The myth of positive discrimination

Bondings

There's a lot of discrimination and racism in this world. Quotes like "[insert a country here] isn't ready for a [female|black|gay|atheist|muslim] president" sound very familiar. Jobs are suddenly taken when the name of the applicant sounds foreign. For the same crimes, black people get much more severe sentences than white. There are numerous examples.

And then some people came to the fantastic idea to combat this discrimination by ... another type of discrimination called positive discrimation, which has become main practice in a lot of countries. The point is to compensate other discrimination or get an even distribution (50% female, 50% male).

What happens is that people from a specific race, gender or other characteristic are given an advantage or even exclusivity to a certain job, school, function, ... Other systems use quotas for ethnic minorities and gender.

To give an example, in Belgium (in most cases) it's compulsory for political parties to have 50% female candidates on their lists and there is even a system called parity (1.male, 2.female, 3.male, 4.female, ... or the opposite). Because currently women are less interested in politics, the political parties sometimes even have a very hard time to find interested women and fill the list, while they have to reject intelligent and promessing men.

The fact is that for most jobs and functions gender, religion and ethnicity are not relevant. What is relevant, are the job/function requirements, personality, talent and achievements.

What a lot of people fail to see is that the actual problem, discrimination, can't be solved by giving an advantage to certain groups of people without causing even more discrimination. The only solution is to stop the discrimination by giving everyone equal chances no matter what group they belong to.

My opinion is that to really stop discrimination, gender, ethnicity and religion should be of no importance unless it's a job requirement like for priests (religion), actors (gender, age, ethnicity) and similar. I'm all for an abolishment of all selective systems and quotas based on discrimination. Positive discrimination is a contradiction in terminis.

S3nd K3ys

I think you're talking about affirmative action?

Indi

In a perfect world, yes, discrimination is wrong, positive or negative. And ideally, once a society discovers that it is disciminating, it should stop *snap* just like that. The population that is being discriminated against should immediately get full and equal rights in all aspects of society, and society should consider their concerns proportionately in the same manner as any other group.

By now you should see that those are ideals, and not realistic.

Once it has been determined that society is discriminating against a group, it has a responsibility to remove those laws that were discriminatory. That is levelling the playing field, making the system equal.

Only, the playing field isn't quite level yet, is it? The discriminated group still has no voice in the halls that determine what happens in society. They have no control over their own destiny, no power to influence the laws of the country. And although the laws no longer prevent them from achieving that status, people's attitudes may take generations to change.

Thus the discriminated group remains as discriminated as ever, functionally speaking. Although the law no longer prevents them from being free, society is still stacked against them, and will probably remain so for generations.

Discriminating in the opposite direction accelerates the process of equality considerably. In a matter of a few years, the discriminated group can obtain representation, and a voice in the making of the laws of the country. Once it can be shown that the social discrimination is a thing of the past, the reversely discriminatory laws can them be removed.

What you suggest is not wrong, it's just slow. The discriminated group will become truly equal... in time. But it could be a long, long time. "Positive" discrimination allows for them to become functionally equal today. As a permanent solution, it sucks. But as a short-term temporary stop-gap measure, it is extremely effective.

Of course, in the medium- to long-term, it blows, because it lowers the standards for entry into those positions. What should happen is while the reverse discriminatory laws exist, members of the discriminated group should get into positions of power and use their influence to raise the standards of education for their people to the point where they no longer need the reverse discrimination.

It's just another imperfect solution for an imperfect world, but it beats the alternative in the short term at least.

RT Cunningham

That was a good analysis! I couldn't have written it better myself if I took a day to do so.

As both a regular employee and as a manager, military and civilian, I've had to work on both sides of the issue. As a manager and during the hiring process, the first thing I did was have anything personal (indicating race, religion, etc.) blotted out on the resumes. My first screening was based on the provided experience and qualifications. The only time I saw a person was at the very last step. I'm white and I didn't want to give myself any excuse to NOT hire someone based on what he/she was. I didn't find it difficult.

As I observed in the military, at an officer selection office, credentials didn't mean much when the quota system was in place. I watched as two equally qualified men, one black and one non-black (I don't remember), were screened and the selection was made. At the time, I did not know that the officer in charge HAD to select the black man because of a quota. I found out later when the officer-in-charge resigned his commission -- over the quota system.

The unfortunate aspect about all this is that, even with the equal opportunity programs being in place for at least 20 years, there are still organizations that refuse to get with the program and the original discrimination still occurs -- at least until they get caught.

I'm afraid it will take at least two generations to get rid of the bigots in both government and the private sectors.

palavra

i think this is a requirement .

how governments help to the people that affected from natural disasters
they should supply some quotas for the people that suffered from some social disasters.

springbok

I have lived with some form of discrimination all my life growing up in South Africa.

The apartheid system was wrong and now the system has been reversed to suit the other "side". People should be judged on their intellegence and ability, not their race, religion, sex, age or any other distinctive feature. The only exception I would agree to is for disabled people.

In the work place there should be no distinction apart from the ability to do the job. Affirmative action is wrong, in trying to ensure an "equal balance" there is one group of people who are being marginalised, even if they are the "majority". This simply causes more bad feelings which then develops into more racism/sexism or what have you.

All bad I say