The Relation between Discrimination and Morality

The Relation between Discrimination and Morality

 

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      Discrimination has in recent decades become identified with a specific way of distinguishing between people. The term is widely used to criticize actions that disadvantage people or groups of people because of certain traits such as sex, race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, but also disability, weight, age or genetic constitution. There are still many people treating women or blacks less favorably than men or whites just because they are women or blacks is morally wrong. According to James W. Nickel, “Discrimination is morally wrong because its premise that one group is less worthy than another is insulting to its victims, because it harms its victims by reducing their self-esteem and opportunities, and because it is unfair.” (James W. Nickel, 1998: 103). But this analysis is too simple, not every discrimination act rests on the premise that one group is less worthy than another. Frequently, discrimination just suggests that some people are treated less favorably than others which does not necessarily mean that they are supposed to be generally less worthy. Even if an act through which people are treated differently has harmful effects on some of them and reduces their pride, it seems unclear that this implies that all such acts morally wrong. Like the following example, an employer rejects applicant A for a job because he does not have the necessary qualifications. This decision may harm the rejected person and reduce his pride and opportunities. Nevertheless, the decision normally does not count as a form of wrongful discrimination. So, actually there are still many people who are confused about what causes that discrimination still occur and what impact it has on our daily social live.

      This ongoing discrimination is still difficult to explain clearly and precisely what causes it. Whether this is purely a moral error or indeed discrimination is not something wrong if it happens like a job interview like that. But, According to Ezorsky, distinguishes between two concepts of discrimination, “overt discrimination” (exemplified by what is traditionally called racism or sexism) and “institutional discrimination”. According to her, the second concept “is exem-plified when an organization (e.g. a business firm) uses an intrinsically bias-free selection procedure that has disproportional adverse impact on minorities or women.” (Ezorsky, 1992: 264).  If seen from the theory then the problem is the "overt discrimination" that is happening. One of the human rights organization in Indonesia The Human Rights Day Commemoration Coalition (Koalisi Peringatan Hari HAM) noted at least 51 cases of human rights violations and have not been resolved by the government in 2019. If indeed discrimination is morally wrong, then what keeps people from doing so until now despite being regulated in law as a human rights law. According to Yahya, there are 6 causes of discrimination, there are, psychological defense mechanisms, feelings of disappointment, history, feelings of unsafe and low self-esteem, competition and exploitation, socialization patterns (Yahya, 2006: 248). If seen from that six causes, the main problem that occurs in our country is many social pattern or diversity in our country from a long time ago, the evidenced is many kingdoms that exist in Indonesia and also regional organizations during colonialism, that causes psychological defense mechanisms between ethnic groups or religions because of distrust. This distrust feelings can happen maybe because the lack of unity and the act of competition. And it can make feelings of unsafe and low self-esteem. And the existence of a person who deliberately discriminates makes it heat up and make the other feels disappoint to other people or group according to the person who deliberately discriminates represented. And if this discrimination continues, it will cause impacts which surely affect our daily lives. That will make the sense of unity and unity among fellow citizens disappear. It will create conflicts between citizens. Many people or groups will insulting the others. And after that there will be state problems such as social inequality and human rights issues. And it is not impossible that there will be many criminal acts if this discrimination is allowed. And this also can make a country will not become a developed country.

      At this time discrimination still exists in our social life. We can see it in news or our social media. There are still many cases that occur due to discrimination in our social life. Discrimination is still a mindset in the human brain today. The cause of it are psychological defense mechanisms, feelings of disappointment, history, feelings of unsafe and low self-esteem, competition and exploitation, socialization patterns. And if it continues it will cause some effects like create conflicts between citizens, people or groups will insulting the others, social inequality and human rights issues problem, and this lead to criminal acts. And how long this discrimination will continue to be carried out in our daily lives. It is our responsibility to overcome this problem. We must tolerate each other's differences. We must believe that God creates us equally and fairly. All we have to do is be the best and help the weak. If we cannot eliminate this discrimination, at least we can reduce it from this world.

References :

EZORSKY, G. 1992: Art. Discrimination, in: BECKER, L.C. (ed.): Encyclopedia of Ethics, Vol. 1. Chicago.

Harahap, M. Yahya. 2006. Pembahasan Permasalahan dan Penerapan KUHP Penyidikan dan Penuntutan.Sinar Grafika. Jakarta.

NICKEL, J.W. 1998: Art. Discrimination, in: CRAIG, E. (ed.): Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 3. London.