LuckyR wrote: ↑Tue Aug 12, 2025 7:56 am
Belinda wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 12:29 pm
LuckyR wrote: ↑Sun Aug 10, 2025 6:02 am
I agree that much of institutionalized racism is in reality economic class discrimination but since certain races are over represented within the class, it looks like racism. Most true racism, in my experience is practiced by individuals, not institutions.
Am I a racist because I mildly prefer that my GP does not flaunt religious insignia of any sort?
In the UK at present doctor assisted dying is illegal. The one advantage is that the consultant has extraordinary power over the manner of my death. That there is no legal definition of assisted dying tends to enable the consultant to help me to die. A consultant who looks as if she observes ethnic/religious customs is likely to believe in sanctity of life as God-given.
In the earlier half of the 20th century medical doctors were deferred to, and sometimes assumed de facto power to end a life (Personal anecdotal evidence). The days of deference are over now and we need legislation. In the interim racist attitudes flourish .
There is a big difference between interacting with 20 clients of various races better or worse depending on their race and selecting a hire among 20 equally qualified candidates based on race. In the former case all 20 "deserve" adequate (at minimum) service 100% yet many receive 0%, in the latter 19 of 20 weren't going to be selected regardless of how the hire is chosen, that is they only had a 5% chance of being hired, which is similar to the 0% they received. Taking that statistical reality to the next step, just as the effect of using race as a negative criteria in the second case is watered down by the tiny native chance of being hired, using race as a positive criteria for hiring has an equally watered down effect on the community.
ChatGPT:-
United States
Broad compliance in large organizations – Especially those with HR departments and legal teams, because lawsuits and EEOC investigations can be costly.
Persistent disparities – Hiring discrimination studies using “resume testing” (identical CVs, different racialized names) still find significant bias.
Public services – Explicit racial discrimination is rare, but unequal treatment often persists in subtler forms (e.g., policing practices, healthcare access, housing services). Enforcement is uneven across states.
United Kingdom
Generally well-observed by government and large employers – Most public bodies have formal equality policies.
Problem areas – Disproportionate police stop-and-search rates, disparities in school discipline, and evidence from field experiments showing bias in private-sector hiring.
Public Sector Equality Duty gives a framework, but critics say it’s often a “tick-box” exercise with little real accountability.
Elsewhere (EU and other developed economies)
Nordic countries – Strong laws, relatively high compliance, but still measurable discrimination in hiring for immigrant and minority groups.
France – Equality laws exist but are less aggressively enforced than in the UK; state policy avoids collecting racial data, making monitoring harder.
Germany – Anti-discrimination office exists, but enforcement is often complaint-driven, and many victims don’t file cases.
Overall trend:
The laws are on the books in most democracies and are mostly respected in formal processes.
Discrimination often shifts from overt to covert, making it harder to detect and prosecute.
Compliance is highest where there’s a strong enforcement agency, a culture of litigation or oversight, and where data is collected to measure outcomes.
If you’d like, I can walk you through the gap between law and practice with examples from hiring and public services in the US and UK over the last decade. That would show exactly where compliance breaks down.
ChatGPT bears you out Lucky.
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