Saturday, July 18, 2009

Discriminating tastes

So maybe this is a fart in church. But I'm going to say it: discrimination isn't in and of itself a bad thing. Whew. There, I said it.

Now hold on there. Don't go hanging your confederate flag across the gun rack in your big bubba truck just yet. Let me finish.

Typically, the American culture has defined "don't discriminate" to be "don't be stupid." And, well, that's a darn good idea. The issue comes when you pass a law saying "don't be stupid." When you do, you just make things worse. The discriminators now think "see, those lazy bastards couldn't make it without all that special help." In effect, you have cemented their ideas. They thought a person of a particular {pick one: race, religious idea, gender, hair color, weight, body type, handicap, earlobe size} couldn't get ahead on their own -- and you just proved them right in their eyes. Further, the discriminatee now can't catch a break. At this point if they succeed, they will never be given proper credit. If they fail, they get a "see, they can't even win when the game field leans their way."

The real way to deal with stupid is, in my opinion, to just make a big show of the stupid. Won't hire a black man? That's fine, it's your business. Oh, look, there's Morley Safer and his film crew. He'd like a short statement from you before the picket line shows up. Oh, and Wal-Mart (aka 'the Walmarts') just canceled their order for the 100,000 widgets they ordered. They don't want the bad press of dealing with a racist.

And as the lead in suggests: sometimes discrimination is totally appropriate. A local baptist church needs a preacher. Do you not expect them to discriminate on the basis of religion? Would you really want to force them to hire the extremely qualified atheist over a lesser qualified baptist? A company needs to hire an evolutionary biologist for a research project. Would you really want to force them to hire a well qualified creationist? Would you wish the NAACP to hire a white guy -- even one that is extremely progressive and fully believes in their mission statement? Should Hooter's be required to hire a big hairy man to wear their undersized orange shorts? Would you force a catholic church in need of a priest to hire a well qualified pregnant woman with no interest in young boys? (Did I lose you there? Sorry.)

I say all of these folks have their own agenda and are using their own money and absolutely should be discriminating on the basis of religion, race and gender. The sad thing is: I suspect any one of these has potential to win a court case.

3 comments:

Og Make Blog said...

I would say the lack of discrimination in all things is what makes the youngsters of this country the cesspool of humanity that they are .... many, many poor life choices being made.

I, on the other hand, hate everybody. No problem there.

Spork In the Eye said...

if you hate everyone, doesn't that mean you have a lack of discrimination just like the youngsters?

Og Make Blog said...

Yes .... I was just trying to be politically correct.