Discrimunation: How Are We Guilty?

 

Here’s what I think: almost all of the business owners have experienced discriminated for and against people at least once. It’s perfectly rational to discriminate between applicants for a job and to only hire those who are the most qualified based on merit. If I’m hiring people in my manufacturing plant, I would most likely hire men - who are more physically capable of lifting heavy objects than women. However, there are irrational and illegitimate forms of discrimination, such as racism and sexism. There is rarely a reason to discriminate against people purely on the basis of religious or political views, sexual orientation, age, or ethnicity.

 

 A blatant example of discrimination could be a policy that women cannot be promoted to supervisory positions because men don’t like to take orders from females. It’s sad but I know a local company that discourages managers and HR to hire gay / lesbian people as part of their sales team. It’s because clients and distributors may find it awkward while talking to them, thus could potentially impact the agent-client relationship! And to think that the corporation has already been operating for 88 years, management must have not taken into consideration the ethics of discrimination.

Discrimination is not only applied to businesses, but also to our human rights as a citizen of our own country / state. In the United States, some states required a literacy test for voters. Many Native Americans were given poor education, thus couldn’t pass the literacy test, therefore not eligible to vote.

When I read about the literacy test for voters, I was guilty of thinking the same way in the Philippines as well. National election is just a few months away, and there’s one aspiring-president that is charged of different corruption anomalies that he couldn’t directly explain why. Many people never wanted him, but some people, especially the masses, still do. And a huge percentage of these masses are the uneducated ones. The aspiring-president is still leading the polls because majority of the population are the masses. It is disappointing because these masses only see the direct benefit they got from the politician: cakes, small discounts, etc. And there was a discussion of only allowing the educated voters and tax payers to vote for the national elections. I was very supportive of that policy until I realized that it’s also a form of discrimination. From a utilitarian perspective, the policy could help the nation to elect the deserving politicians. But from a rights, justice, and fairness perspective, no matter at what angle you look at the situation, it still falls under discrimination – a discrimination to the poor and the uneducated.