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DISCRIMINATION:  The issue in black and white

by Guillermo Camoriano

          Discrimination is actually an important coping and survival mechanism.  We do it all the time, discriminating against events, people, or things based on learned preconceived notions or stereotypes.  For instance, if you are walking alone in a dark, unknown city street, and you see two males on one sidewalk and two females on the other sidewalk, the vast majority of the people would choose to walk on the sidewalk with the two females, because, in general, females are perceived as being less dangerous and less likely to assault you.  Thus, we are discriminating against the males for our own survival.

          There are at least two strong arguments for allowing people to discriminate instead of passing regulations/legislation to force entities (people and businesses) not to discriminate:

1.      You are the best judge and the best steward of your own property, whether it is your own business, your rental property, or your personal possessions.  Just as importantly, you should be allowed to suffer the consequences of your own actions!  If you choose to discriminate unfairly or unreasonably against a segment of society, you are harming your own interests.

          Suppose I choose to discriminate against all white males (or this could be all black females, all heterosexual Jews, or all Christians born since 1960), and refuse to rent my apartment to (or hire to work for my company) anyone from this segment of the population.  I am then harming my own interests, because I am limiting my prospects for mutually beneficial economic transactions.  I will find it more difficult to find a qualified renter (or a qualified employee), and I may have to reduce the rental fee (or increase my offering salaries) because of this.  Taken to the extreme, if I choose to discriminate against all living human beings (presumably on the premise that their presence in the apartment will result in higher wear and tear), I may find that, regardless of how low I set the rental fee, I get no qualified takers, and the value of my apartment, as a rental property, is worthless.

          However, it should be reasonable to assume that I will discriminate only to the extent that I feel is justified to maximize the value of my property.  For instance, I may choose not to rent to pet owners on the premise that the pet will do more damage than I am willing to accept, but, if I go overboard in my discrimination, I will be harming myself.  In this way, discrimination is self-regulating.

2.      Anti-discrimination legislation harms the very people it is intended to protect.  Suppose that you have an apartment to rent (or a position to fill within your company), and you are presented with two equally qualified candidates.  One of the candidates is from a population which is “protected” by special rights (homosexuals, for instance), while the other candidate does not enjoy such “protection”.  You are likely to preferentially rent to (or hire) the non-“protected” candidate, because, if you hire (or rent to) the protected candidate and he does not work out and you decide to fire him (or not renew his lease), he can sue you for discriminating against him. Thus, the person's legally protected status actually makes him a less desirable candidate, all other things being equal. 

          The case of special “protection” for homosexuals in Jefferson County may cause a company owner to prefer not to locate his business in Jefferson County due to the increased risk of lawsuits created by this "protection".  In the case of sexual orientation, the employer typically does not even know this information about the employee at the time of hiring but may learn about it only after firing the employee, thus giving the employer no way to mitigate his potential risk other than to avoid locating in a place with this type of law.  By discouraging businesses from coming to the area or expanding in the area, these types of special "protections" are not only hurting the very people they are intended to “protect”; they are also harming everyone else who might have benefited from having that business in the area.

          We should all be free to associate (or not associate) with anyone we choose, for our mutual benefit, and we should also bear the cost of the decisions we make.  This issue is as clear as black and white, with no shades of gray!

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