo nervira. Po dobrom starom srpskom obicaju, hajmo da kritikujemo nesto a da se ne trudimo da ista promenimo. Svaki pripadnik LGBT zajednice mora da pokusa da svojim ponasanjem pokaze svojoj okolini da smo mi isti kao i bilo koji drugi gradjani ove zemlje. Trebamo da prevazidjemo taj strah od suocavanja sa okolinom, ne kazem da je to nesto lako, ali moramo da se slozimo da je to nesto krajnje neophodno. Nerviraju me ljudi koji samo sede i cekaju da drugi odrade posao umesto njih, nerviraju me i oni koji sabotiraju one koji pokusavaju da rade. Hajde da se vec jednom slozimo i krenemo da delamo kao zajednica.