On Preference and Discrimination

Is preference just whitewashed discrimination?

Stereotypes exist for a good reason. The question about them is usually, “How far is too far?” I think that is the exact kind of situation we have here. The more I consider it, the harder I find it to differentiate between discrimination and preference. This feels unnatural. Preference starts to feel like a sham and discrimination is not so bad. When is discrimination reasonable? Is preference just whitewashed discrimination? These are the questions I have.

Preference or Discrimination?

I may have been tempted by what seems to be the ease of resolving the questions with “Objective Standards” for a minute but I think that is a trap. It would be pretty much impossible to come up with “objective standards” for certain things. My most obvious category is deeply emotional things, where utility is not our first thought. The more important reason why I think this is a trap is because objective standards as proposed by humans when dealing with other humans are not exactly trustworthy. After all, the standards formed by humans often have bias baked in. The authority that the term “objective” grants to this standard protects it from being tested rather than simply owning up to them that we derived them from our wishes.

We are beings of bias. When given a choice we are usually already predisposed for or against certain options, Intentionally or unintentionally. Our bias drives our choices most of the time. They are often formed from past experiences, sometimes from things we’ve heard. I don’t think this is wrong, Our experiences form us and they can guide our actions; as there are few things we can trust as much as our experiences. This is what justifies what I’ll call our “right to discrimination” or preference. I am starting to consider them as two sides of a single coin. The major question is when should we doubt or kick against our experiences; our biases (the ones we’re aware of at the very least) when we act them out? This process is how we refine our biases to look more like what we think they should be (I resist the urge to use “refine into more noble forms”).

With that, I have come to a fuller idea. Discrimination is the eventuality that stems from having biases, which are inevitable by-products of being. They serve the purpose of protecting us with the context of prior information gathered, and the way we can refine them is by scrutinising the root cause—our bias. 

Up until this point, I have assumed an individual who wants to improve and make “fairer” decisions. In a social context, this conversation proves even more thorny. There is the possibility of malicious Intent. We can’t exactly judge intent. Attempting to infer intent from outcomes will very likely lead to unfortunate outcomes. In this case, it seems like we have justification to aggrandize utility. After all, If it serves the populace better why should we not do it? Tribalism—In the sense that we all belong to people groups and will try to fight for the interests of those groups—and the possibility of malicious intent in our minds throws it into disarray. 

It doesn’t make me happy to conclude that discrimination—in the horrible sense I still haven’t found a way to describe—is inevitable unless we are in some sort of utopian paradise. Even there I think it’s very likely there’ll just be a greater level of discrimination between the leaders and followers and less between other people groups. Ignoring feasibility, once again the question we revert to is where should it be allowed and not combatted? In my perfect society, it wouldn’t exist in matters of the commonwealth: utilitarianism and meritocracy is all we would care about.

Since the society is made up of individuals there would need to be a level of restraint on personal matters. But this leads us into yet another thorny issue: when is it justified to deprive a person of their right to discrimination? When it affects other people? It always will whether they know it or not. When it affects other people and they know it? That’s their business, They shouldn’t put me in discomfort for their comfort.