The Ethics of Job Discrimination
The Ethics of Job Discrimination
This chapter focuses on the Continuing inequalities of income and occupational status discrimination against women and minorities in the workplace and discusses the proposed remedies for this, especially Affirmative Action policies.
Affirmative action is one of the most controversial issues in our society as is illustrated by recent controversy about admission policies at the University of Michigan. In Gratz v. Bollinger in 2005 the U.S. Supreme court ruled University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions policy which gave a fixed number of points to applicants in targeted groups illegal stating it to be not "narrowly tailored" and weighed race too heavily. At the same time, in Grutter v. Bollinger the Court upheld University of Michigan's law school admissions policy as "flexible enough to ensure that each applicant is evaluated as an individual and not in a way that makes race or ethnicity the defining feature of the application." The majority in this case reasoned that, due to its political and economic utility, "diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify using race in university admissions." Notably, more than five dozen major American Corporation corporations argued, in an amicus brief, that "individuals who have been educated in a diverse setting are more likely to succeed" in business. Dissenting, Justice Thomas argued that showing preference to minorities was harmful “racial discrimination”
“Discrimination” in its original sense means "to distinguish one object from another." Discrimination may be defined as "the wrongful act of distinguishing illicitly among people not on the basis of individual merit, but on the basis of prejudice or some other morally invidious attitude." Such morally invidious discrimination has three key features:
1. not being based on individual merit;
2. deriving from some morally unjustified attitude; and
3. having a harmful or negative impact on the interests of those
This chapter focuses on the Continuing inequalities of income and occupational status discrimination against women and minorities in the workplace and discusses the proposed remedies for this, especially Affirmative Action policies.
Affirmative action is one of the most controversial issues in our society as is illustrated by recent controversy about admission policies at the University of Michigan. In Gratz v. Bollinger in 2005 the U.S. Supreme court ruled University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions policy which gave a fixed number of points to applicants in targeted groups illegal stating it to be not "narrowly tailored" and weighed race too heavily. At the same time, in Grutter v. Bollinger the Court upheld University of Michigan's law school admissions policy as "flexible enough to ensure that each applicant is evaluated as an individual and not in a way that makes race or ethnicity the defining feature of the application." The majority in this case reasoned that, due to its political and economic utility, "diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify using race in university admissions." Notably, more than five dozen major American Corporation corporations argued, in an amicus brief, that "individuals who have been educated in a diverse setting are more likely to succeed" in business. Dissenting, Justice Thomas argued that showing preference to minorities was harmful “racial discrimination”
“Discrimination” in its original sense means "to distinguish one object from another." Discrimination may be defined as "the wrongful act of distinguishing illicitly among people not on the basis of individual merit, but on the basis of prejudice or some other morally invidious attitude." Such morally invidious discrimination has three key features:
1. not being based on individual merit;
2. deriving from some morally unjustified attitude; and
3. having a harmful or negative impact on the interests of those