Discrimination.

Discrimination

Discrimination Discrimination can be defined as differential (i.e. unequal) treatment of different people. It usually involves making distinctions on the basis of irrelevant factors or characteristics (such as race, sex, age or sexual orientation).

Discrimination Unequal treatment based on relevant factors or characteristics – such as merit, ability, qualification, experience, and performance – is usually not regarded as discrimination.

Discrimination Racism and sexism are two forms of discrimination.
There are other forms of discrimination, such as discrimination on the bases of age, social class, occupation, sexual orientation, social status, religion, etc.

Discrimination A distinction can be made between ‘race’ and ‘ethnicity’ – ‘race’ is a biological classification whereas ‘ethnicity’ is a social or cultural classification. A similar distinction can be made between ‘sex’ (a biological category) and ‘gender’ (a social or cultural category).

Discrimination Discrimination is often considered to be morally wrong because: [1] it is at odds with the principles of ‘justice’ and ‘equality’, and [2] it is harmful to the victims and to society as a whole.

Racism Racism is the belief that [1] humans are divided into different races, [2] the characteristics possessed by some races make their members intrinsically more valuable than members of other races, and [3] the superior races have a right to dominate the inferior races.

Racism Racism involves not only making distinctions and grouping people, but also denigration. It involves believing that all persons of a certain race are inferior to persons of other races in some way.

Racism Racism entails the inability or refusal to recognize the rights, needs, dignity, or value of people of particular races or geographical origins. Racism is morally wrong because of its adverse social, economic and political consequences for those unjustly affected by it.

Racism ‘Institutional racism’ describes any kind of system of inequality based on race. One of the results of institutional racism is the differential access to the goods, services, and opportunities of society among different races.

Racism For example, standardized intelligence tests are thought by many to be culturally biased against minorities. Using such tests as the basis of selection or recruitment may be viewed as a form of institutional racism.

Racism A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. Racial stereotypes have been thought to be one of the causes of continuing discriminatory attitudes.

Racism Blacks or African Americans have suffered more than 300 years of racism. In the past, slavery was justified on the grounds that blacks were morally and cognitively incapable of acting as responsible agents, and therefore required the direction provided by their masters.

Racism After the abolition of slavery, legal segregation was introduced to insulate whites from contact with blacks. Such prejudices and historical practices have unjustly limited the political, social and economic opportunities of African Americans.

Racism Until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, white domination over blacks was institutionalized and supported in all levels of government, by denying blacks their rights and opportunities.

Racism Today, the legacy of racism still permeates American society. It can be witnessed, for example, in African Americans’ high rates of unemployment, poverty and incarceration, and in inequalities of opportunity generally.

Racism In the United States, employment and promotional opportunities are still strongly influenced by race. Blacks and other minorities typically earn only a fraction of what whites earn, and they tend to hold political offices far less often than their numbers in the general population should warrant.

Sexism ‘Sexism’ can be used to refer to anything that creates, constitutes, promotes, or sustains an unjustifiable distinction between the sexes. Sexism involves false beliefs about people because of their sex, or devaluing them because of this.

Sexism Some organizations, for example, may carry on a tradition that excludes women from high-paying work. It raises the likelihood that employers may unfairly judge individual women by their sex rather than their merit or qualifications.

Sexism Women and men are socialized differently. Sex roles play a fundamental role in the way persons think of themselves and how the world thinks of them. Women are usually expected to take responsibility of the housework, the child care, and the general emotional welfare of the husband and children.

Sexism Economically, women are substantially worse off than men.
Women do not receive any pay for the work that is done in the home. As members of the labor force their wages are significantly lower than those paid to men, even when they are engaged in similar work and have similar educational backgrounds.

Sexism John Stuart Mill argued that the opportunities offered to women and men should be based on a perfect equality of opportunity. Women, according to Mill, should be allowed to win their social positions through fair and appropriate competition.

Sexism Mill believed that since women had not been provided with adequate educational and employment opportunities, what was needed was a social transformation that would give them the levels of access usually accorded to men.

Sexism The 1970s saw the beginning of the modern women’s movement, along with an unprecedented influx of women into the workforce, higher education, and the professions. Changes in the labor market and the civil rights movement combined to produce a vocal feminist movement.

Sexism For example, the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’ – the notion that a woman doing the same job as a man deserves the same pay – was championed to promote the social status of women.

Sexism Women have sought equality with men in the workplace, in education, and in public life generally. At the same time, they remain the primary child-care providers, which places them at a disadvantage in terms of advancement in their careers.

Sexism Even today, managerial and executive positions are still predominantly filled by men. It is estimated that men still represent over 90 percent of senior executives in the largest corporations of the United States.

Why is discrimination wrong?
A fundamental assumption of contemporary moral philosophy is that every person has equal intrinsic moral value. Each person matters equally; each person’s life is equally important.

Each person is entitled to equal respect and concern simply by virtue of being a person, regardless of class, race, sex, religion, nationality, culture, ability, sexual orientation, and so on.

This fundamental moral equality of persons implies an ideal of a society of equals, a society whose members respect and treat each other as equals, and thus do not deny each other equal rights and opportunities.

It also implies that government ought to ensure equality of citizens’ rights, liberties and opportunities, and ought to treat each citizen with equal respect and concern.

Discrimination is the unequal treatment, whether intentional or unintentional, of individuals on the basis of group membership that is unrelated to merit, ability, or past performance.

Discrimination – differential or unequal treatment on the grounds of race, sex, class, religion, etc. – is generally recognized as unjust because in most situations, those bases of discrimination are irrelevant to how people should be treated.

Racism and sexism are wrong because they are unjust or unfair. The racist or sexist treats people of a particular race or sex differently and less well simply because of their race and sex.

Racism, sexism and other forms of unjust discrimination all make the mistake of defining an individual by their group. People are treated differently not because of who they individually are, but because of some way in which they are classified.

Traditional concepts of justice or fairness boil down to applying the same rules and standards to everyone. To apply double standard is morally wrong. Double standard entails applying different rules and standards to different people or different groups of people.

Considerations of equality demand that everyone be treated with equal respect. This implies that unequal or differential treatment is usually morally unacceptable unless it can be justified on rational and relevant grounds.

An additional reason why racism and sexism is unjust or unfair is that unequal treatment is often the result of the concentration of political, social and economic power and advantage in the hands of those who are white and male.

However, it is simplistic to equate justice or fairness with identical treatment. Unequal treatment is not necessarily unjust because justice does not necessarily imply equal or identical treatment.

For example, it can be argued that treating a paraplegic (a person suffering from paralysis of the lower half of the body and thus unable to walk) as a normal person is not being fair. A paraplegic may have special needs, and it seems appropriate for us to pay specific attention to those needs.

Does it mean, however, that people with disability should be exempted from meeting the same standard or requirement in a university admission examination?

African American men are overrepresented and Asian American men are underrepresented in professional basketball in the United States. Should consideration of fairness and equality lead us to insist that more Asian Americans be hired in basketball teams?

Asian Americans are overrepresented in the sciences. Should we required that their numbers be limited so that more African Americans can be recruited as scientists? Would this improve the quality of science?

Unequal treatment is not necessarily unjust. Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle stated a formal principle of justice, namely that it requires treating equals equally and unequals unequally, in proportion to their inequality.

In other words, justice would demand that equals receive equal treatment, and unequals should receive differential or unequal treatment appropriate to their differences.

Justice as ‘desert’ requires that treatment of persons be according to what is due them on some grounds. Thus, it requires that there be valid reasons for differential treatment. It is unjust to favor one person over another on the basis of irrelevant characteristics.

Differential treatment is unjust, for example, if a person is singled out and penalized simply because he or she is a member or a particular race or sex – for example, when someone is denied school admissions or promotions just because of this characteristic.

To deny some people opportunities in education or employment or to treat them less favorably without a relevant reason, is to wrong them by treating them unfairly.

It is morally wrong to discriminate on the basis of race and sex, but it seems perfectly acceptable to treat people differently on the basis of individual merit (i.e. desirable qualities such physical strength, intelligence, skill and talent).

People have different merits and they should be treated as they deserve (i.e. according to their individual merit). We should treat individuals as they deserve to be treated, rather than dealing with them as if they were only members of a particular group.

Consider physical strength. Men are typically stronger than women. However, some women are stronger than some men. Justice requires that we consider what characteristics an individual has rather than what is typical of a group to which he or she belongs.

‘Racial profiling’ occurs when a police officer stops, questions, arrests, and/or searches someone solely on the basis of the person's race or ethnicity. Many in the law enforcement authorities argue that the use of racial profiling is both effective and necessary simply because crime is higher in some communities.

Critics of racial profiling argue that the individual rights of a suspect are violated if race is used as a factor in that suspicion. Is it unfair that blacks are subjected to more police searches and arrests than whites? Is gender and age profiling justifiable because crime rate is higher among teenage boys?

Equal opportunity Notice that there are many different concepts and principles of equality, such as ‘equal respect for persons’, ‘equal rights and freedoms’, ‘equality before the law’, ‘equality of opportunity’, and ‘equality of result’.

Equal opportunity Equality of opportunity requires that important positions – such as job vacancies or university places – are to be filled by the most qualified persons through open competition. These position should not go to less qualified people for irrelevant reasons.

Equal opportunity According the principle of equal opportunity, race, sex, religion, and sexual orientation, etc. are irrelevant characteristics and therefore should not determine the opportunities that are open to a person.

Equal opportunity An equal opportunity policy typically includes measures to ensure: [1] equal access to opportunities, [2] open and fair competition for these opportunities, and [3] the same standard is applied to everyone in the assessment and selection process.

Equal opportunity The benefit of equality of opportunity is to bring fairness to the selection process for positions in corporations, associations, and universities, etc. The evaluation of applicants should consider the qualifications deemed relevant to successful performance in the position applied for.

Equal opportunity Equality of opportunity is often seen as a major aspect of a ‘meritocracy’, i.e. a system which rewards such factors as individual intelligence, knowledge or other criteria believed to confer merit.

Equal opportunity Because racism, sexism and other form of unjust discrimination violates the principle of equal opportunity, anti-discrimination laws and regulations may have to be put in place to outlaw discrimination on irrelevant grounds.

Discrimination.

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