From: heksterb@cs.utwente.nl (Ben Hekster)
Subject: Re: alt.personals and enforced monogomy
Summary: When is `discrimination' really discrimination?
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 00:54:16 GMT

This thread should have died out long ago...  but here goes, anyway--

In article <1992Sep3.181034.5521@bcrka451.bnr.ca> bbooth@x400gate.bnr.ca (Brad Booth) writes:
>In article <15130@claris.com>, mike_steiner@qm.claris.com (Mike Steiner) writes:
>> If I showed up in Grand Central Station in NYC
>> and started handing out $100 bills (I only wish that I could afford to) and
>> decided to give them only to people wearing wedding rings (or, to use your
>> analogy, only to white people), would I be discriminating?  No, I wouldn't.
>
>Actually, yes, you would be discriminating.
>
>Discriminate: to make a difference in treatment or favor on a basis other than
>              individual merit.
>Webster's definition, not mine.

Yes, but by the same token, bachelors discriminate against married
women, homosexual men discriminate against women, heterosexual men
discriminate against men, parents discriminate against other children
than their own, governments discriminate against foreign citizens, &c.
By the dictionary definition, we *all* discriminate on one basis or
another.  I guess it's more a question of which particular forms of
discrimination happen to be morally acceptable at the time and in the
particular situation at hand.  The rules aren't always hard-and-fast.

	I don't really like to use this kind of analogy in arguments,
but sometimes it does help to clear things up a little:  just suppose
for an instant that Darryl was excluding the service to convicted
rapists-- I suspect that in that case we wouldn't all be up in arms
trying to uphold their `right' to equal access.  I only mention this
because it goes to show that it really isn't a question of *whether*
anyone is being discriminated against, but *who* is.  Only in the
case of the convicted rapists, it is a little more obvious that it is
a group that it is `permissible' to discriminate against.

	I have to say that I agree with Mike Steiner on this one.
Darryl is running a *private* service, and as such I believe is
perfectly entitled to decide how and for whom he wishes to run it.
You or I may not like it, but that's basically not Darryl's problem.
It would be different if this were a *public* service, in which case we
would all be paying for it, and therefore have a right to equal access.

>[...] Unless Darryl wishes to judge people
>on individual merit (not saying he has to, just saying I wish he would),
>then his service (as he admits) discriminates.

Well, he is-- the merit he is judging on just happens to be whether
the individual involved is married or not...

>What bothers me is that this discrimination violates laws in both Canada
>and the US (and probably other countries).

Does it really?  I'm not all too familiar with either Canadian or
American anti-discrimination laws...  I know this isn't exactly the
most appropriate newsgroup for this, but since we're talking about it
anyway-- does anyone know whether it really is illegal to run a
*private* service that discriminates on the basis of, say, age, or
sex?  This would be a logical consequence of the little moral theory I
started above.

>Darryl doesn't even have the
>decency in his service's FAQ to give the proper title to those who are
>married, common-law or in a relationship that his service discriminates
>against.  He calls them all "marrieds."  This sounds like a derogatory
>name one would use when discriminating against minority groups.

I don't know, "marrieds" doesn't sound very derogatory to me...  or,
maybe, "aconjugally challenged" ?!

>[...] And don't you go
>trying to tell everyone that his service is not discriminatory, when
>by definition and admittance (by Darryl) it is.

Again, I really think this depends on what one means by "discrimination".
Not everybody lives by Webster's (although maybe it would prevent a lot
of misunderstandings if we did).
-- 
Ben `Hackster' Hekster		| "He bides his time and thinks,
heksterb@cs.utwente.nl		|  'There must be more to life than this!'"
Newsgroups: alt.personals,alt.personals.ads