Capitalism: Discrimination's Implacable Enemy
by John Hood
"It is important to understand the role of profit-seeking business in eliminating
disparities in income and economic opportunity that are based on racism and sexism.
For groups kept from realizing the American dream by the prejudices and failures of
the past, the best hope for progress in the future is an economy populated with
companies whose managers put performance and profitability first."
The Case for Elites
by Murray N. Rothbard
Compromising the Uncompromisable: Discrimination
by Walter Block
Conventional Wisdom: Rediscovering the social norms that stand between law
and liberininsm
by Jonathan Rauch
"Some especially conservative parents are indignant because sexual adventuring
is too visible, while some especially radical adventurers are indignant because
they are not allowed to copulate in front of City Hall. Everyone else wishes
the conservatives and the radicals would stop pushing the envelope before the
bargain collapses altogether, leaving nothing but cops and politicians and
lawyers to tell us how to behave. In the end, the man who wants to replace
norms with nothing is the best friend of the man who wants to replace norms
with laws."
Discrimination
by Dr. Mary Ruwart
The good doctor answers tough questions about discrimination in a free society.
Discrimination: An Interdisciplinary Analysis
by Walter Block
Discrimination and Liberty
by Walter E. Williams
"While many of us, including me, find some aspects of racial discrimination morally
repulsive, we must at the same time recognize that freedom of association should be
our overreaching value. Valuing freedom of association does not mean that we are
helpless in registering revulsion to various forms of discrimination. There are private
social sanctions that can be exercised similar to those exercised when people behave
impolitely, use vulgar language, or disrespect elders."
Discrimination can be just without being fair.
by Roy Halliday
"The right to own property entails the right to discriminate. This right does not depend
on the owner being reasonable or fair."
The Economics and Politics of Discrimination
by George C. Leef
"In this brief essay, I have argued that the belief that racial discrimination is
the fault of prejudice-blinded businessmen who refuse to hire minority group members
is entirely wrong. There is probably no institution in society where color is as
irrelevant as in the free market. In the commercial world, making money is what counts,
and discrimination gets in the way of doing that."
The Economics of Discrimination
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"Small companies routinely do anything within the law to avoid advertising for new
positions. Why? Government at all levels now sends out testers to entrap business in
the crime of hiring the most qualified person for a job. Pity the poor real estate agent
and the owner of rental units, who walk the civil rights minefield everyday. If any of
these people demonstrate more loyalty to the customer than to the government, they risk
bringing their businesses to financial ruin."
Equality and the Internet
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"Each person chooses according to individual preferences. That the members of one group
tend to make different choices than the members of another group says nothing about who
is oppressing whom, much less about what the political response should be to demographic
trivialities."
The Forgotten Right of Association
October 1989
by David Hood
"The world will not end just because the Rotary Club and Century Club have to admit women
members. In fact, the clubs themselves may be better off in the long run. However, the
principle of free human interaction itself is ending, if government decides it can invade
the private sphere of its citizens with impunity. Freedom of association is an integral
part of our Constitutional liberty, as well as a primary means of pursuing happiness. But
in the final analysis, it is also an important weapon in the continual struggle
against “Big Brother” statism. A society not free to associate is not free to do much
else, either."
In Defense of Discrimination
by Jacob Halbrooks
"If insurance companies are not allowed to discriminate, then the whole premise of the
service is defeated, and instead a socialist pool is created where one group of people
subsidize another group."
The Market Makes Diversity Worth Celebrating
by Dwight R. Lee
"The less we rely on government the more we can tolerate diversity, indeed thrive
from it. If only this were understood by those who see more collectivism as the
best way to promote (and celebrate) diversity."
The Right to Discriminate
by Scott W. Bixler
"Much of the case for the free market is built upon the belief in the sanctity of free
choice. This includes not only the freedom to trade and associate with whomever one
chooses, but also, and equally important, the freedom not to trade or associate."
The right to exclude
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"The word liberty conjures up a vision of endless opportunity and choice. But liberty
also means the right to exclude because property owners decide questions of access. There
is no right to crash a private dinner party, for example. The owners of the house have
the right to invite or not invite on any grounds. Similarly, there is no right to invade
a private organization."
Should the Government be Allowed to Engage in Racial, Sexual, or Other Acts
of Discrimination?
by Walter Block
Some Thoughts on Discrimination
by George C. Leef
"Anti-discrimination laws not only vio late the natural fights of those against whom
they are enforced, they also create injustices. Instead of further expanding the power
of government over the individual as these laws do, we should instead reform our
present laws to eliminate barriers to opportunity. The solution to our problems is
more freedom, not less."
Stereotyping Defended
by Ninos Malek
"Of course, people are individuals with their own moral values (or lack of),
intelligence, and talents. Stereotyping is, however, a method that people use,
consciously or subconsciously, as an efficient way of economizing on information costs."
The Terrible D-Word
by Donald G. Smith
"The simple truth is that discrimination is not always a bad thing, only something
that can, under certain circumstances, be undesirable. There is bad discrimination
and there is good discrimination."
The Affirmative Action Complex
by Mitchell Bard
"Racism and sexism are serious problems in this country. Ironically, the solution
that has been devised for these ills is blatantly racist and sexist. Affirmative
action calls for decisions to be made solely on the basis of race and sex—which is
the very definition of racism and sexism."
Affirmative Action: Institutionalized Inequality
October 1997
by Walter Block and Timothy Mulcahy
"Affirmative action should be rejected by Americans of all races. It unfairly places
whites at a disadvantage by limiting choice. For nonwhites, it is a slap in the
face: there is an institutionalized implication that they need government aid. It
tends to exacerbate existing stereotypes and deepen racial rifts. It breeds contempt
in the workplace, placing doubt in the minds of some whether their co-workers received
the job based upon merit. It is a direct assault on the pride of the minority worker
who has worked hard to improve himself, and has earned his position honestly.
It is also a disincentive for others to invest time in education and self-improvement."
Affirmative Action Insults Immigrant Contributions
December 10, 2002
by Wendy McElroy
"Just one of the problems with this position is the fact that the individuals being
privileged today were not the ones oppressed in the past. Moreover, the individuals
being legally oppressed today have committed no offense."
Affirmative Action, Social Terrorism, and Trades Union Freedom: The Failures
of the Fallacious Concept of 'Social Justice'
by Jean-Louis Caccomo
Affirmative Agony
by Robert R. Detlefsen
A review of three books about affirmative action.
Affirmative Reaction?
Summer 2000
by Roger Kimball
"If only George Orwell had lived long enough to encounter the phrase "affirmative
action." What a splendid piece of Newspeak: love is hate, war is peace, and preferential
treatment is an agent of equality—for of course "affirmative action" really means
preferential treatment on the basis of race, sex, or some other duly certified badge
of alleged victimhood. By thus re-christening preferential treatment, liberals have
been able to ignore equality, merit, and other inconveniences as they attempt to remake
the world; they can practice racial and sexual discrimination while posing as apostles
of fairness."
The Bakke Case
by Murray N. Rothbard
A Call for Intelligent Profiling
January 18, 2004
by Daniel Pipes
"The origins of profiling lie in the early 1950s, when the New York City police, hoping
to identify the perpetrator who had set off more than 30 bombs, turned to a psychiatrist
named James Brussel for help. Mr. Brussel reviewed the evidence and concluded that the
bomber was a middle-aged Catholic of Eastern European extraction who once worked for
the Consolidated Edison Company, lived in Connecticut, probably lived with his siblings,
and had a serious heart condition. These and other details proved so eerily accurate to
describe George Metesky, the science of profiling was born.
Profiling enjoyed high repute until it came out that police forces had simplified
Mr. Brussel's elaborate construct and crudely focused on a single factor — race. This
reductionism smacked of prejudice, and it had two harmful effects: race as a factor
in profiles became taboo and profiling more generally was discredited."
The Decline of Affirmative Action
June 23, 2004
by Wendy McElroy
"It is time to question whether AA [Affirmitive Action] is a noble goal. Advocates
of U-M’s [University of Michigan]
policies speak in collective terms about race disadvantage and gender inequities. What
they don’t deal with is individuals. AA admission (and other) policies do not look at
the individual merits of your son or daughter at the grade average they’ve struggled to
maintain, the volunteer organizations they’ve joined, the dreaming human beings they are."
Elites to Anti-Affirmative-Action Voters: Drop Dead
Winter 2007
by Heather Mac Donald
"Yet for all the evasions of the political and educational elites, the growing
anti-preference push, with initiatives contemplated in several more states in 2008, could
be one of the most important populist movements of recent years. Racial manipulation,
while not eliminated from California, has been greatly reduced, a sea change that never
would have happened without Prop. 209. One goal of the movement—the elimination of the
academic achievement gap by setting a single standard of achievement for all to
meet—remains elusive. But Ward Connerly’s courageous pursuit of a government that ignores
race is delivering on the most fundamental promise of the American Constitution: equal
treatment for all."
The Ethics of Affirmative Action
by Steven Yates
"For peaceful affirmative action to replace coercive affirmative action, though,
criticisms by white males such as myself probably won’t be enough. Women and minorities
themselves must recognize that efforts by government to “help” them have proven futile.
This means repudiating much of their current leadership. Fortunately, we have already
seen the beginnings of such a trend in the writings of such black intellectuals as
Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and Glenn Loury."
Forbidden Grounds: The Case Against Employment Discrimination Laws by Richard
A. Epstein
reviewed by Jeffrey A. Tucker
"Breaking out of political orthodoxy, he argues: Anti-discrimination laws have not
only gone too far, they should all be repealed as capricious, expensive, wasteful,
and destructive of economic freedom. His radical thesis appears in what may be the
most comprehensive and systematic treatment on various forms of discrimination yet
to appear."
Non-Discrimination and Affirmative Action
by Professor Jan Narveson
"It is, all in all, very difficult to justify either forced anti-discrimination or
forced affirmative action in the sense in which they are now popular. Our leading
principle in this book has been that people in general should, in the absence of good
reason, have the right to do as they want, work at or produce what they wish, and
associate with their fellows on terms of agreement rather than by force. Those who
don't accept this general account of morals should be asked on what they propose to
base their visions, and why they should be allowed to impose those visions on ordinary
people trying to make the best lives they can for themselves."
Preferential Policies: An International Perspective by Thomas Sowell
reviewed by David M. Brown
"With the diligence and insight his readers have come to expect, Thomas Sowell doesn’t
skimp when it comes to presenting and analyzing the relevant empirical data. He looks
at the often bloody results of coerced preferences in a variety of political and social
contexts around the globe and comes up with some disturbingly similar patterns."
Racial Profiling
April 2001
by Walter E. Williams
"What is racial profiling? Does it serve any purpose? In the most general terms, racial
profiling is a process whereby people employ a cheap-to-observe physical characteristic,
such as race, as a proxy for a more costly-to-observe characteristic. It is prejudice, in
the sense of the word’s Latin root—the act of pre-judging, or the practice of making
decisions on the basis of incomplete information."
"One cannot unambiguously say that police racial profiling represents racist
preferences. Racial profiling is practiced by both black and white policemen. Ending
racial profiling by police would put more black people at risk. To the extent that black
people commit more crimes than white people, to the extent that black people are the
major victims of black criminals, to the extent that police stops catch criminals—to
that extent, eliminating racial profiling would deprive law-abiding blacks protection
from criminals."
The Racial Profiling Myth Debunked
Spring 2002
by Heather Mac Donald
"The anti–racial profiling juggernaut has finally met its nemesis: the truth. According
to a new study, black drivers on the New Jersey Turnpike are twice as likely to speed as
white drivers, and are even more dominant among drivers breaking 90 miles per hour. This
finding demolishes the myth of racial profiling. Precisely for that reason, the Bush
Justice Department tried to bury the report so the profiling juggernaut could continue
its destructive campaign against law enforcement. What happens next will show whether
the politics of racial victimization now trump all other national concerns."
The Terrorist Next Door
September 1, 2003
by Daniel Pipes
"In short, while Hawash confessed to his crime, his supporters refused to admit their
mistakes.
There are two lessons here. First, profiling can work. Alert neighbors reporting on
apparently militant Islamic activities brought Hawash to law enforcement's attention.
Second, sympathizers of terrorist suspects are entitled to express surprise and tell
heart-warming stories about them. But shrill charges of racism and appalling comparisons
to Nazi Germany impede the U.S. government's efforts to protect Americans."
What about affirmative action?
by Mary Ruwart
"Laws which force peaceful people to do something that they wouldn't voluntarily do
usually hurt the very people that they are supposed to help. This is true of affirmative
action."
What does affirmative action affirm?
by Wendy McElroy
"Affirmative action is an attempt to redistribute economic power by forcing employers
to give preference to women. As with all schemes of distributing justice, choice is
taken from individuals and given to social planners. Affirmative action has been a
debacle. it has not cured sex segregation in the work place or closed the wage gap
between men and women. More importantly, it has hindered the institution that has
done the most to benefit women economically: the free market."
Civil Wrongs: What Went Wrong With Affirmative Action by Steven Yates
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"Appropriately, Mr. Yates concentrates on a serious injustice of modern life: the
central government's policy of mandatory discrimination against white males."
Freedom Will Conquer Racism and Sexism: The Civil Rights Act is damaging everyone
in America, especially blacks and women by J. Edward Pawlick
reviewed by Wendy McElroy
"Any attempt to impose morality -- e.g. a code of social fairness -- by law is doomed
to fail and it will badly harm society in the process."
A New View of Civil Rights
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"The government says that mandatory retirement ages discriminate against old people, as
of course they do. Such a rule assumes that older people are different from younger
ones, something the government refuses to recognize. The government claims there is no
difference, but if that were true, private employers would not discriminate and there
would be no issue."
Preference and Prejudice: The Argument Against Anti-Discrimination Legislation
by Andrew Lomas
School Choice: The Last Civil Rights Struggle
June 02, 2004
by Pete Geddes
"Supporters of choice believe in innovation and experimentation—a diversity of
approaches. Ironically, they are labeled as conservatives."
The Secret Hate in Hate Crimes
February 2001
by Lowell Ponte
"Economic hatred during the past century has left a trail of death and horror as terrible
as hatred based on race, religion, and other differences now included in hate crime laws.
Why, then, have the authors of such laws carefully avoided inclusion of economic and class
hatred from their lists of prohibited hatreds? Why have college speech codes not punished
dehumanizing expressions of hatred such as “Eat the Rich” or “Down with the Bourgeoisie”
or “Let’s expropriate the selfish, idle rich” as they do racial epithets?
One answer is that outlawing class hatred would banish Marxist rhetoric and teaching from
campuses. Campuses where such speech codes are strictest are often ones where Marxist
views are most prevalent—and where “diversity” means having faculty that includes a black
Marxist, a lesbian Marxist, a Latino Marxist, and a transgender Marxist, but no professor
with free-market views. A leftist activist in my community advocated removing all books
that “promote violence” from our public library, but she ceased her campaign when I
applauded her in the local newspaper and called for removal of all books that promote
Marxism, a philosophy responsible for 100 million deaths during the twentieth century."
Celebrate Plethora
by Jacob Halbrooks
"The practice of preferentially treating one race over another is the best definition
for racism. Yet racism is what people who support preferential treatment claim to be
fighting. Their view is that all races must be exactly equal in everything, so therefore
any time a company or institution does not reflect the national ethnic makeup, racism
has occurred against the underrepresented groups."
Racialism and the Law
by Roderick Moore
Racism, Collectivism and Social Psychology
by Nigel Meek
Racism: Public and Private
by Walter Block
"Given that public-sector discrimination is far more harmful to minorities than
private discrimination, those who sympathize with racial and ethnic victims should
think twice before entrusting human rights to the state. The market is a far better
alternative."
Are Women Exploited by the Free Market?
September 1994
by John Chodes
"Nineteenth-century lawmakers complained that “women are made immoral by the factory
system.” This disguised the real issue: Industrialization revolutionized women’s place
in society by making them financially independent."
Back to the list of topics
This page was last updated on August 28, 2007.