Posted by
The Secular Conservative on Thursday, January 18, 2007 8:46:56 PM
The Duke faculty have written
another public letter. In it they (and references to student statements) claim that discrimination against women and minorities is "prevalent" on campus, and they cite a very powerful example. Apparently, one of the lacrosse players shouted a "racial epithet" as the dancers left the party.
So here's my issue: Does a racist remark count as discrimination? It's not hard to imagine what the player may have shouted. My best guess: "Get out of here you nig**r bi*ch." Pretty bad and not something I would recommend in civilized society, but discrimination?
Discrimination is more like choosing one person over another based on some personal attribute, like race. So if I give a raise to my white employee, but don't give a raise to my black employee, all else being equal, I've discriminated against the black person (interestingly, if you reverse the situation, some blacks will not agree that this is discrimination since "you can't discriminate against whites"). In this example, I have shown a decided preference towards my white employee and my black employee can demonstrate harm: the lack of income.
So how does hate speech qualify as discrimination? Making an exclamation, no matter how vile, is not a preferential action. Of course, I might be saying I don't like you as much as my white friend, but "liking" is not an action the way giving a raise is an action. And can the so-called victim demonstrate harm? There is no dollar amount that can be placed on hurt feelings no matter how vile the hate speech.
I suspect that the liberal thinkers at Duke University really believe any racist or sexist speech or action qualifies as discrimination, but it's not the same. Perhaps if they were critical thinkers, not just liberal thinkers, they would recognize that discrimination requires both an explicit action that leads to a quantifiable harm. Simply making a racist remark is not equivalent to race-based discrimination.
-tsc