Discrimination At It’s Worst Essay, Research Paper

Many generations ago, a feud was widespread across the entire world. This feud soon escalated into an all out war between two sides. The side that was accepted, and teh side that was not.

The feud/war I am talking about is between the “whites” and the “blacks.” If you think I’m talking about the invention of the game chess, then you should stop reading this essay right now.

For more than 200 years, the white people of Europe and the black people from Africa held what many would call “A pseudo-war.” It would cost men their lives, forcing others to be wary or risk losing theirs. It was a mistake which should never have happened, but did happen because we believed the world was not big enough for the other side. It provided an embarrassment to the human race from which we may never recover. We are still attempting to repair the damage of this feud gone war, still suffering from minor skirmishes on both sides.

This feud was discrimination. The white people (Caucasians) couldn’t handle the black people (Africans) entering “their” country. It progressed to the point where black people were considered no more than subserviants to the Caucasians. The ill-treatment didn’t end until we accepted that they were no different than us and we realized there was so much more to them hid behind the hatred and misunderstanding.

Although the problem between the two races has been all but completely terminated, we still have much to do before we can fully end the complete plague that discrimination enthrones upon us. My essay deals with one of the more common forms of discrimination to grace the presence of man and woman. This form of discrimination must stop immediately, as it is out of hand already and can only become more horrendous as time goes on. It pits the men of this world against the women they are supposed to love, honour and cherish, and the children of today’s society against the ones who gave them life. Yes, unfortunately such a travesty does exist and it is in the form of the amount of automobile insurance that we pay in respect to other people. Men having to pay a larger amount of auto insurance in relation to the amount his female counterpart must pay, as well as a teenager paying more than his father or mother, is as wrong morally as the Caucasian’s treatment of the Africans during one of humanity’s more savage eras.

In the journey of life we have rights, and as a member of society it is justly accepted that these rights will not be breached if we live in a perfect world. The sad disappointment is that we do not live in a perfect world, nor will we ever. People do breach these rights that I talk about, and on more than one occasion.

In 1982, a new Constitution Act was drafted in Canada. This constitution was a special one, as it contained a document within it which would provide a basis to help guarantee equality to all peoples, at all times regardless of their age, gender, race, religion or whatnot. The problem with this new document “The Charter of Rights and Freedoms”, is that again, we don’t live in an ideal society and there are the people who break the guidelines that have been set in place for them. The car insurance people are one of these designated groups who have decided to bend and break the Charter of Rights and freedoms and place our rights as Canadian citizens in jeopardy.

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that “Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age, or mental or physical disability.”

In the world of auto insurance, two things are clear. One is that if you belong to the select group of people in the world known as teenagers, you supposedly are a larger risk on the road than if you are an adult. Number two being that if you are of the male percentage of the world, you’re a larger risk on the road than your equivilant female. Now insurance brokers, wanting to make a profit, instituted an “unwritten law” that young adults would have to pay a larger auto insurance rate than older adults to compensate for this “risk.” Another rule is that if you are male, your insurance premium will be greater than if you were a female trying to insure the same type of car.

This is discrimination! We as men and younger adults (me being unfortunate enough to be both), are being discriminated against because of our age and sex which is a direct violation of our rights as prescribed in the charter. (Because of the immaturity of a few teenagers who decided to play “Dukes of Hazzard” on a busy street with their new car which they spent years refurbishing and accidentally crashed into a lamppost, the rest of us are forced to pay the extra insurance because we can’t be trusted anymore)

If you look around while walking down a street, perusing the stores in a mall, studying the decor of a hallway, etc, you’ll see that not all of the adults that attract your glimpses are fully mature, independant and responsible adults, but rather ones who don’t want to accept the fate that people grow up. They try their hardest to be the centre of attention like the teenagers they mimick. This adolescent behavior not only exists in adults while they are pedestrians, but while they are behind the steering-wheel of a nice automobile as well. They may try to show off to their friends that they still have “it” in them, the same way they did when they were in highschool and college, yet, when they screw up, the rest of the adults of the world can rest assure that their premiums aren’t going to go up.

Sex is another issue involved in auto insurance. It is believed if you are female, then you are a safer driver on the road than a male, thus lower insurance rates. If anything, men are better drivers than women because they possess skills that women don’t necessarily have. For instance, women by study are more empathetical towards other drivers, believing they understand them. What most don’t realize, is that drivers on the road are incredibly unpredictable and assuming you understand them is dangerous to your life, as well as the lives of others. Another flaw in women is their need to “contact” people. When a woman comforts a friend or family member, they are inclined to use the “hand on the shoulder” method or a variation of said method. If a woman is to do this while driving a car or van, etc., then that is one less hand on the wheel to make that sharp turn to avoid the bicyclist too close to the road.

Now the men and youths of today’s society aren’t asking for a lesser insurance rate than women, far from it! However, we do feel that we should not be required to pay more than anybody else, because, in the long run, are we not all human beings?