Is Discrimination Ever Right?

Posted on July 9, 2007 by David Gray

I see no reason why we should not from time to time use this place to discuss some of the defining moral, ethical, and philosophical questions shaping the era in which we live. Some of you may think this is all very abstract. Perhaps. But see if you don't think some of this has much to do with who we are and what our world will be in the years ahead:

Last week, for example, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the majority against the use of discriminatory practices even when a known bias has a noble objective. Specifically, the court said it is wrong to discriminate in favor of a minority even when the objective in doing so is to make access to education more fair, more even-handed, and less restricted for reasons of race.

This video clip from The Wall Street Journal features a discussion of this Supreme Court ruling. I encourage you to watch it and to decide for yourself whether you think racial discrimination can ever be justified. I'd also be very interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter.

As for me, if a law against discrimination would ever result in a world in which discrimination never happened — neither in favor nor against the majority or the minority for discriminatory reasons – I might have a more enthusiastic impression of this recent ruling. But in the real world, is it possible to believe or pretend to believe that discrimination doesn't happen? Can we avoid the fact that it most often occurs, with harmful effect, to minorities with the least amount of power to fight it or right it? Unless reasonable men and women do reasonable things to level educational and economic opportunities, doesn't the cycle of prejudice continue?

These are questions I believe all of us should ask ourselves because quite frankly they have much to do with who we are, the schools we attend, the peers with whom we study and interact, and the world into which we all go forth to work and live… and love… or not? Hardly an abstraction, I think we all have both the right and the duty to ask these questions and to forge or fight for the answers we want. Tell me, what kind of a world do you want your world to be?

Here is the link to the Wall Street Journal video.