Quote:
Originally Posted by pokerodox
I feel the need to point out now that minimum wages are clearly "systemically" racist.
That seems wrong to me, but I don't know if it's because I disagree with whatever argument you have to make about minimum wages, or because I disagree with you about what "systemic racism" means (and n.b. I tend to prefer the term "institutional racism", but I assume it makes little difference here).
I'm guessing, but it seems like you may be using the phrase to mean any law where there is any sort of disproportionality in impact between racial groups. But I don't think that's a very useful definition, precisely because -- given extant socioeconomic diffierences along racial lines -- you're going to end up referring to a lot of things as racism. Fortunately, I don't think that definition is what is usually meant by systemic or institutional racism. Disproportionate impact is an important legal principle, but the mere existence of any disproportionality is insufficient to establish "racism".
Just as an example, if you argue employment discrimination on the grounds of disproportionate impact, an employer can defend itself "by proving that the policy or rule in question is job-related and consistent with business necessity", so long as there is no reasonable alternative that has less of an impact. (
see here).
The example also illustrates the idea that racism (beyond individual prejudice) entails necessarily the idea of harm. Disproportionate impact is a legal principle in discrimination cases primarily, where harm is assumed. By extension, if some social policy benefits the poor, and therefore benefits some greater percentage of black Americans than white Americans (but not therefor a greater number...), it doesn't follow that this policy is "racist". There is no harm.
So "systemic" or "institutional" or "structural" racism, or any of these ideas about "racism" that go beyond individual discrimination or prejudice, entail the idea of disproportionate impact, but also harm, and also some assessment of the necessity or justification for the structure that is causing the impact. Once you encompass all of those necessary factors, I don't see how minimum wage laws can be "racist", although they may have other problems economically speaking.