Discrimination
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To discriminate is to make a distinction. There are several meanings of the word, including statistical discrimination, or the actions of a circuit called a `discriminator`. This article addresses the most common colloquial sense of the word, invidious discrimination. That is, irrational social, racial, religious, sexual, ethnic and age-related discrimination of people.
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Definition
Invidious discrimination classifies people into different groups in which group members receive distinct and typically unequal treatments and rights without rational justification. Expectations and obligations of group members are also biased by invidious discrimination. If the justification is rational, then the discrimination is not invidious.
Popular forms of invidious discrimination include distinctions by gender, biological sex, sexual preference, race, skin color, religion, nationality, ethnicity, ability, age, socio-economic class, marital status, and body size.
Discrimination based on subcultural preference (Punk, hippy, Mods, Rockers) is also common.
Robert W. Fuller coined the term "rankism" in 2003 in his book "Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank." Rankism describes negative discrimination predicated on rank difference between individuals (For example, a customer humiliating a waitress or a boss picking on an employee).
People with facial disfigurement or other atypical physical differences are often unfairly discriminated against by others. In the USA, there were once laws and statutes preventing these people from being in public. - now regarded as "Ugly Laws" - There yet remain several additional sources of ongoing, unchallenged discrimination.
An example of ongoing ignorance can be found in a university textbook by Ann and Rutherford Turnbull III (University of Kansas). Their book - ("Families, Professionals and Exceptionality: A Special Partnership", Merrill) lists "desirable" and "undesirable" facial expressions (p. 164, second edition). These "undesirable facial expressions" include several physical disabilities - not personality defects. However successful professionals can, and do, have facial differences which affect their ability to show "typical" expressions yet they manage to effectively comunicate with their families and co-workers. If anything, facial differences become a source of bonding rather than a source of discord. Unfortunately, children's disabilities are often ignored in America today. If such ignorance within higher education is allowed to persist, it is akin to granting the KKK full and unfettered access to the minds and hearts of America's future educators.
The effects of invidious discrimination span the spectrum from slow or unhelpful service, through racial and ethnic slurs, denial of employment or housing, to hate crimes and genocide.
Invidious discrimination implies the distinguishing factors are intrinsically irrelevant to the decision being influenced. Generally, the aggrieved group is considered by the discriminator as inferior.
Institutionalized discrimination and responses
Many governments have attempted to control discrimination through civil rights legislation, equal opportunity laws and institutionalised policies of affirmative action (called reverse discrimination by its opponents).
Some governments have formalized and supported discrimination. Examples include: apartheid in South Africa, institutionalized racial segregation in the USA from the Civil War through the 1960s, the "Jewish problem" in Nazi Germany, and re-education camps in some communist countries.
Even in western, secular countries, governments practice discrimination. For example, governments may provide better treatment to citizens than to non-citizens. Unemployed citizens may receive welfare benefits funded by taxpayers, while unemployed non-citizens may be denied such benefits. Governments often have the power to forcefully expel non-citizens but cannot expel citizens. Discrimination based on citizenship status is not generally considered illegal.
Religious discrimination
Religious intolerance often manifests itself in discriminatory behaviours. During the Middle Ages, in the Crusades, Popes, kings, and emperors tried to draw on Christian unity to defend their lands from some followers of Islam, which was spreading along Europe's southern and eastern borders. Some Roman Catholic countries have historically persecuted dissenters, for example with the Spanish Inquisition. Some rulers of Protestant countries sponsored discrimination against Roman Catholics. During Tudor and Stuart times, rulers of the United Kingdom persecuted both Catholics and non-Catholics at intervals for political reasons.
Currently, Non-Muslims are discriminated against under many Islamic theocratic states. Jews and Christians have historically had fewer rights than Muslim citizens under Muslim states; non-Muslim monotheists have been consigned to the status of dhimmis in some cases. Marxist states have discriminated against all religions at some time or another. This continues in North Korea, China and Vietnam, and many former Soviet republics.
Similarly, the Kingdom of Jordan forbids Jews from becoming citizens, although peoples of any other group are allowed to do so (law No. 6, sect. 3, of April 3, 1954; restated in law no. 7, sect. 2, of April 1, 1963). Saudi Arabia forbids non-Muslims from practising their religion in public, and clergy may not enter the country to lead ceremonies of other faiths. Christians asking Muslims to convert to Christianity have been persecuted and arrested; Muslims who have converted to Christianity have been executed as apostates. Fictional tales of Jews committing diabolic crimes are published by the state. The article on discrimination against non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia discuses this subject in more depth.
According to reports from the U.S. Department of State, non-Muslims also suffer discrimination in many non-Arab Muslim nations. Separate articles discuss discrimination against non-Muslims in Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan and Sudan.
The State of Israel is often accused of discrimination against Palestinians; this topic is discussed in the article on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Some New religious movements often claim that they are discriminated for their non-conformist beliefs. They claim apostates of these movements are the ones carrying the discrimination.
Ageism
Ageism is discrimination against a person or group on the grounds of age. Although theoretically the word can refer to the discrimination against any age group, ageism usually comes in one of two forms: discrimination against youth, and discrimination against the elderly.
Some underage teenagers consider that they're victims of ageism—prejudice on the grounds of age—and that they should be treated more respectfully by adults and not as second-class citizens. Some complain that social stratification in age groups causes outsiders to incorrectly stereotype and generalize the group, for instance that all adolescents are equally immature, violent or rebellious, listen to rock or rap music and do drugs. Some have organized groups against ageism.
The paradox of discrimination
Many people assume that when there is discrimination, one group of people is given more favorable treatment than others. This is not always the case. It is possible to have cases where it is not at all clear which group is given the more favorable treatment.
- Example: A country is under attack during wartime. The war is so ferocious that 80% of the combatants are killed. A law has been passed to forcefully conscript males between 18-24 years of age into the frontline, but females are forbidden to participate.
- Question: Who is suffering unfair discrimination?
There are four possible answers:
- Males are suffering unfair discrimination. They are forced to participate in the effort which will result in a high probability of death.
- Females are suffering unfair discrimination. They are prevented from participation in the war effort to protect their homeland.
- Both males and females are suffering unfair discrimination.
- No one suffers unfair discrimination. The ruling was made because of valid intrinsic reasons suiting men and women to different activities. (This is not to assert anything about the relative suitability of men and women for conflict.) There may however be other examples of a situation some might regard as discriminatory, but in which there was no discrimination because of the decision was based on the intrinsic suitedness of the two groups to the roles being apportioned. An example might be symphony orchestras made up of all-white musicians selected by blind auditions. In a blind audition, the musician plays behind a curtain. The reviewer can't see the player, so there is no possibility of skin or race influencing the choice.
Even here, the situation is complicated by possible indirect or institutionalized discrimination. Suppose black people are just as capable of being musicians but have not had access to training. For example, in 1989, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was threatened with losing a $1.3m subsidy from the state of Michigan unless it hired a second black musician. It side-stepped the blind audition and hired a black man, who noted nonetheless that he would've preferred to be hired normally. This affirmative action hiring was clearly in the narrowest sense discriminatory, yet a chain of events followed leading to the Detroit Symphony African-American Fellowship Program in which young black musicians join the orchestra in rehearsals and performances. They receive coaching and audition preparation tips from orchestra members. Seven Detroit fellows have won seats in major American orchestras.
The key to the paradox is the subjectively interpreted phrase "more favorable treatment". Different people have different ideas about what constitutes "favorable treatment". To a male who does not want to die, favorable treatment means not being forced to go to the frontline. To a female who wants to defend her homeland, favorable treatment means being allowed to defend her homeland.
Different groups of people will have different perceptions of a situation. Four people who witness a car accident will have four different perceptions of what happened and how it happened.
Therefore it is possible to have a situation where two groups of people vehemently oppose each other, both objecting to the same piece of legislation on the grounds that it "gives more favorable treatment" to the other group.
See also
- Affirmative action
- Ageism
- Anti-semitism
- Apartheid
- Civil rights movement
- Collectivism
- Disablism
- Equal opportunity
- Health disparities
- Height discrimination
- Prejudice
- Price discrimination
- Racism
- Equality
- Statistical discrimination
- Special rights
- Taste discrimination
- White supremacy
- Caucasophobiabg:Дискриминация
de:Diskriminierung es:Discriminación fr:Discrimination he:אפלייה nl:Discriminatie ja:差別 pl:Dyskryminacja pt:Discriminação sl:Diskriminacija zh-tw:歧視