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Re: Discrimination

RACE --- wrote:  once again technomoron mailed it to myself.
> 
> i've found this thread dreadfully boring to this point.  but the notion
> of beginning to investigate the meaning of discrimination seems a fairly
> useful tool - especially given the terms presence in so many of Dallas
> Perkin's example resolutions today.
> 
> Discrimination is making choices between one over another.  If there is
> an apple and an orange and i choose the apple, i have simultaneously
> discriminated against the orange.  Discrimination is a part of our
> everyday life.  The question we're beginning to look at is a situation
> in which the "one" and "another" are also "subjects" similar to myself.
>  In such a situation, they each might have a claim to a notion of
> equality (a rather vague term) in the process of being chosen.  In this
> sense, discrimination is if i choose the apple over the orange without a
> rational basis.  If my basis is something about the other "equal"
> "subject" or the class of "suspects" which is not rational in the given
> circumstances then there seems to be discrimination.
> 
> no idea how this fits with y'alls thread.  but i do have a question.  is
> it a moral act to be a homosexual? is it a moral act to be a
> heterosexual?  if neither falls within some realm of a moral sphere, i
> don't understand how much belleyaching is going on from both sides of
> the fence.  it seems that you're trying to create moral evaluations of
> non-moral situations.  Unless it is a moral act to be a homosexual, then
> exclusion of homosexual media time would not seem to be an immoral act.
>  But i ain't going any further into this one cuz y'all are just going
> nuts on it and Joe Bob Briggs is on with the scary movies.
> 
> david rhaesa
> 
> Benjamin R. Bates wrote:
> >
> > Instead of going through the silly line-by line "analysis" of all these
> > posts, it might be better if people started explaining their views on
> > exactly what discrimiantion is in the case of whether or not we, the CEDA-L
> > community, are discriminating against Mr. TD Barnes, as alleged by Mr.
> > O'Toole (commonly known as Frigg).
> >
> > Instead of relying on dictionary definition and that so-called "experts" who
> > wrote them, let's look at what discrimination really means to real people.
> > In my mind, discrimination agaisnt persons means that they are irrationally
> > prejudged as agroup on the basis of some characteristic.  Blacks were/are
> > discriminated agaisnt because they were/are irrationally prejudged to be
> > inferior in intelligence abd superior in strength by whites who kidnapped
> > them and enslaved them and oppressed them because they are black.  Jews
> > were/are discriminated against because some people irrationally prejudged
> > them to be an inferior "race" that has undermined Christian and Islamic
> > states because they are Jewish.  Muslims are discriminated against because
> > they are prejudged to be terrorists on the absis of the fact that they are
> > Muslims.  Conservatives and liberals may be discriminated against if they
> > are irrationally prejudges to hold negative qualities by the person
> > evaluating them.  Homosexual are discriminated against becuse they are
> > irrationally prejudges to be immoral actors because of who they are
> > attracted to.  Old people are discriminated against because they are
> > irrationally prejudged to be weak in mind and body because they are old.  I
> > think that is enough for examples, the key componenet is that discrimination
> > means that people are irrationally prejudged by a characteristic by someone
> > else, not by the quality of their character as individuals.
> >
> > Something that some people may think is discrimination is something that I
> > will call "distinction", since I can't think of a better words.  Distinction
> > means that someone is judged on the basis of personal characteristics after
> > they have been evaluated as an individual.  For example, a worker is lazy
> > and never fills out forms while they are on the job.  The boss fires them
> > for being lazy.  Is this discrimination against lazy people?  No, its a
> > rational DISTINCTION about the person as a worker.  Anotehr example, a
> > person makes ignorant and hateful statements about another person and never
> > explain a reason behind these statements. Anotehr person hears that person
> > being hateful and ignorant in their hate.  They ask that person why they
> > feel that way, but the person keeps making hateful statements without any
> > justification.  The second person then determines that the first person is a
> > hateful person and tells them so.  The first person has not been
> > discriminated against, the second person has merely made a distinction
> > between hateful people and non-hateful people.
> >
> > The difference between discrimination is twofold:
> > Discrimination is ILLOGICAL and PREJUDGEMENTAL GROUPING
> > Distinction is LOGICAL and JUDGES AFTER EVALUATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL
> >
> > Because this is what I believe are the proper meanings of terms, I think
> > that homosexuals are discrimated against.  THey are prejudged on irrational
> > lines as a group.  I think TD has not been discriminated against.  PEople
> > have looked at him as an individual and, after knowing him as a individual,
> > have judged his statements to be those of a hateful, inorant, irrational
> > bigot.  Then they told him so.  A distinction between hate and non-hate,
> > ignorance and knowledge, rationality and irrationality, and bigotry and
> > clear thinking has been drawn.  All this has occurred while looking at TD as
> > an individual.  TD was not personally insulted because he is a heterosexual
> > conservative male, he was insulted because, AS AN INDIVIDUAL, he has
> > expressed hateful and bigoted ideas.  When we told him this, I don't think
> > it was discrimination.
> >
> > All for now
> > (feel the love leaking away yet?)
> > BEN
> > tyrant (reformed)
> > Benjamin R. Bates               Memory says, "I did that."
> > University of Richmond          Pride replies, "I could not have done that."
> > bbates2@richmond.edu            Eventually, memory yields.
> > http://www.student.richmond     Friedrich Nietzsche
> >    edu/~bbates2/sae/            Beyond Good and Evil
References:
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