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Originally Posted by xepherys
First of all, private businesses do have such a "right" as it is in a true Capitalist society. I do believe that business owners should have those rights.
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I suppose it's my fault for phrasing the question slightly differently in the title and in OP, but the question in the OP was whether it was
appropriate to refuse service based on race, sexuality, etc.
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I'll one up that even... I don't believe that there should be "protected" classes at all in regards to private businesses from a servicing or hiring standpoint.
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It probably comes as no surprise that I strongly disagree with you here. I also suspect that this is a lot easier to say when you are in the class that is least likely to be targeted for discrimination.
Also, keep in mind that protected classes in civil rights legislation very seldom identify a specific minority group and are nearly always written in such a way as to protect the rights of the majority as well. Laws saying you cannot discriminate in housing and employment say, for example, you cannot discriminate on the basis of race. This protects blacks, Hispanics and whites. Orientation covers straight, gay, and bisexual people. Gender identity and expression covers both transgendered and cisgendered people. Sex covers both men and women.
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While I disagree with biggotry, racism, sexism and the like, I do believe that, as an American, I (or anyone) has a right to be this way.
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Absolutely. Bigots are a protected class in the US.
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This should extend to businesses (and is one of many reasons I fervently disagree with affirmative action). If I'm a white male middle-class business owner, and I want ALL of my sales associates to be cute, blonde, white girls, I should be able to do this without fear of backlash. If you are offended by these principles, feel free to take your business elsewhere. If I had all of my sales associate be big-booty, ghetto black girls (or some other stereo-type), this would be okay, even though it's STILL a racially driven motivation.
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Nonsense. In a civilized society, such bigotry shouldn't go unchallenged. I would hope that there would be a backlash and that your business would go under as a result.
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It's STILL just as "wrong" but it is socially acceptable. As a straight, white, middle-class American male, I get the shit end of the stick in a lot of ways. There are plenty of college scholarships set aside for: Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Women, GLBTs, the poor, the wealthy, etc. There are no scholarships just for: white people, men, middle-class.
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I'm always flabbergasted by the claim that straight white males are oppressed in our society.
There are scholarships given to white people. They just happen to be set aside for a specific class of whites most of the time, Irish, Russian, Italian, Scottish. I had a scholarship going to college that you had to be the child or grandshild of a Russian immigrant to qualify for. There are scholarships given to males. I've seen a good number of scholarships given to one male and one female student who meet certain qualifications--my brother has one of these.
I've never heard of a scholarship given because one is wealthy, and that does seem foolish, but giving more scholarships to the poor than to the middle class makes perfect sense to me.
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If someone wants to refuse you service because of who you are, go elsewhere... this isn't 1927 people... there are MANY businesses that CATER to specific groups of people. There are many more that don't care one way or the other. If you are part of the GLBT crowd and live in a small town, well... I'm sorry. Hopefully you can get to "the big city" soon, where it's much less of an issue.
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Catering to a specific group of people is different from discriminating against others. The former is fine, the latter is bigotry.
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You want to make the world a better, more equal place? Don't try to shove equality down people's throats in a "free" country. It'll never get you where you want to go. *shrug*
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So minorities that are the target of discrimination should just accept it as the way things are?
Vocal advocacy is the only tactic that is consistently effective at gaining equal rights
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Again, before I get blasted, I'd like to reiterate that I personally think biggotry is dispicable... however, I think forcing hands is equally so. People are people... even the worst ones deserve the most basic respect.
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I disagree. I think bigotry deserves no repsect, and should always be fought, opposed, and exposed for what it is.
Gilda