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From: pepke@ds1.scri.fsu.EDU (Eric Pepke)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: A Moral Question
Message-ID: <1125@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
Date: 16 Oct 90 05:27:14 GMT
References: <16098@s.ms.uky.edu> <26082.2714c3d1@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
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In article <26082.2714c3d1@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> 2flmlife@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
>Well this of course is the question of reverse descrimination.  What I find
>particularly interesting is that Insurance companies are predominantly owned
>and controlled men, (white men at that.)  So the decision to charge men more,
>was mostly a decision of white men.

This is only odd if one assumes that the owners of the insurance companies
are exclusively slaves of their skin color and the contents of their
trousers.  If one accepts that they operate, rather, on the basis of the
profit motive, there is no incongruity.

>	The Current world is an unfair world, until it becomes a fair world, we
>will have to deal with unfair compensations, like affirmative action for
>instance.  Or giving breaks to employers who hire sight or hearing impaired
>people, or other handicapped people.  If education, employment, and life in
>general would be undiscriminating our laws would not have to be.

It should be obvious that the exact same kind of reasoning can be used
to keep traditional forms of discrimination intact, or to serve as
justification for their return.  Those who would adopt this kind of
reasoning would do well to understand its double-edged nature.

Every sexually egalitarian movement to date has come to this dilemma.  Every
one until, and perhaps including this one, has managed to scuttle itself
rather than face the discomforting and unsettling problems of the future.

By the way, sight- and hearing-impaired are considered loathsome terms by
many, and handicapped is a downright insult, as it derives from an English
term meaning "panhandler."

[I have always described myself as "deaf", and have been mildly amazed
and amused over the years at the proliferation of alternative terms.
However, I believe that hearing-impaired, at least, is the current
"PC" term. --CLT]

-EMP