Tumblr's new discrimination
In the real world, discrimination most commonly goes one way. Racism, at least in the Western world, is normally from whites towards blacks or asians. Sexism all over the world is normally from men towards women. I don't know if genderism or sexism is the right term, but discrimination about gender is also normally from people who identify simply as 'man' or 'woman' towards people who identify with a different gender-type. Sexualityism (I'm pretty sure I made that up) normally exists from heterosexuals towards people of different sexualities.
I want to go on to say that this isn't always the case, but at this point, a large number of readers might say 'No, sexism can only be from men to women, by definition!' This is because these readers have adopted what is in my opinion a strange definition or sexism or racism, or whatever the relevant discrimination is. But all is not lost! Definitions are essentially unimportant in discourse, as long as we have the sufficient vocabulary to explain our different definitions. So let me explain mine. Discrimination for me is simply treating people differently based on some perceived criteria. Racism is discrimination with the criteria being race. I similarly define all the other terms I used in the top paragraph. Now, if you're reading this and you don't use the same definitions as I do, don't worry! What words we use isn't important; only the meaning is. So just work out what terms you use could be used to replace the terms I am using, and mentally replace the terms I'm using with the ones you use.
So as I was saying, discrimination doesn't always go one way. A woman could beat her husband for not being manly enough. An asian woman might use the n-word against black people. Etc. But, more importantly, discrimination isn't always wrong. Affirmative action is a great example of this. Say someone is setting up a pressure group to lobby for free birth control for girls and condoms for boys to be provided free in schools by the NHS at 16 and above (talking about the UK). This pressure group receives 100 applicants, 80 of which are men, 20 of which are women. Let's say there are 20 excellently qualified men, 40 well qualified and 20 averagely qualified, and 5 excellently qualified women, 10 well qualified woman and 5 averagely qualified. The pressure group has 20 places. I think it would be perfectly fair for the pressure group to take a quota of having 5 women at least, if not 10. That is, they should at least take the 5 excellently qualified women without even making a more detailed analysis comparing them to the excellently qualified men. But that's sexism! Yes, but it's worth it, because the pressure group obviously needs a representative staff if it wants to pursue its goal. The personal unfairness experienced by some of the male applicants is outweighed by the need to have a representative team.
I'm trying to demonstrate that discrimination can often be morally admissible, or even morally obligatory. It's okay for someone chinese to only want to date someone chinese, because they want to speak the same language and share a culture with their partner. It's okay for women to form a society only for women to discuss problems specific to women. And it's obligatory for police to trying to catch a thief to find out what the thief looked like, including the thief's skin colour. Otherwise they might not identify them.
Now let's get into the meat of this post. I've observed a worrying trend on Tumblr to be racist, sexist or discriminate in another way against a perceived majority. I'm not talking about the posts which are happy or neutral. I'm not talking about the affirmative action on Tumblr. I'm talking about posts which run along the lines of 'Fuck white people, lol' or 'Fuck men, lol' or 'Fuck heterosexuals, lol' etc. Sometimes the posts combine these to get something like 'Fuck white men, lol'. Here we have examples of discrimination which are basically just needless insults. They are not affirmative action. They are not neutral. They are just needlessly hurtful, harmful and offensive. Obviously 'Fuck white people' isn't as bad as 'Fuck black people', given the history of persecution of black people by white people. But it's stupid to compare how bad two obviously bad things are, given neither is necessary. They are both bad and they should both stop. No one deserves to be insulted for something they were born with. Negative and pointless discrimination is something we should avoid as much as possible. But not only are these posts negative, hurtful and offensive, they also alienate and exclude people. If social justice is to achieve anything tangible, it has to get as many people on board with it as possible. If you are popularising important social justice issues, but then say something along the lines of 'Fuck white men', white men who read your post will feel like they aren't wanted and don't belong in your movement. But that's awful! No one should be excluded from campaigning about important moral issues because of something they were born with! If America is to learn from Ferguson, it will only do so if white men are included in the Ferguson racial movement.
So my request is this: don't pointlessly insult people based on their skin colour or their gender. I understand that in a world in which most sexism is from men towards women, it's easy to imagine all men are awful. It's easy to generalise, and thus to be negative towards men in general. But it's not fair. Rather than insulting men for having a Y chromosome, persuade them that affirmative action against them is necessary in some cases. And don't be too surprised if they aren't immediately pleased by the prospects of quotas. No one likes the idea of losing out on a job due to something they are born with. But sometimes it's the right thing to do.
