[bradbatt]

Racism definition: "a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others."

No, it isn't "by definition racist"

[TulliusCicero]

rac·ism

/ˈrāˌsizəm/

noun

prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

[daniel-cussen]

You know there's multiple definitions even if you restrict yourself to a single dictionary, don't you? Oxford's definition will change between 1950 and 2020, after all it is an obvious target for--not exactly infiltrating, that's too strong a word--but yeah, it is subject to change.

Dictionaries are political speech. Spanish ones under Franco didn't have the words "huelga" or "sindicato" which mean "strike" or "union."

[legolas2412]

Yeah, OP should have said that the policy is racially discriminatory

[ameminator]

For most people, "racism" and "racial discrimination" are the same thing.

[triactual]

This is racial discrimination for the Right Reasons, apparently. As long as everyone agrees on when we can and cannot discriminate by race, it should go very well.

[ameminator]

I'm not convinced that our society has had that wider debate. I myself am not convinced that these "Right Reasons" are good and fair, even if they are so widespread.

[30339975]

There certainly are good reasons to discriminate based on race, this just happens to be one where there’s a wide variety of opinions about whether the reasons are just.

[ameminator]

I'll be straight - the only reason I can think of to discriminate based on race is for medical reasons - and that is by their doctor to diagnose specific illnesses. Can you give some more good reasons?

[30339975]

I think you’re on the right track. I replied to a sibling comment with some other good reasons for discriminating based on race. Basically, race is a pretty good shorthand for a shared experience of a group, and there are genuine instances where that shared experience can be leveraged to do good things.

[parkingrift]

Discrimination is absolutely never the answer. Inequality is a hard problem to solve but that doesn’t mean we should take the lazy route and embed discrimination into all areas of life.

You cannot solve discrimination with discrimination. Democrats have been trying the lazy route for 40 years with no progress. Perhaps we would have been better off trying to solve the root causes instead of uselessly chasing quick fixes?

[30339975]

Discrimination itself is not something that needs to be “solved.” Unjust discrimination, yes, for example instances where that discrimination actively harms, as first or second order effect, without sufficient remedy. But there are quite a few instances where discrimination is warranted, and just. For example, when recruiting for medical studies where the disease being studied is common in one race but not another; in acting, where the character being portrayed is of a particular race and that characteristic is essential to encoding that character’s motivations; in certain public interaction roles like therapy, community organizing, policing or public health outreach, where the target demographic is a traditionally underserved minority. The there are situations where the selection of an individual puts no others at any disadvantage, such as the selection of a Supreme Court judge. In those situations, there is neither justice nor injustice in racial discrimination: it is simply a matter of what set of experiences the President wishes to see on the bench.

All races of people are equal in there inherent value as individuals, but they are not equal in their experiences, situations, or needs. To deny the common experience of racial groups in order to optimize for “discrimination” is naive. Discrimination is not inherently unjust, it is a consequence of a universe which has finite resources in time, money, attention, and power.

[birdyrooster]

Depends if you are a reactionary libertarian, then the definition of racism changes.