Thread: Discrimination

Out of curiosity, why would the woman bring up racism? Did she mean the policy itself or its enforcement?

Originally Posted by northpaw

Out of curiosity, why would the woman bring up racism? Did she mean the policy itself or its enforcement?

The policy. She brought up racism because she is ignorant. There was nothing race related about that incident, and there is nothing racist about it's enforcement.

Originally Posted by gregs656

Some of you know I'm a lifeguard at a swimming pool.
..............
Chatting about it in the staff room with two of my bosses, I effectively said it was discriminatory but it was important to do it because of health and safety. Unsurprisingly, this was met with them lecturing me on how it wasn't discrimination.
............

Health and safety trump the other issues 100% and make them vanish.

In the absence of health and safety other things might apply.

Since "discrimination" is such a hot button your boss and the
others are correct in drawing a line and not letting you use
language other than "health and safety".

There is a skate park near by and I see six year olds and
twenty six year olds. The size and skill difference is quite
large.... In passing it looks as if this local group self police
themselves but there is danger since some of the bigger kids
skate hard and fast.

Heck McDonalds has height rules in their play areas..

Discrimination of one sort or another is constantly necessary in every facet of reality. If we did not discriminate between fresh water and molten lava we'd have a hard time filling our pools. If we did not discriminate between our children and grizzly bears, the next sunday afternoon family get together would be a whole different plate of tamales. We discriminate against people who aren't licensed to master a ship when we load our cars and kids onboard the ferry. There are perfectly acceptable and obligatory forms of discrimination and there are forms of discrimination that are superfluous and forms of discrimination that are subjectively villified, such as racial discrimination or the caste system that is perfectly acceptable in India but in the USA the practice oof would get one imprisoned.

Of course my input is late and redundant. However I hope it is interestingly worded.

Originally Posted by gregs656

She called one of my colleges racist
...
Does that make sense?

If your colleague is an "it" then yes

Originally Posted by gregs656

saying that it was racist

I think that some people do like to hide behind the whole "rascism/discrimination" thing in an attempt to get what they want.

Was the person who made a fuss unable to swim where they wanted because of the rules?

Not that I'm a cynic or anything..!

The problem is now that its damned if you do and damned if you dont. If you dont let someone swim where they want then you're a discriminatory bigot, and if you do let them swim where they want they're either getting run over by stronger swimmers, or get themselves into trouble in deep water, neither of which you or they want.

I think discrimination for a reason is a good thing. Like, you must be a good swimmer to go in deep water. That makes sense, it keeps people safe. Or, you must be over a certain height to go on this rollercoaster. Again, it keeps people safe.

But if you discriminate for no reason, as per ShavedZombies example above, then this is not and should not be acceptable to anyone.

The problem is that some people have confused the two distinctions. And that they do tend to use these "bad words" to try and get what they want. As I say, no cynicism here...!

Discrimination for health and safety, or any other acceptable common-sense reason is ok. Reasons for discriminations must be understandable for all of course.
Without discrimination there would be not much decisions in our life.

There's discriminations for questionable reasons as well but i do not understand how this would have been the question in the case of the OP.
How did the person in question pick up the racism card? I cannot see any reason for that.

Originally Posted by Stubear

I think that some people do like to hide behind the whole "rascism/discrimination" thing in an attempt to get what they want.

Absolutely. I think that's my point, that actually, in my view, saying a rule is discriminatory is a terrible argument because as far as I'm concerned there is nothing wrong with discrimination, and she is right it is discriminatory. It's the reason for the discrimination that defines whether or not it is a just, and in this case, health and safety is a perfectly acceptable reason to discriminate.

I think she played the racist card because she was angry and ignorant. It was a completely invalid argument. In the end she claimed the board was wrong, two tape measures later and she gave up and buggered off with her tail in between her legs.

Another reason I started this thread is because it frustrates the hell out of me when people are so narrow minded, they don't even think about it. Their thought process was basically discrimination is wrong, the height restriction is a good rule, therefore the height restriction can't be discriminatory. That's quite dangerous thinking IMO.

Originally Posted by gregs656

.......
Another reason I started this thread is because it frustrates the hell out of me when people are so narrow minded, they don't even think about it. Their thought process was basically discrimination is wrong, the height restriction is a good rule, therefore the height restriction can't be discriminatory. That's quite dangerous thinking IMO.

Let me turn this sideways. Discrimination is illegal in many places and
illegal activity has legal consequences thus to label this as discrimination
will cause legal action that must be defended.

The law is full of one way logic. If you say something out of order or out
of context you can find that you admitted to a crime. Law and language
rules are not equal.

In the context of language I believe your point is valid.
In the context or rules, regulations, and the law you are likely incorrect.
Since you and other lifeguards are tasked with enforcing
regulations and rules in my opinion your boss is reading this correctly.

AND this is a multi national list. I am in one country and you are
in another.... That further confuses things because our use of
language and our laws differ. Now where is that grey law
book, is it in the boot? Truth be that it is a gray topic and
the boots in my closet will not hold a book. These two things
are too complex to get correct all the time.

Is it? Certain types of discrimination perhaps, but is discrimination as a whole illegal? It can't be.

Just done a quick google, and it seems that the phrase employed is 'It's illegal to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of . . . '

That doesn't make discrimination illegal, it makes discrimination for certain reasons illegal. If anything, I think this supports my argument.