This paper investigates the relationship between discrimination, epistemic injustice, and social structures as it pertains to the marginalization of disabled people. Doing so, we argue for a new understanding of structural discrimination. While discrimination is often viewed as an agent-centered or rule-based phenomenon, we argue that a broader socio-structural lens is crucial for understanding how it emerges and persists over time. Drawing on the Human Variation Model (HVM) of disability, we analyze three subtypes of epistemic (...) injustice—testimonial injustice, hermeneutical injustice, and non-disabled ignorance—and demonstrate their critical role in perpetuating structural discrimination. Our analysis addresses three gaps in the literature: (1) it clarifies the relationship between epistemic injustice and (structural) discrimination; (2) it highlights how epistemic injustices contribute to discrimination against disabled people; and (3) it allows us to have a better grasp of what structural discrimination is and how it differs from its direct and indirect counterparts. (shrink)

Structural discrimination is sometimes presented as a unique subtype of discrimination. Yet, it is unclear how this concept should be defined. I argue that structural discrimination against a group G obtains when (1) G is a social group in society S; (2) members of G typically experience enduring, cross-cutting comparative disadvantages that are plural, multi-facetted, and that affect different significant spheres of life; and (3) the comparative disadvantages are created by the combined effects of different (...) interdependent social practices. I show how structural discrimination is distinct from individual instances of direct and indirect discrimination and that this concept is different from the notion of structural injustice. (shrink)

In her evocative article “Meeting the Moment: Bioethics in the Time of Black Lives Matter,” Camisha Russell comprehensively illustrates why racism should be considered an important bioethica...

An inordinate number of low wage workers in essential industries are Black, Hispanic, or Latino, immigrants or refugees — groups beset by centuries of discrimination and burdened with disproportionate but preventable harms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article considers the question of the value and limits of the concept of discrimination for the ethics of migration by drawing attention to the need for a conceptualization of discrimination that can encompass forms of group-based disadvantage that are enabled and reproduced by the three central norms of our contemporary regime of global migration governance: the state’s right to unilateral control over its border regime, birthright citizenship and rights of (re)entry to one’s own state, and the individual (...) right to leave a state. I sketch an historical account of the forging and yoking together of these norms as bound up with the history of European imperialism and argue that they function to enable the reproduction of the advantage of states of the Global North. I illustrate this argument by reference to the example of the transnational migration of medical professionals from sub-Saharan Africa and argue that this may amount to structural discrimination against the human right to health of the populations of these states of emigration before considering two responses to this condition: ‘no recruitment’ and ‘no disadvantage’. (shrink)

Since Opuz v. Turkey (2009), the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered over a dozen judgments in which it examined domestic violence through the prism of gender-based discrimination. Apart from the individual circumstances of the cases, the Court considered the general approach to domestic violence in the defendant states, searching for a large-scale structural gender bias. Hence, although the Court has not directly referred to the notion of “structural discrimination” in relation to domestic violence, it (...) engaged in unveiling this problem within the state parties. Building on the case law of the Court, the article presents and systemizes information that may prove structural gender discrimination in domestic violence cases. It navigates potential applicants through the Court’s interpretation and indicates arguments and sources that may support their claims. In particular, it discusses what kind of data and information may demonstrate the general, discriminatory attitude of the authorities towards domestic violence and what sources the applicants may use while seeking the evidence. (shrink)

This article asks whether discrimination law should be symmetrical: whether it should offer the same level of protection to dominant and dominated groups. It articulates a structural inequality theory of the moral foundations of discrimination law and defends it against prominent alternatives, such as the view that discrimination is wrong because it is irrational or disrespectful. The paper then argues that while direct discrimination is symmetrical, indirect discrimination is asymmetrical. It cannot be claimed by (...) those – men, or white persons – who are not at the sharp end of structural inequality. Furthermore, even dominated groups cannot claim to be indirectly discriminated against by just any law that has a disparate impact on them. If the structural inequality view is correct, the protectorate of discrimination law is not as extensive as is commonly assumed. (shrink)

We report a series of experiments in which subjects were required to make spatial discriminations about naturally obtained images, as follows. Subjects were shown two natural images on a computer screen, side by side and for a period of 500 ms. Subjects were then shown, on a separate part of the computer screen, a small patch of one of the images selected at random. Subjects were required to decide which of the two full images the patch comes from, and whereabouts (...) in that image it is taken from. They indicated their response by clicking the mouse cursor at the appropriate point on the screen. The proportion of trials on which the subjects selected the correct image and the accuracy of the spatial position of their correct responses were calculated. These two measures independently indicate the general discriminability of the two image sets, and the extent to which the spatial layout of the image has been perceived. By comparing response accuracy for images that are from different sets (such as mountain or town scenes) with response accuracy when the two images are from the same set it is possible to establish the image properties that underlie coarse scene apprehension. By using sets of images that are perhaps best described as being natural textures (such as patterns of foliage or rock surface) it is possible to measure the extent to which texture is processed spatially. Our results are interpreted in the light of statistical differences between the image sets that we have used. (shrink)

Across the country, legal and health care professionals who understand that health outcomes are most influenced by social and environmental conditions have improved patient health by adopting the interdisciplinary MLP health care delivery model. However, the MLP field cannot advance population health, let alone long-term health equity, until it addresses the structural determinants of health inequity that are rooted in discrimination, segregation, and other forms of racial and ethnic subordination.

This book provides an overview of discrimination and structural injustice in assisted dying. It differentiates between direct and indirect discrimination at both the individual and organizational levels, and it pays particular attention to indirect discrimination due to structural factors that have been systemically overlooked. Whereas bioethics literature has traditionally engaged with discrimination on the basis of disability or exclusionary legal barriers, comparatively little attention has been devoted to the cases of individuals who are not (...) legally excluded from access, but are effectively unable to access assisted suicide for other reasons, such as being inhabitants of rural areas with no reasonable access, being prisoners, or, in certain cases, low-income individuals. A conceptual mapping of this kind provides a finer understanding of the overall architecture of the ethical debate surrounding assisted dying and clarifies its moral wrongs. Finally, this book shows the inherent political dimension of assisted dying, where the ethics of assisted dying are not only about principles of autonomy and liberty in death and dying, but also about social justice and equality. The book offers a robust normative claim ensuring fair and equal opportunity of access to assisted dying. This book is of interest to philosophers, policymakers, public health experts, and political scientists interested in the issue of discrimination in the context of assisted dying. (shrink)

In Born Free and Equal: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Nature of Discrimination, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen defends the harm-based account of the wrongness of discrimination, which explains the wrongness of discrimination with reference to the harmfulness of discriminatory acts. Against this view, we offer two objections. The conditions objection states that the harm-based account implausibly fails to recognize that harmless discrimination can be wrong. The explanation objection states that the harm-based account fails adequately to identify all of (...) the wrong-making properties of discriminatory acts. We argue that the structure of a satisfactory view cannot be outcome-focused. A more promising family of views focuses on the deliberation of the discriminator and in particular on the reasons that motivate or fail to motivate her action. (shrink)

This essay reflects on deficiencies in existing accounts of diversity understood simply as non-discrimination. Her critique of contemporary policies suggests new directions for enhancing diversity. She proposes that to effectively apply the notion of diversity to business and other institutions, then, we will need to problematize the understanding of firms (especially corporate ones) and their role in social and economic life more generally. By drawing on her own conception of equal positive freedom, Gould demands the relevance not only of (...) notions of redistribution and recognition, but points to the importance of solidarity, an understanding of the social ontology of diversity, and a juxtaposition of a more relational account of the diverse individuals and of groups to existing aggregative interpretations. She further provides brief suggestions of new forms of participative and cooperative management of firms and their potential impact in work contexts and in society more generally. (shrink)

This chapter develops an original account of what unjust subordination consists in. It then uses this account to argue that both direct and indirect discrimination are often wrongful because of their contribution to unjust subordination. The chapter begins by arguing that we need to move away from individualistic conceptions of subordination and to consider subordination as something that happens to a person by virtue of her membership in social groups. It then lays out a set of four common and (...) morally salient features of situations in which one social group is subordinated by others, and it uses these to help analyze cases of discrimination. In particular, the chapter calls attention to the role of “structural accommodations.” These are policies, practices, and physical structures that tacitly accommodate a more privileged group’s needs at the expense of subordinated groups. Structural accommodations help us understand how indirect discrimination, too, can be wrongfully subordinating. (shrink)

In societies where agents distinguish imperfectly among the alternatives, a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of an Arrovian Social Welfare Function is the presence of an agent who only distinguishes two groups of alternatives or of two agents with complementary discrimination patterns. This result is based on the observation that differences in discrimination structures may lead to the absence of free triples, thus providing a way to escape Arrow's impossibility result.

There are many circumstances in which vegans are treated or considered worse than nonvegans, both in the private and the public sphere, either due to the presence of a bias against them or for structural reasons. For instance, vegans sometimes suffer harassment, have issues at their workplace, or find little vegan food available. In many cases they are forced to contribute to, or to participate in, animal exploitation against their will when states render it illegitimate to oppose or refuse (...) to support some uses of animals. For the most part this remains socially invisible. Vegans, however, often recognize this as a form of discrimination against them. But they seldom campaign against it, as they regard it as a consequence of another and more important discrimination, i.e. speciesist discrimination against nonhuman animals. If this is correct, discrimination against vegans can be characterized as a form of second-order discrimination, that is, discrimination against those who oppose another form of discrimination. If speciesism really is unjustified and discriminatory, then discrimination against vegans will always be discriminatory and unjustified too. But even if our current attitudes towards animals were justified there would be strong reasons to claim that vegans do suffer several forms of private and public discrimination that are unjustified. (shrink)

The everyday harms of structural racism and discrimination, perpetuated through institutions, laws, policies, and practices, constitute social determinants of health, but measures that account for their debilitating effects are largely missing in genetic studies of complex diseases. Drawing on insights from the social sciences and public health, we propose critical methodologies for incorporating tools that measure structural racism and discrimination within genetic analyses. We illustrate how including these measures may strengthen the accuracy and utility of findings (...) for diverse communities, clarify elusive relationships between genetics and environment in a racialized society, and support greater equity within genomics and precision health research. This approach may also support efforts to build and sustain vital partnerships with communities and with other fields of research inquiry, centering community expertise and lived experiences and drawing on valuable knowledge from practitioners in the social sciences and public health to innovate biomedical and genomic study designs aimed at community health priorities. (shrink)

Discrimination laws usually prohibit discrimination based on some traits, like race, caste, and sex, and not on others, like sports team allegiance. Should socioeconomic class be included among the protected traits? We examine an argument for the view that it should which leads to the conclusion that both direct and indirect socioeconomic discrimination should be prohibited by the state. The argument has three premises: (1) direct paradigmatic discrimination should be prohibited by law; (2) if direct paradigmatic (...) discrimination should be prohibited by law, then so should direct socioeconomic discrimination; and (3) where direct discrimination based on a certain trait should be prohibited by law, so should indirect discrimination on the basis of the same trait. Since we assume most readers will accept (1), the paper is largely devoted to the defense of (2) and (3). The outlawing of direct socioeconomic discrimination would involve an adjustment of the political and legal status quo, but we argue that it should nevertheless be implemented. By contrast, a prohibition on indirect socioeconomic discrimination would require a radical change to the way in which our societies are structured, because many of our laws, policies, and practices systematically (re)produce inequality to the disproportionate detriment of the poor. Our main aim, therefore, is not to defend the prohibition of indirect socioeconomic discrimination, but to show that most people’s views about discrimination are in deep tension with their attitude to current law. Resolving this tension would require for most of us to revise our beliefs either about whether indirect socioeconomic discrimination should be prohibited or about (1)–(3). One might reject the view that law should prohibit socioeconomic discrimination and still accept this claim about a deep tension in most people’s views on discrimination. (shrink)

Relevance. The article explores the problem of women’s discrimination through the lens of contemporary feminist philosophy. The author analyses the evolution of feminist thought from the first to the third wave, revealing how the understanding of social equality and freedom has changed within broader socio-cultural transformations. The purpose of this article is to focus on the theoretical aspects of the problem of women’s discrimination from the perspective of feminist criticism, to show its origins and transformation in different versions (...) of feminism, and to highlight the problem of intersectionality of different forms of discrimination, including in the educational space. Methods. Particular attention is devoted to the transition from liberal feminism – focused on legal equality and civil liberties, and rooted in the philosophical ideas of John Stuart Mill – to Marxist and psychoanalytic approaches, which interpret women’s oppression because of structural inequality, economic exploitation, and symbolic domination. Through comparative analysis, it demonstrates that feminist critique of social inequality extends beyond a narrowly gendered discourse, transforming into a broader humanistic program of social emancipation aimed at constructing a just society. Novelty. Central to the discussion are the notions of the “universal female experience”, its critique within the framework of intersectionality, and the influence of cultural and economic factors on the formation of social roles (“sexual politics”). The article shows how contemporary feminist theory integrates the issues of gender and class inequality, emphasizing the multidimensional nature of discrimination. Conclusion. It is underlined that overcoming social inequality is possible only through an inclusive model of society that ensures equal access to education, employment, and political participation regardless of gender, class, race, nationality, or religion. The paper highlights the prospects of “engaged pedagogy”, which seeks not only to defend women’s rights but also to affirm the principles of social justice and human dignity. (shrink)

Recent philosophical accounts of discrimination face challenges in accommodating robust intuitions about the particular way in which it is wrongful—most prominently, the intuition that discriminatory actions intrinsically violate equality irrespective of their contingent consequences. The paper suggests that we understand the normative structure of discrimination in a way that is different from the one implicitly assumed by these accounts. It argues that core discriminatory wrongs—such as segregation in Apartheid South Africa—divide into two types, corresponding to violations of relational (...) and distributive equality; and that a pluralistic view of the internal structure of each type should be adopted. This normative structure serves to appropriately vindicate the mentioned intuitions; it also contributes to clarifying the normative underpinnings of legal concepts associated with discrimination (including the distinctions between direct and indirect, or ‘disparate treatment/impact’ discrimination, and intentional vs. unintentional discrimination), and developing a more productive public discourse around allegations of discrimination. (shrink)

Several important doctrinal developments in the last few decades of gender equality jurisprudence deserve evaluations for their canonical features and implications from global constitutional perspectives. First, the doctrine of indirect discrimination has been established in a wide range of jurisdictions as canonical, enabling adjudicators in constitutional reasoning to see beyond the formality of law and deliberate on socially structured inequalities and the real-life conditions of women and other minorities. Second, a notable mode of interpretation by the Constitutional Court of (...) Korea is suggested as a possible candidate for a canonical approach in construing normative relations between tradition and gender equality. The Court’s Household Head System decision provides a constitutional interpretation that subjects a patriarchal culture and tradition in society, which has long been codified into family law, to strict constitutional demands of gender equality and individual dignity. Lastly, a globally-known review standard that the Supreme Court of the United States has adopted for gender discrimination cases—intermediate scrutiny—is examined, and the discussion reveals the standard’s inadequacy for serving as a global canon, in contrast with proportionality review. The first two developments illuminate how constitutional review can bring to light for re-examination ‘conventionally normalized’ wrongfulness imposed on historically disadvantaged groups and individuals, and how it provides them with a venue to pursue self-emancipatory projects for achieving substantive equality. The last case indicates that a global canon requires transnational applicability, not only on account of its substantive merits but also for its workability within a common grammar that enables principled contextualization. (shrink)

Against the background of a deeply uneven package of work–family reconciliation measures and an increasing focus on engaging men in unpaid care work, in this article I discuss the extension of the Irish discrimination law framework to provide protection against family status discrimination to workers who are engaged in certain care relationships. While this development of the law to recognize a relational understanding of inequality is welcome, its confined definition of family status fails to capture the range of (...) workers’ caring relationships and networks. Adopting a contextualized assessment of 12 years of litigation generated under the ‘family status’ ground, with reference to complainants’ gender and work status, the study considers the types of experiences being litigated as ‘family status’ discrimination. The study show how much of the nature and forms of inequality presented before the tribunals are beyond the conceptual boundaries of the principle of equal treatment that depends upon a sameness of treatment model with the ‘care-less’ comparator. Despite its potential to question the neutrality of workplace structures predicated upon the division between paid work and unpaid care, the principle of indirect family status discrimination has been under utilised as a litigation strategy. The most successful dimension of family status discrimination protection has been in respect of its ability to capture the negative stereotyping of worker–carers who continue to perform as ideal workers. I suggest that this extension of a limited negative rights framework, when considered alongside the state’s extremely poor support for workcare reconciliation more broadly, places negligible obligations on employers, and that the gender neutrality implicit in its provisions have yet to impact on gender equality as regards work–care reconciliation. (shrink)

In her paper entitled “Why Track 2 MAiD is Discriminatory,” Isabel Grant offers a compelling disability justice-based critique of Canada’s evolving MAID regime. She argues that Track 2 MAID, which concerns persons who are not approaching the end of life, is premised on a medical model of disability that obscures structural ableism and therefore discriminates against persons with disabilities. In this commentary, I show that Grant’s analysis becomes even more urgent when extended to current debates about the expansion of (...) MAID eligibility for individuals with mental illness as the sole underlying medical condition. (shrink)

Over the years, phenomenology has provided illuminating descriptions of discrimination, with its mechanisms and effects being thematised at the most basic levels of embodiment, (dis)orientation, selfhood, and belonging. What remains somewhat understudied is the lived experience of the discriminator. In this paper I draw on Husserl's phenomenological account of normality to reflect on the ways in which we discriminate at the prereflective levels of perceptual experience and bodily being. By critically reflecting on the intentional structures undergirding discriminatory practices, I (...) argue that discrimination is characteristic of a naïve normalising attitude which is habitually interested in securing a familiar experience of a static normality. I first demonstrate how this attitude problematically tends to reproduce, enforce, and further sediment discriminatory and exclusionary norms. Further, I provide an internal critique which problematises discrimination—without recourse to external normative standards—on three fronts: as epistemically unproductive, experientially obscuring, and normatively non-instantiating. In discriminatory acts we see an abnormal refusal to enrich, revise, and genetically establish new normative commitments, new ways of seeing, and a new normality. (shrink)

Background Discrimination in health care is an international challenge and a serious obstacle to justice and equality in health. Research objective The purpose of this study was to design a grounded theory of discrimination in health care based on the experiences and perceptions of Iranian healthcare providers and patients. Research design This qualitative study was conducted using by the grounded theory method. Participants and research context Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 18 healthcare providers including 11 nurses, (...) two physicians, two nurse’s assistants, and three patients in two general hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Participants were selected through purposeful sampling and analyzed simultaneously using the Corbin and Strauss (2015) approach. Ethical considerations The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (Ethics code: IR.USWR.REC.1398.023). Also, after explaining the objectives of the study, all the participants completed and signed the written consent form. Findings The “culture of discrimination” was the study’s core category, reflecting the nature of discrimination in health care. The theory of “culture of discrimination in health care” is the result of five main categories: “individual social stimuli,” “culture of discrimination,” “unintentional discrimination,” “conflict with discrimination,” and “dissatisfaction with discriminatory behavior.” These categories cover the underlying factors, strategies, and outcomes of the discrimination process in health care. Discussion The results of the study showed that nurses and other health care providers experience unintentional discrimination. Unintentional discrimination refers to discriminatory behaviors and practices of health care providers. Conclusion The theory of culture of discrimination in health care can be used as a practical guide to describe and understand the role of health care providers, especially nurses. Further studies with a quantitative approach to applying this theory in medical settings are recommended. (shrink)

The 3rd Pan-African Ethics Human Rights and Medical Law (3rd EHRML) conference was held in Johannesburg on July 7, 2013, as part of the Africa Health Congress. The conference brought together bioethicists, researchers and scholars from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Nigeria working in the field of bioethics as well as students and healthcare workers interested in learning about ethical issues confronting the African continent. The conference which ran with a theme of "Bioethical and legal perspectives in biomedical research and (...) medical practice in Africa with a focus on: Informed consent, HIV-AIDS & Tuberculosis, leadership & organizational ethics, patients and healthcare workers rights," was designed to expand the dialogue on African bioethics beyond the traditional focus on research ethics and the ethical dilemmas surrounding the conduct of biomedical research in developing countries. This introductory article highlights some of areas of focus at the conference including issues of leadership, organizational ethics and patients and healthcare workers rights in Africa. We analyze the importance of free speech, public debate of issues, argumentation and the need to introduce the teaching and learning of ethics to students in Africa in accordance with UNESCO guidelines. This article also focuses on other challenges confronting Africa today from an ethical standpoint, including the issues of poor leadership and organizational ethics which are main contributors to the problems prevalent in African countries, such as poverty, poor education and healthcare delivery systems, terrorism, social inequities, infrastructural deficits and other forms of 'structural violence' confronting vulnerable African communities. We believe that each of the eight articles included in this supplement, which have been rigorously peer-reviewed are a good example of current research on bioethics in Africa, and explore some new directions towards broadening the African bioethics agenda as we move forward to a new dawn for Africa in the 21st century. (shrink)

This chapter explores the extent to which British law can address the effects of implicit bias, taking gender as its focus. It considers the direct and indirect discrimination provisions of the Equality Act 2010 and finds them wanting due to their individualized fault-based approach. It suggests that the more proactive model of equality law contained in the public sector equality duty has greater potential to tackle the effects of implicit bias, but it too fails to deliver in practice. Ultimately (...) the broad ‘folk-liberal’ orientation of British law and legislative processes downplays the structural character of discrimination, elevates the formal value of liberty, and sits uncomfortably with efforts to remedy inequalities resulting from implicit bias. The chapter concludes with two modest suggestions for reforming the current legal framework in an effort to move towards a more substantive model of equality which recognizes the effects of implicit bias. (shrink)

On 24 July 2022, the landmark decision Roe v. Wade (1973), that secured a right to abortion for decades, was overruled by the US Supreme Court. The Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organisation severely restricts access to legal abortion care in the USA, since it will give the states the power to ban abortion. It has been claimed that overruling Roe will have disproportionate impacts on women of color and that restricting access to abortion contributes to or (...) amounts to structural racism. In this paper, we consider whether restricting abortion access as a consequence of overruling Roe could be understood as discrimination against women of color (and women in general). We argue that banning abortion is indirectly discriminatory against women of color and directly (but neither indirectly, nor structurally) discriminatory against women in general. (shrink)

The complex history of pandemics has created a diversified array of anti-epidemic responses, which have allowed structures of authority to express their power in multiple ways. In this paper, by considering theories applicable to cases ranging from Europe to Asia, from the 11th to the 18th century, we conduct a comparative analysis capable of identifying common traits and radical differences, aiming to show how such deployment of power was not always commensurate with the medical theories of the age, and with (...) the gravity of the epidemiological situation. Specifically, we analyse how Western European States, in their process of formation, employed the concept of ‘public health’ to create the grounds for an unprecedented exercise of power over the private sphere. Furthermore, we compare this attitude with the discrimination of the minority known as burakumin in Japan, which was destined to undertake any ‘dirty’ or ‘impure’ occupation, to preserve the immunity of the community. In other words, we examine how structures of power have exploited states of exception to implement control measures beyond the needs of the situation through an increasingly hypertrophic apparatus of security; and ways in which political authorities have not aligned with medical or philosophical authorities of their times, for opportunistic reasons that benefited their own social, religious, or racial group. (shrink)

In a co-authored piece with Adam Slavny, I argued that any promising account of the wrongness of discrimination must focus not only on the harmful outcomes of discriminatory acts but also on the deliberation of the discriminator and in particular on the reasons that motivate or fail to motivate her action. In this brief paper, I defend this conclusion against an objection that has recently been pressed against our view by Richard Arneson. This task is important not only because (...) Arneson’s objection is an intriguing one, but also -- and more importantly -- because my response sheds further light on the content and structure of an attractive theory of wrongful discrimination, as well as on more fundamental ideas in moral philosophy. (shrink)

The renewed interest in the issue of black reparations, both in the public sphere and among scholars, is a welcome development because the racial injustices of the past continue to shape American society by disadvantaging African Americans in a variety of ways. Attention to the past and how it has shaped present-day inequality seems essential both to understanding our predicament and to justifying policies that would address and undermine racial inequality. Given this, any argument for policies designed to pursue racial (...) justice must be, at least in part, backward-looking, justifi ed partly as compensation for the effects of the wrongs of the past. However, some arguments about black reparations, both pro and con, are focused too far in the past. An unspoken assumption of much of the debate about black reparations is that these would be reparations for slavery. This, we argue, is a mistake. Racial inequality in the United States today may, ultimately, be based on slavery, but it is also based on the failure of the country to take effective steps since slavery to undermine the structural racial inequality that slavery put in place. From the latter part of the nineteenth century through the fi rst half of the twentieth century, the Jim Crow system continued to keep Blacks “in their place,” and even during and after the civil rights era no policies were adopted to dismantle the racial hierarchy that already existed. An important part of the story of racial inequality today is the history of housing and lending discrimination in the second half of the twentieth century (McCarthy 2002; 2004). Home equity, for many Americans, is a very important source of wealth, and the decades after World War II were ones of rapid home equity growth. They were the decades that saw the creation of a large, mostly suburban, middle class. But the middle class that was created was also mostly White, and this was due largely to government policies that (in many cases intentionally) excluded Blacks from the opportunities to get into the home market and benefi t from home equity growth. In this paper we argue that recent housing and lending discrimination constitutes an important basis for black reparations.. (shrink)

Research on gender inequality has posited the importance of gender discrimination for women’s experiences at work. Previous studies have suggested that gender stereotyping and organizational factors may contribute to discrimination. Yet it is not well understood how these elements connect to foster gender discrimination in everyday workplaces. This work contributes to our understanding of these relationships by analyzing 219 discrimination narratives constructed from sex discrimination cases brought before the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. By looking across (...) a variety of actual work settings, the analysis sheds light on the cultural underpinnings and structural contexts in which discriminatory actions occur. The analyses reveal how gender stereotyping combines in predictable ways with sex composition of workplaces and organizational policies, often through interactional dynamics of discretionary policy usage, to result in discrimination. The findings suggest the importance of cultural, structural, and interactional influences on gender discrimination. (shrink)

Linguistic discrimination is a complex phenomenon. How should it be investigated? Evidential pool is of key importance. In this paper, we present specific conceptual and methodological challenges in the study of linguistic discrimination, with a focus on linguistic discrimination resulting from implicit attitudes and the steadily growing research on biases and structural approaches to social injustice. We conclude by proposing that a productive and comprehensive way to investigate linguistic discrimination rooted in implicit attitudes should seek (...) to incorporate first-person perspectives and testimonies from the linguistically harmed individuals, and discuss some arguments in support of this view. (shrink)

A modified version of the mere exposure effect paradigm was utilized in an implicit artificial grammar learning task in an attempt to develop a procedure that would be more sensitive in assesing nonconscious learning processes than the methods currently utilized within the field of implicit learning. Subjects were presented with stimuli generated from a finite-state artificial grammar and then had to either decide if novel items conformed to the rule structure of the grammar or rate the degree to which they (...) liked novel items. Because the latter of the task was more indirect of the two procedures, subjects′ availability to discriminate between well-formed and ill-formed items on this liking task was taken as a more sensitive piece of evidence of implicit learning, compared to performance on the rule conformity task. A subsequent test of subjects′ explicit knowledge of the rules of the grammar showed that subjects do have some conscious knowledge of the artificial grammar, but subjects making liking decisions exhibited significantly less conscious rule knowledge than subjects initially making rule-conformity judgements. The findings are discussed in relation to synergistic relationships among implicit perception, implicit memory, and implicit learning proceses. (shrink)

This paper contributes to debates over algorithmic discrimination with particular attention to structural theories of racism and the problem of “proxy discrimination”—discriminatory effects that arise even when an algorithm has no information about socially sensitive characteristics such as race. Structural theories emphasize the ways that unequal power structures contribute to the subordination of marginalized groups: these theories thus understand racism in ways that go beyond individual choices and bad intentions. Our question is, how should a (...) class='Hi'>structural understanding of racism and oppression inform our understanding of algorithmic discrimination and its associated norms? Some responses to the problem of proxy discrimination focus on fairness as a form of “parity,” aiming to equalize metrics between individuals or groups—looking, for example, for equal rates of accurate and inaccurate predictions between one group and another. We argue that from the perspective of structural theories, fairness-as-parity is inapt in the algorithmic context; instead, we should be considering social impact—whether a use of an algorithm perpetuates or mitigates existing social stratification. Our contribution thus offers a new understanding of what algorithmic racial discrimination is. (shrink)

This study investigates the relationship between legal semiotics, ageing, and the protection of rights, focusing on the discriminatory practices that ageing populations encounter within legal systems. Although there has been a growing emphasis on human rights, the elderly are still largely overlooked in legal scholarship that involves semiotic analysis. The research seeks to fill this void by exploring how legal texts, symbols, and discourses both support and marginalize older individuals. A qualitative approach was employed, integrating doctrinal analysis with critical discourse (...) analysis to examine international conventions, domestic laws, and court rulings. Secondary data from legal databases, academic articles, and reports from international organizations were reviewed to uncover patterns of implicit ageism. The study highlights a significant gap in the literature: while race and gender receive considerable focus, the semiotics of ageing is still insufficiently addressed. This research adds to the legal field by applying a semiotic perspective to the analysis of age-related rights and discrimination, underscoring the significance of interpretive practices in law. The findings indicate that legal language can unintentionally reinforce stereotypes, which can undermine the rights of older individuals. A semiotic approach can help to reveal these biases, leading to more inclusive interpretations of the law. The study concludes by calling for a more nuanced understanding of legal hermeneutics that considers the complex relationship between law, language, and societal values, aiming to protect the dignity and rights of ageing populations. This research provides both theoretical and practical insights, recommending a shift in legal practices and policies to combat structural ageism. (shrink)

The increasing implementation of and reliance on machine-learning (ML) algorithms to perform tasks, deliver services and make decisions in health and healthcare have made the need for fairness in ML, and more specifically in healthcare ML algorithms (HMLA), a very important and urgent task. However, while the debate on fairness in the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) and in HMLA has grown significantly over the last decade, the very concept of fairness as an ethical value has not yet been sufficiently (...) explored. Our paper aims to fill this gap and address the AI ethics principle of fairness from a conceptual standpoint, drawing insights from accounts of fairness elaborated in moral philosophy and using them to conceptualise fairness as an ethical value and to redefine fairness in HMLA accordingly. To achieve our goal, following a first section aimed at clarifying the background, methodology and structure of the paper, in the second section, we provide an overview of the discussion of the AI ethics principle of fairness in HMLA and show that the concept of fairness underlying this debate is framed in purely distributive terms and overlaps with non-discrimination, which is defined in turn as the absence of biases. After showing that this framing is inadequate, in the third section, we pursue an ethical inquiry into the concept of fairness and argue that fairness ought to be conceived of as an ethical value. Following a clarification of the relationship between fairness and non-discrimination, we show that the two do not overlap and that fairness requires much more than just non-discrimination. Moreover, we highlight that fairness not only has a distributive but also a socio-relational dimension. Finally, we pinpoint the constitutive components of fairness. In doing so, we base our arguments on a renewed reflection on the concept of respect, which goes beyond the idea of equal respect to include respect for individual persons. In the fourth section, we analyse the implications of our conceptual redefinition of fairness as an ethical value in the discussion of fairness in HMLA. Here, we claim that fairness requires more than non-discrimination and the absence of biases as well as more than just distribution; it needs to ensure that HMLA respects persons both as persons and as particular individuals. Finally, in the fifth section, we sketch some broader implications and show how our inquiry can contribute to making HMLA and, more generally, AI promote the social good and a fairer society. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to examine how positive discrimination can be implemented within Directive 2000/78, establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (Framework Equality Directive—FED) (Council Directive (EU) No. 2000/78, 2000, art. 7 and art. 15). The paper is structured into five parts. Part 1 discusses the concept of positive discrimination. Part 2 outlines the legislative instruments governing positive discrimination in EU employment law, along with the relevant interpretive case law of (...) the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Part 3 focuses on the specific provisions of the Directive addressing positive discrimination, namely Articles 7 and 15. Part 4 explores how positive discrimination can be achieved using provisions within the Directive beyond Articles 7 and 15. Part 5 presents the chapter’s conclusions. (shrink)

People may be subjected to discrimination from a variety of sources in the workplace. In this study of mental health workers, we contrast four potential perpetrators of discrimination (managers, co-workers, patients, and visitors) to investigate whether the negative impact of discrimination on victims’ well-being will vary in strength depending on the relative power of the perpetrator. We further explore whether the negative impact of discrimination is at least partly explained by its effects on people’s sense of (...) organizational justice, and whether the strength of mediation varies according to the source of discrimination. Using survey data from 1,733 UK mental health workers, a structural equation model was designed to test these hypotheses following a bootstrap approach. Discrimination from all sources was related to well-being, with that from managers having the strongest effects. The results support an explanation of the effect of discrimination on well-being in terms of organizational justice perceptions for discrimination from managers and from visitors, but less so for discrimination from co-workers or from patients. The study highlights the importance of differentiating amongst sources of discrimination at work and the salience of organizational justice perceptions in explaining the effects of discrimination from some sources. (shrink)

This paper analyses the phenomenon of gender discrimination in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) sector, which has always been known for its strong segregation, both horizontal and vertical. Our purpose is to uncover more hidden mechanisms of gender discrimination, such as those that refer to the implemented organizational models. The sample used is the universe of the INFN (National Institute for Nuclear Physics) division in Naples (Italy). For our study, we used semi-structured interviews and an interpretation (...) model as one of the structural inferences. The results show that the organizational models adopted by INFN penalize women, but often men too, which can be traced to the way society and the labor market are structured. In general, the interviewees showed enthusiasm to work in the research field, even if in this context the adopted work organization model was limited and restricted, unable to value diversity and transversal skills. A different perception of time management between women and men leads in the former to a feeling of dichotomy as a source of malaise. Consequently, it can be said that there is a form of inequality (or discrimination) related to women’s well-being and that they have a worse quality of life. (shrink)

This paper describes an initiative to promote social justice in two groups of primary aged children. The initiative was concerned with the extent to which first‐ and third‐year juniors can apply principles of unfair discrimination to issues of gender, ‘race’ and social class having been taught the principles in contexts unrelated to structural inequality. The study provides evidence consistent with the claim that children between the ages of seven and 11 can learn to recognise certain manifestations of unfair (...) discrimination against oppressed groups. The data further suggest that children in this age group can learn to recognise such discrimination on the basis of principles acquired in contexts that make no reference to oppressed groups. It is argued that the data are sufficiently encouraging to warrant a replication of the study on a larger scale. (shrink)

This review article analyses Tarunabh Khaitan’s attempt in his recent book, A Theory of Discrimination Law, to identify the central purpose and justification of discrimination law. Khaitan sets out to determine the key features of discrimination law through rigorous comparative analysis, and to locate a solid normative foundation for its provisions. He concludes that discrimination law is structured around an ‘obsession’ with combating group disadvantage, ie relative forms of disadvantage between different groups whose membership is defined (...) by morally irrelevant or valuable personal characteristics such as gender, race and disability. He goes on to make a strongly argued liberal case as to why discrimination law is justified in seeking to minimise the negative impact on individual liberty of group disadvantage. Certain aspects of his analysis fail to capture the full complexity of discrimination law and the moral concerns which underpin its functioning. However, in general, Khaitan’s arguments make an invaluable contribution to the diffuse theoretical literature on discrimination law, and are bound to become a major point of reference in conceptual debates about this highly significant area of law. (shrink)

Temporal structure contains geometric structure. When a recurrent neural network is driven by structured sensory input, delay coordinate embedding theory shows that its internal state develops a geometry preserving the relational organization of the environment it tracks. The mechanism mathematically specifies not only where this geometry is faithful but where it must distort. Prediction error and environmental separability together set a resolution floor that maps onto metamers, categorical perception, and discrimination thresholds. This paper develops DCE as a candidate computational (...) mechanism for structuralist quality spaces, addressing exploitation criteria, Shea's misrepresentation requirement, and Kleiner and Hoel's lenient dependency. The results are conditional on an empirical hypothesis about cortical implementation; nine failure-mode predictions test both the hypothesis and the structuralist implications simultaneously. The implications for the Newman problem and for process ontology are developed. The invariance condition that generates the geometry is identical to the equation that defines the system's predictive function; this raises questions about the separation of structure from function presupposed by both structuralist and functionalist programs. (shrink)

The changes created by platform-facilitated labor are considered fundamental challenges to the future of work. As more data accumulates on gender discrimination in online platforms, this Article explores how inequality is cultivated by platforms in the gig economy. Looking at technological architecture as organizational structure, this essay bridges a gap between three bodies of scholarship that have not yet been in conversation but considering them together is necessary if we are to think about gender equality in platform-facilitated labor. The (...) first concerns data driven discrimination, the second concerns the role of platform affordances and the third concerns organizational policies. These point to the gender inequality regime that platforms may enact. Thus, the Article theoretically contributes to unpacking platforms’ role in perpetuating and institutionalizing gender inequality. Finally, it offers some suggestions on the ways in which law, policy and technology can disrupt the institutionalization of gender inequality in platform-facilitated labor. (shrink)

For several decades, the international community has criticized Turkey for failing to uphold the human rights and freedoms of its citizens and for not realizing the principles of non-discrimination and equality within its borders. As Turkey’s European Union (EU) candidacy proceeds, religious groups such as the Alevis claim to face discrimination and violations of their human rights and freedoms by the Turkish state. The Justice and Development Party (JDP, AKP) debated the Alevis’ problems and structured the Alevi Initiative, (...) which conducted relevant workshops and discussions. Alevi arguments regarding their places of worship and the state’s religious education policy were identified as their main challenges. Alevis argued that the state’s policies on religious education and places of worship discriminated against them and violated their human rights. Through several human rights law cases before domestic and international tribunals, Alevis requested fulfillment, protection, and assurance of their human rights and freedoms. Several court decisions agreed that Alevis’ human rights and freedoms were being violated. However, the challenges and demands of Alevis still persist, as they contend that they have not succeeded in gaining the human rights and freedoms as required in contemporary Turkey under the JDP government. (shrink)

Standard conceptions of discrimination cannot account for all that is morally wrong about discrimination, as they cannot explain how individual acts of discrimination wrong not only their direct target but also all members of the targeted social group. In response to this lacuna, I develop a comprehensive account according to which discrimination consists of two interdependent wrongs: to discriminate against B, A must, first, treat B worse than C in a way that is grave enough to (...) make this differential treatment morally wrong; and second, A must do so in a way that is disrespectful to B and to the social group B is perceived to belong to. (shrink)

In this paper, my aim is to develop a phenomenological understanding of discrimination from the perspective of the discriminator. Since early existential phenomenology, the phenomenon of discrimination has received a great deal of attention. While much of this work has focused on the experience of the discriminatee, recent scholarship has begun to reflect on the intentional structures on the side of the discriminator. In a contribution to this trend, I argue that our sense of what is (ab)normal plays (...) a constitutively significant role in the reiteration and reinforcement of harmful discriminatory practices. More specifically, I argue that Husserl's distinction between two forms of normality, namely, concordance-normality [Einstimmigkeit] and optimal-normality [Optimalität], is an important tool for illuminating otherwise overlooked aspects of the discriminator's experience. I achieve this by demonstrating how these two notions of normality play distinct constitutive roles when comparing deliberate acts of discrimination committed with malintent, compared with more primordial, habitual, and prereflective expectations which are already discriminatory in nucleo. I argue that at the heart of discriminatory practices there is a naïve, normalizing attempt to stabilize concordance at the expense of critical self-reflection, normative revisions, and enriched horizons of expectation. In doing so, this paper provides a novel and important contribution to philosophical discussions surrounding discrimination. (shrink)