Psychology

Case against discrimination of Mathew Cusick, a dancer.

Prejudice can be defined using several terminologies, theories and concepts in psychology. Prejudice is more related to hatred or negative perceptions on someone in relation to hisher cultural background, physical attributes, color, attitude, race or nationality. It is always directed on the negative attributes of a person and characterized with formed opinion or judgments based on hatred. It can be on a person, group or the society in relation to their way of life, cultural beliefs and religion (Turvey,2002).

Perception and theories of prejudice
Prejudice is always seen as a negative perception on someone and a form of discrimination since its connected to the negative attributes of a person. Several theories have been used to explain prejudice as a factor in the society. After Second World War, scholars such as Theodore Adomo and Daniel Levinson, psychologists from the University of California took their time to study the behavior of different personalities and leaders basing their study on the aggressive nature of the leaders and the stereotypes associated with different cultural background of the leaders (Oskamp, 2000).
 They classified the theory as authoritarian personality theory since it was authoritative in nature. They studied the common traits of the leaders and their belief system based on superstitions and sexual traits. The other theory on prejudice is the theory of social identity by John Turner, who was a psychologist and together with his friend Henri Tajfel. They had a key objective in finding out why discrimination is common among people of different groups and societies (Haggerty, 2008).

Behavior in relation background stereotypes
They were keen to analyze the behavior of an individual in relation to other groups of distinct values and principles, social identity can lead to conflict between different societies as a result of hatred or bias compliments that are generalized on a given group of people as an identity. The elements used in categorizing individuals can be said to be the major cause of violence between people of different backgrounds. Social identity is more to do with the personal attributes of an individual or gender bias on a given group in the society (Oskamp,2000).

Realistic theory was developed and analized by Carolyn Sherif and Muzafer in mid 1954. When they came up with two groups and separated them from each other for a short duration, the two groups were not aware of the others existence, after sometime, the groups were brought together and there was a shift in their behavior pattern in that they could not appreciate each other and developed jealousy towards one another. In every group, there was also a sign of discrimination and negative perception towards one another and as a result, the conflict generated due to physical separation from each other.

Discrimination and the impacts
The two theorists argued that separation can lead to prejudice in a more realistic way and the conflict resolution methods that entail the urge for unity hence prejudice can be minimized in an effective way. Prejudice can therefore lead to hatred in the society and may result to violence especially for the hostile communities that are fond of fighting each other. Prejudice has led to negative perception and opinion on others and resulted to unfair judgment towards certain personalities in favor of others (Oskamp, 2000).

According to Haggerty (2008), prejudice can be personalized or generalized and may result to unrealistic views about others. In most communities, people are often offended by the stereotypes that are attached to them by other groups, people are always categorized as thieves, rapists, gays, lesbians and hunters in the society and this has affected the relationship pattern of different communities in different parts of the world, it has even influenced other sectors such as employment, relationship, interaction, trade and political view in most regions especially in Africa where most people are branded with abusive stereotypes that has led to hatred and diverse views on political opinion and voting pattern in other States. Discrimination has been the major sign of prejudice in the modern society and has resulted to more damage to peoples lives by reducing ones self esteem especially when discrimination is intended to an individual or a group in any given society. Racial discrimination was also common in South Africa before independence when the White settlers had a different school and buses for their children this was a serious form of discrimination that led to apartheid (Alexander, 2003).

Apart from personal discrimination, institutional discrimination has been common in most institutions of learning, work place or any given system by treating others more special than the rest or being too fair on others than the rest. This is a sign of discrimination in the society and can lead to more harm as a result of hatred language used to refer to others. Discrimination is even common in most legal institutions especially in South Africa during the apartheid period when the whites were treated better than the blacks and a black man never had the chance to defend himself. As a result, many people died in protest against the legal discrimination and restrictions to access cases dealing with discrimination (Haggerty, 2008).

Case study of discrimination on Mathew Cusick
In the year 2003, a case was filed against discrimination of Mathew Cusick who was a dancer and worked in the United States. A body advocating for the rights of bisexuals and other gender based issues sued Cirque du Soleil for cancellation of a contract. Cirque du Soleil signed a contract with Cusick to perform at Island Hotel in Las Vegas, the circus troupe trained for several weeks and was to perform at the hotel. however, the troupes refused to perform basing their reason for not performing on the health status of Cusick, who they said that was a health risk since he was H.I.V positive and in the termination paper it was well stated by Cirque du Soleil that the status of Cusick was a threat to others and therefore could not be awarded the contract. Even with the effort and pressure to stop discrimination by bodies such as the American pediatrics group, that believed that the chances of contracting H.I.V is minimal in sporting activities, Cusick case was not considered serious and the contract was nullified (Dohse, 2003).

Even though Cusick has been so open to tell people his status for more than ten years and his doctor said Cusick was in a position of performing at least twice. Discrimination was too much to an extent that he could not revoke the decision that was passed by Cirque du Soleil (Dohse, 2003).

Despite the fact that Cusick was having an interest to work with Cirque, he could not realize the dream since Cirque had a negative perception towards him and had already formed an opinion that could not allow him to act otherwise (Dohse, 2003).

Understanding prejudice in relation to Mathew Cusick Case
In understanding the concept of prejudice in relation to Mathew Cusicks case, it is worth noting that his right was violated and his dream was shattered by the decision that was passed by Cirque, it was a clear sign of discrimination prejudice in the society as a result of health problems.

Conflict Prejudice
The fact that Cusick was not healthy, did not mean that he could not perform, his sickness was used a scapegoat to deny him the opportunity to perform hence creating a negative perception and lame excuse against him, there is a clear indication that conflict prejudice is likely to occur since the dancers are already incited by the manager of the club not to perform yet Mr. Cusick had already secured the contract to perform for two days, the conflict is likely to occur between Mr. Cusick and the troupe since the group was headed by him and it would portray a bad image for not performing and the conflict between Mr. Cirque and Mr. Cusick for defamation of name that could damage the name of the troupe as immoral. Robbers Cave nation park study also reveals that hatred is likely to come in between individuals with conflicting views or opinion and therefore, Mr. Cirque opinion on Mr. Cusick may result to hatred between them.

Behavioral prejudice
In connection to the kind of judgment and the behavior people had on Cusick, there was a behavioral prejudice since the dancers decided not to attend the function and had a negative opinion for not attending the function. Behavioral prejudice can therefore be an act or can be expressed in different forms, the fact that people were not willing to defend Cusick, showed that the general public had a negative formed opinion on him, it is also seen as cognitive prejudice in that people had already believed that it was true that Cusick could infect others if allowed to perform with the rest of the dancers, this was a clear indication of hatred and lack of confidence in him. People also believed that Cusick could influence others and end up making love to them hence infecting the rest which is not true because Cusick accepted that he was H.I.V positive and the general public had already known his status, it was a sign of denial of right of an individual due to health status (Dohse, 2003).

According to the views of Turvey (2002), in most countries, people who are H.IV positive are discriminated by others and most people do not feel free to interact with the victims since they believe they can be infected by the virus, even though Aids cannot be transmitted through contacts or interaction, people suffering from the disease are always isolated by the majority in the society. In Cusicks case, there was no proper reason to deny him the contract to perform in New York. He declared his status and apart from his health problem, Mr. Cirque had no better reason to deny him the opportunity to perform for two days.

Affective prejudice
His doctor also recommended that Cusicks status could not make him not to perform. It was therefore clear that he was discriminated and denied the right to perform basing their reason on his status that was quite open. There is lack of affection towards Cusick because of his health. This is quite clear when the dancers refused to perform at the last minute saying there was danger on their life if they perform together with Cusick. Affective prejudice can therefore be said to be a formed attitude towards a person, race, cultural background and community or race.

According to McLeod (1997), affective prejudice is more serious since most people ends up separated forever due to lack of affection. For instance in some communities, parents advice their children when they are still young not to interact with certain group or race of people. As a result, children grow up hating the defined group or community and the hatred is entrenched permanently since children tend to value the advice of their parents than any one else. It is due to this reason that certain tribes hate another tribe and love people from a given tribe leading to imbalanced relationship.

Some people have even denied others love as a result of the false opinion or the stereotype people formed on others has led to more cases of separation in most communities as a result of affective prejudice. Despite the fact that the case was filed against Mr. Cirque, the legal body in the United States never took the matter seriously and no body came out clear to support Cusick except the body that was not even concerned with the cases relating to contracts and employment in America. In fact, the body was concerned with the rights of the minorities such as the bisexuals, gays and the lesbians which was a clear indication of lack of support from other recognized legal bodies (Klauer,  Karl, 2003).

Legal discrimination
There was a sign of legal discrimination since his right to perform was denied without proper reasons and as a result, there was no other body that was concerned with his case or people who came out to defend him. Legal discrimination is common in most legal institutions and always varies from one country and another. For instance, in the past, American legal bodies denied Negros the chance to exercise there constitutional right and some were even denied the chance to exercise there freedom or to own properties in America. In South Africa during the period of apartheid, legal institution had a lot of discrimination towards the blacks as they were seen to be rude and ignorant before the white man. Racial war was common in South Africa and most people died in early 1950s when the white settlers were harassed by the black squatters. Prejudice can lead to several problems in the society and in most cases, it is the negative perception people have towards others, like the case of Cusick people had a formed opinion on him. Prejudice is always negative perceptions, opinion or judgment, it can be intentional or unintentional but in most cases its adaptive in nature.

Conclusion
Most sociologist have argued that discrimination is adaptive in nature, it does not fade out easily and is common with people who do not value others as a result of their status in the society or possession. It is also believed that prejudice is common in places where both the rich and the poor share the same environment and in most cases, the children are always advised not to interact with the poor and they end up hating the poor and discriminating the values practiced by others. In most developed, States or civilized states, discrimination has led to serious cases in courts and discrimination is a serious violation of peoples rights.