Customer Reviews

When Is Discrimination Wrong?

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"Isn't discrimination always wrong?" That's what people say when they see the deliberately provocative title of this book. Of course in reality the issue isn't so simple. Is it wrong for the FDA to approve a particular drug for African Americans specifically if it addresses a health problems of that population? Is it wrongful discrimination for a nursing home for women to only hire women as attendants? Most of us know wrongful discrimination when we see it: separate but equal; blacks forced to sit at the back of the bus; ethnic quotas on immigration; glass ceilings, etc... But what is it precisely that makes wrongful discrimination wrong? How does that apply to the vague and thorny gray areas where all the trouble lies?

Deborah Hellman does a terrific job of framing the problem, summarizing existing scholarship and legal theory on the subject, and then coming to her own conclusions. She very clearly puts each theoretical argument in its place and then draws an all encompassing frame around them - a bedrock principle that cuts to the heart of the issue and neatly addresses its core. She states it clearly at the conclusion of Chapter 1: "Discrimination is wrong when it demeans. To demean is to treat another as less worthy." She spends the rest of the book precisely defining her terms (for example membership in a stigmatized group matters) and carefully examining alternatives and counter arguments. By bringing everything back to a simple moral principle her work feels in spirit akin to those of the framers of the constitution. It's that kind of clear and powerful thinking: reduction to first principles; simple truths that we hold to be self evident.

Hellman's analysis is deep. She addresses case law, sure, but also sociology and philosophy (both semantics and moral). We hear from Irving Goffman John Hart Ely, Owen Fiss, Catherine McKinnon, Ronald Dworkin, Christopher McCrudden, Brian Leiter, and many others. She addresses the issue of the role of group identity (both in terms of history of mistreatment and social disadvantage and to how it relates to offense against the individual versus just the group as a whole). She addresses the question of merit as a form of positive discrimination - devotes a whole chapter to it, defining the limits of the various approaches and how her central thesis puts limits on how drawing merit distinctions should be used. This is a short, dense, book. Hellman's language is economical. The subject requires abstract thinking quite often, which is difficult. Hellman bends over backwards to help you keep the fine distinctions in focus, frequently summarizing, reviewing, and restating her conclusions.

To say that this book influenced my perception of the issue is an understatement. It certainly educated me on the issue of wrongful discrimination and I will never again be able to view the issue without considering her analysis. However, her argument is so pervasive and well organized that its instructional power extends beyond just the topic at hand - it is really a clinic on how to think about any moral issue. Highly recommended.