Combatting discrimination.

[Tatarin]

I've been thinking about this a little bit, but how can injustices be combatted most effectively? How can a society battle racism, sexism, homophobia, and all other discrimination?

Should it be illegal with punishments such as fines or even jail? Or should it come through education and debate with people and groups who hold such views?

Can it work half-half, by allowing people to, for example, propagate hate speach, but not allowing it when it comes to work, government etc.?

After all, I don't think it is realistic to imagine that all people, even after the revolution, is simply going to drop discrimination.

==Edit==
I've put a poll in this. You'll have to excuse my english. Anyway, the first option means that any discrimination should be punished by fines or prison, alt. other punishment. This applies for all areas of life - work, social, economic etc.

The second means that everyone is free to say anything. Discrimination will be met by people who oppose discrimination in debates, shows, movies, radio, manifestations and so on. No one will be punished in any way for propagating racism or homophobia etc.

The third means that it will be allowed in some places - groups can meet and demonstrate for racism (for example), but these ideas will not be used in government policies/community policy, people won't be chosen by their sexual orientation when it comes to who gets to work with what, or in such sense. For example, in Sweden, nazis are allowed to demonstrate, but the employer can be sued or fined if it is found that he or she chose a person with a Swedish surname instead of a person who immigrated, even if the immigrant's grades/knowledge/skills is far better. (And yes, this isn't enforced as much as it should be.)

The fourth option is if there are other ways.

[F9]

I do not support any action from the state, i have no interest what their fines would be, and basically because state wants discrimination and they forward it, so i dont except anything from the state, jail fine etc...

Fuserg9:star:

[JohnnyC]

I think that the most effective way of stoping hate speech is punishment, but in my opinion it isn't the right one if you promote freedom as something important.Education and tolerance is the right way.In time it will most likely go away if people are educated properly and society around them is tolerant and ready to help. :)

[Tatarin]

I do not support any action from the state, i have no interest what their fines would be, and basically because state wants discrimination and they forward it, so i dont except anything from the state, jail fine etc...

What about communities? People will be living in some kind of civilization, and some decisions will be made about people who commit a crime, no?


I think that the most effective way of stoping hate speech is punishment, but in my opinion it isn't the right one if you promote freedom as something important.

Yes, but is that freedom? Is something that has no progressive value in society freedom?

[AAFCE]

I believe there should be some form of punishment.

Whether its removing your tongue without anesthetics, or something else, I believe there should be something done about it.

[Catbus]

I'm going to answer this from an anarchist perspective just because, well, I'm an anarchist.

I voted "There are other ways" because I think that most inequality comes from a lack of education and/or lack of interaction (i.e. someone who shelters themselves from black people will never interact with them and realize that the only difference is skin color).

However, there are also a lot of people who think that way out of prejudice, in which case more severe actions should be taken. Now I'm all for fash bashing, however, it further isolate those prejudiced people (the ones that have a chance for conversion) and cause them to view us as barbarians. I think that if education fails, then some form of nonviolent punishment should come (this is however, if said prejudiced person didn't commit violence in the first place, if they committed violence, then I'm in favor of returning it, but not to heavily, enough to knock sense into them so to say) such as maybe having to work more hours in an area that contains more of the people that they're prejudiced against (is that a good idea? All of the sudden I'm thinking it might not be, maybe I'm too hung up on American History X), I guess it might work.



Yes, but is that freedom? Is something that has no progressive value in society freedom?

Of course prejudices have no progressive value in a progressive society. If anything, they have a very, very negative value.

[Decolonize The Left]

I voted 'there are other ways.'

Discrimination is fought on a daily basis by individuals and organizations. It is to be confronted by each person whenever possible. This does not necessitate violence, but it does not exclude it. Each situation is unique.

In general, though, it is best to learn to differentiate between a discriminatory act and a person. One must confront all discriminatory acts as acts themselves, why? Because when one confronts an act, one doesn't push the person into a corner - in other words, confronting acts instead of people allows for change.

- August

[F9]

What about communities? People will be living in some kind of civilization, and some decisions will be made about people who commit a crime, no?

People who commit a crime in an anarchism/ communism system, community will decide, but the decision is only to send the "criminals" in a space where they will try to be explained what they did wrong and they will try to make them return in the community ASAP!Notice though that those "spaces" have nothing to do neither with todays jails nor psychiatric clinics.It would be like a "helping institute"!
ps:Sorry for delay, i forgot about this!

Fuserg9:star:

[Schrödinger's Cat]

I'm not interesting in having government combat racism beyond ensuring that discrimination at the workplace is only around when necessary (gender-base modeling, etc).

[Reclaimed Dasein]

I think cultural facts like racism and sexism exist as a displacement of class war. A simple example, many poor rural whites in the United States fear and hate Mexicans. They feel that the Mexicans steal jobs and destroy society. The fact that poor rural whites live on the edge of poverty contributes to this because they want to find a reason why things went wrong in their lives. However, most racism would disappear if they understood that they had a common struggle with the Mexicans against the elite of the United States and the elite of Mexico. The solution for culture war is class war. What does not work is multiculturalism, pluralism, and its rigid enforcement. Those positions should be abandoned in favor of communist, Marxist, and radical (yes even you anarchist) positions.

[Rosa Provokateur]

Let people do what they want but if it goes violent then action must be taken; I'm against hate-crime laws because if you think about it, all violent crime has atleast some level of hate involved so why limit it to only a handfull of people.

[DesertShark]

I voted that there are other ways.

I'm reading a book right now called Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality? by Sowell. It's a really interesting look at what effect political involvement has had in promoting equality and ending discrimination. The short version (although I'm skeptical as to the complete validity of this, I think there were other factors involved that were overlooked in his analysis, but it is a good quick look at things anyway) is that a lot of the work of political movements hurts the people it is trying to help. A lot of this is because the leaders face different issues then the people they are helping, and if something is working that doesn't favor their politics they don't support or even recognize it. Also, he claims that the civil rights movement helped the people who were slightly more advantaged while pushing the disadvantaged back further.

I agree with whoever said it earlier in this thread, discrimination should be dealt with as it happens at the level of the individuals. Sometimes people discriminate without realizing it and those people will be the easiest to bring around. Others who do it knowingly are more of a challenge; I still have yet to figure out how to deal with someone who is an outright racist and proud of it (aside from avoiding them althogether).

-DesertShark

[Poison]

Half and half. Free speech shouldn't be censored, just protect people's rights not to be threatened and keep it out of the workplace and out of the harassment area. But then, pure free speech works just as well because...

If people start shouting racist and other idiotic crap, they will hang themselves with their own words.

[PostAnarchy]

Hating other people is certainly a crime and should not be tolerated--particularly in revolutionary society.