Mike said
>For example, a recent court case actually said that these 'risky zip'
>policies are racist, and court cases have also ruled that banks that make
>loan decisions (especially for mortgages and cars) even partly on zip code
>of the customer are practicing racism.
Here we'd say that such a policy may (depending on the precise facts) amount
to unlawful indirect discrimination. That is not the same thing as racism.
Actually, I'd expect it to be a very unpopular policy anyway. Isn't there an
outcry against the relevant bank every time such a thing happens? A bank
that was caught doing such a thing here (I'm not saying they don't do it; I
said "caught") would have a public relations disaster on its hands.
Anyway, as I said in an earlier post, the concept of racism always needs to
be unpacked carefully in any serious intellectual discourse. Likewise for
related but different concepts such as discrimination, prejudice,
intolerance, etc. (I realise that Jerry, you and others have been trying to
do this.) I very seldom use the word "racism" at all, except for people who
display extreme race-based hatred or contempt, because there is usually a
better alternative with a more precise legal or ordinary language meaning.
Russell (one of whose hats is that of a lawyer who has a practice defending
discrimination claims)
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:07 MDT