discrimination

Discrimination is the process of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, usually in a way that deprives them of their legal or human rights. The group may be identified by a feature such as race, gender, age, class, religion, disability or sexual orientation. Discrimination typically leads to groups being unfairly treated on the basis of perceived statuses of characteristics, for example ethnic, racial, gender or religious categories. It involves depriving members of one group of opportunities or privileges that are available to members of another group.