Human Has Rights
Fights over various human rights issues are nothing new or unusual. Human rights are things that each individual is entitled to. Someone’s human rights can be violated in many ways, all over the world. However, in the United States, some human rights issues are more common than others.
• A major human rights issue is racism. Although the fight against racism has come a long way in the past 50 years, many individuals have their human rights trampled on because of racism. A common example of this is police brutality. When a police officer brutalizes an individual, it is usually because of racism. There have been many incidents of police officers beating black men unprovoked. Racism is a type of discrimination that is still one of the most common human rights issues in the United States.
• Another human rights problem is sexism. Being sexist means that individual feels that one gender is superior to the other. Many times, men rather than women are considered to be sexist. However, sexism is a human rights issue that can affect everyone. In the workplace, sexism can come in many forms. One form of sexism is sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is illegal in the workplace as per Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This human rights issue is any unwanted sexual advance made on a person. Both men and women can be victims of sexual harassment.
• While many sexual harassment incidents go unreported, there are some statistics on this human rights issue. Roughly 35% of women have reported being sexually harassed at work and 17% of men have made the same claim. But while 100% of the women’s sexual pursuers were men, only about half of the men’s sexual pursuers were women. The rest was men. Most of the women, 43% had been harassed by their supervisor. It is a common human rights issue when an individual in power abuses it. However, women in power are much more likely to be sexually harassed than women in low-level position.
• In 1998, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cracked down on employers, holding them responsible for sexual harassment at work. To try to correct this violation of human rights, many employers began holding sexual harassment workshops and prevention training programs. Many times, employees are required to take these, as well as reading the company’s sexual harassment policy in the company handbook.
While there are many other human rights that people have that are violated, two of the United States biggest problems are racism and sexism. Despite progress that has been made over the years, there is still work that must be done.
