Friday, May 20, 2016

A Short Guide to Systemic and Individual Discrimination

 
Okay, everyone, here's what's up: Systemic and individual discrimination are two different things.  Some of you know that, and most of you are probably vaguely aware of it, but since there are so many people who fail to understand it and so few who step up to explain it, I wanted to lay it out here.

Systemic racism/sexism/etc. means that a minority child is more likely to be born in poverty, receive education from an under-funded school, and not be able to afford college or even have the grades to get scholarships because of the below average education they received.  It doesn't mean anyone actually discriminated against them (although that happens, too), it just means that they're in a shitty situation because their parents were poor because their parents were poor because someone discriminated against them or even their parents.  Somewhere along the line, discrimination happened and left whole groups of people in shitty situations.

Systemic sexism is when there is a pay gap, no matter how you try to hand-wave it away with explanations.  All people ever accomplish by presenting evidence to deny the pay gap is identifying the cause of the pay gap, not dismissing it.  Sure, it's less likely that a woman will get paid less outright because of them being a woman in the same job as a man, but there is systemic sexism when women fall into gender roles — even though no one teaches them those roles — just because it's the societal, statistical norm.  It's systemic sexism when they get marginalized out of certain jobs or promotions because they might perhaps want to have a baby at some point and actually have some time to spend with it.

Individual racism/sexism/etc., on the other hand, is the one we all know, where we decide that someone is likely a bad character because of their race or religion, or we decide that someone is bossy because they're a woman instead of deciding they're a good leader like a man.  It's also the kind that builds into systemic discrimination, such as when we decide that we want to build a wall to keep Mexicans out or pass a law to keep all Muslims from entering the country.

The point of all of this is twofold:

Firstly, it is very possible to discriminate against the majority.  Anyone can be racist against white people or sexist against men.  It happens.  But it happens less often because it's not facilitated by systemic racism/sexism, and it's less of a big deal when it happens because they haven't already been oppressed by a societal structure stacked against them because they were born into the wrong family, gender, or class.

This doesn't mean we should be okay with objectifying men or tolerating violence against white people.  In fact, allowing the continuation of racism or sexism against anyone weakens the cause of equality — not only directly, but by allowing others to see themselves as vindicated, saying, "See?  They do it to us, too!"  This does mean when someone supports feminism or declares "black lives matter" that they have more cause to say that then us white men have to say "we matter, too!"  There are a hell of a lot fewer people telling white men they don't matter, so can we white men just shut up about ourselves for a bit and help out those who need it?

Secondly, systemic discrimination will not go away even in the absence of individual discrimination.  It's been around long enough to be built into society.  It's why we have affirmative action, not because of some made-up "reverse-discrimination" (which, unlike individual racism against whites or sexism against men, does not exist).  Although affirmative action is typically applied like a bandage on a still bleeding wound, trying to make up for the problem after the fact, it's nevertheless better than just letting it bleed out.

Moreover, systemic discrimination paves the way for individual discrimination.  The problem isn't that there are women who want to be pretty or happen to be timid, but the fact that it's so normal that many women feel they have to be that way.  The problem isn't simply that impoverished people take up crime, but that minorities are more likely to be poor and join gangs or become criminals, and then others begin to associate those minorities with criminal behavior, worsening the effect and perpetuating the cycle.

So even if you're not sexist or racist or homophobic or anti-Muslim, you probably still need to do more to undo the divides built into society.  Even the little things help.  Encourage girls to be smart and strong and take charge.  Donate to a scholarship for minorities or the underprivileged.  Help explain these things to someone who wants to limit the rights of gays or Muslims or whatever, or even someone who cries “All lives matter” or who says that they think someone should get rewarded based on their merits and not their race/sex/whatever — although this is overall true, we have created a system where certain races, sexes, etc. typically get a head start while others are left behind, and we have to do something about that.  At the very least, shut up about yourself when someone else asks for help.

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