Christian Ethics

Racial and Gender Discrimination

Definition

1. Discrimination per se--neither good nor bad

1. total egalitarianism is impossible and imprudent
2. generally, discrimination is an act of prudence when based upon characteristics relevant to the task and which does not disadvantage someone of inappropriate reasons

1. the moral issue--does the choice cause negative consequences for irrelevant reasons; can this be justified?

1. often this question is difficult to answer, due to 1) history of discrimination and 2)

1. moral assumptions:

1. the universalizeablity of treating all people with dignity
2. the destructiveness of basing moral action on hate
3. the necessity of justice; Aristotle's distinction between "distributive justice" and "rectificatory justice"

1. Affirmative Action--a test case

1. National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., "On Racial Justice"

1. everyone is made in the image of God
2. racism is idolatry
3. racism--prejudice plus power

1. institutional racism--preserves racism
2. economic racism--disadvantages particular races

1. racism still exists
2. if the Church is silent about it, the Church promotes it
3. economics is the heart of racism today

1. still racism in civil rights, education
2. has damaged the Black family

1. the Church--Her Benediction--pray and work for social justice and the elimination of racism

1. Charles Murray, "Affirmative Racism"

1. brief history of Affirmative Action

1. 1965--LBJ tried to recruit more Blacks
2. 1970--federal courts granted quotas
3. 1971--elimination of discriminatory minimum standards
4. 1972--Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

1. Affirmative Action creates a new brand of racism--perpetuates the impression of inferiority; supports "old racism" ("I told you they were inferior")
2. The consequence of A.A. are self-defeating

1. Michael E. Levin, "Is Racial Discrimination Special?"

1. reverse discrimination--the favoring of a group on the grounds that past members of the group suffered discrimination

1. this makes a moral distinction on morally irrelevant grounds
2. the principle is too capricious to be just and has socially disastrous consequences

1. only trying to rectify past racial discrimination is too arbitrary
2. there are worse past wrongs--e.g., murder, war

1. Carl Wellman, "Preferential Admissions" in Morals and Ethics

1. the moral principle of the "right of recipience" requires a "correlative duty"
2. Blacks have been discriminated against; they have a "right of recipience"; the question then is who has the "correlative duty?"

1. the duty falls on those who have been privileged by the disadvantages to the Blacks

1. a "correlative duty" is preferential admission into universities
2. this duty cannot be justified as a retrospective correction; it's justified as a "prospective correction"

1. cannot know enough about the past to corrects its problems
2. can control the future; hence must stop discrimination against Blacks