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Discrimination

 
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I have observed that there is discrimination everywhere. May it be about age, sexual orientation, religion, color, caste, or what not. Most sane countries (at least the ones I find sane) countries do take concrete steps to prevent discrimination. Many countries (including India) also take steps like affirmative action to compensate for historic discrimination.
What I have also observed is that such steps always seem like the whack-a-mole contest. You put laws to prevent discrimination based on color and people start discriminating by age. You prohibit age discrimination, people start discriminating by sexual orientation and so on.

What I don't understand is why do people discriminate in the first place? I remember reading an article a while ago that showed even kids as little as one year old start discriminating based on color. Even black kids preferred white dolls (as per that study)! What gives? If discrimination is such an integral part of human psyche, what are we trying to achieve with all these laws? Are we on even on the right track or are we trying to go against nature?


 
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You are trying to go against the wrong parts of our nature. You have to discriminate all the time; a road junction is an opportunity to discriminate between going right and going left. The idea behind those laws is to prevent people discriminating against people because of irrelevant factors. If I want to talk to somebody I shall discriminate for somebody who speaks a language I can understand.
I must not discriminate against somebody to employ because of their skin colour, for example.

And yes, people have a bad side, as well as the ingenuity to impose that badness on others by getting round such laws.
 
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Paul Anilprem wrote:What I have also observed is that such steps always seem like the whack-a-mole contest.



Programmers should be familiar with that drive, having fixed one problem, to seek out other problems to fix (not saying discrimination is fixed). The media is always looking for "fresh" perspectives and will "discover" things that have gone on since the dawn of time (I don't think people, prevented from discriminating one way, will invent new ways to discriminate). There are also people who (I don't want to say "profit", perhaps "gain recognition") from either fighting discrimination or claiming membership and therefore status from being discriminated against. It's almost as if, by trying to right some wrongs, we've created a market for discrimination...

Paul Anilprem wrote:What I don't understand is why do people discriminate in the first place?



Fear of the unknown and fear of the other would be my guess. It's hardwired into our DNA not to trust people outside our "tribe".

 
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We all are naturally more comfortable with people who look and sound like ourselves. It's just inherent in our nature and it takes a concerted effort to overcome that. Interesting example.
 
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J. Kevin Robbins wrote:Interesting example.


I am not terribly familiar with the movie. I have seen it, I know more or less what goes on...

but coming from a theatrical background, i've seen something similar to this. The dancers tend to hang out with dancers, the chorus with the chorus, the principles with the principles...but I'm not sure that's because they discriminate against each other. The dancers spend many hours in rehearsals together. They know each other quite well. They've probably done many shows together before. It's only natural they'd hand out with people they know.

I wonder if the apes were the same thing. All the chimpanzees were in scenes together, so they knew each other better, so naturally that is who'd they'd eat with. Same for the Gorillas and Orangutans.

Just my 2-cents.
 
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Paul Anilprem wrote: If discrimination is such an integral part of human psyche, what are we trying to achieve with all these laws? Are we on even on the right track or are we trying to go against nature?


I think the laws are good to have. We live in a society. Societies have rules to protect us from human nature.

For example, human nature tells us to just take what we want and the biggest person wins. So the biggest monkey/man in the tribe just takes all the food. Clearly that doesn't work in a society so it is illegal.
 
Paul Anilprem
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Great arguments for laws curbing discrimination.
However, legal discrimination starts right at birth. Most countries give citizenship only to those born within that country (and some other criteria, not relevant to this discussion) ? Isn't that discrimination? Why is that okay? Shouldn't a human being be allowed to live anywhere on the planet. Why is it okay for a few to corner the natural resources of a given region? Looks hypocritical to me.
 
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I read an article recently about how national borders and citizenship should be abolished, that people should be free to choose where they live. There's even a website I found that's dedicated to such issues: http://beyondforeignness.org/ .

I think that in reality, however, mankind is not ready for that kind of freedom of choice (yet). Even in nature, the need for similar things to gather and live together is a very common instinct and survival strategy. Until our very nature evolves and aligns with the ideals embodied in these anti-discrimination laws, you'll always see this kind of behavior in some form or another.
 
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Paul Anilprem wrote:
However, legal discrimination starts right at birth. Most countries give citizenship only to those born within that country (and some other criteria, not relevant to this discussion) ? Isn't that discrimination? Why is that okay? Shouldn't a human being be allowed to live anywhere on the planet. Why is it okay for a few to corner the natural resources of a given region? Looks hypocritical to me.



To be fair, it is not really reasonable to argue against laws based on just one point. Governments has to deal with a multitude of issues -- even to the point of choosing one form of discrimination versus another. In regards to your argument, we have to throw in issues related to safety and ... well, allowing free markets (capitalism) to work.

I wouldn't really call it being hypocritical. I would say it is more of a short coming of trying to address a lot of complex issues -- and that it could probably be done better.

Henry
 
Paul Anilprem
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Henry Wong wrote:

I wouldn't really call it being hypocritical. I would say it is more of a short coming of trying to address a lot of complex issues -- and that it could probably be done better.

Henry


Yes, I agree that is probably a better way to put it.
 
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