Discrimination
U.S. Naturalization Test (2025 Standard) glossary · Civics
Definition
Unfair treatment of a group - what the civil rights movement fought.
Discrimination in plain English
Discrimination means treating people unfairly just because of the group they belong to — their race, religion, sex, country of origin, and so on — rather than judging them as individuals. Imagine being turned away from a job or a school not for anything you did, but simply because of who you are; that unfairness is the heart of it. This is exactly what the civil rights movement fought to end, and U.S. laws now forbid many kinds of discrimination. Knowing this term helps you understand why equality under the law is such a core American value.
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