Discrimination not always racist

Steve Danning, Las Vegas

Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017 | 2 a.m.

In the Jan. 6 letter to the Sun “Electoral College has become racist,” the author asserts that the Electoral College has become “racist” because it has generated a negative effect on nonwhite voters over time by reducing the value of their votes, as compared to votes cast by other groups.

Even if one were to concede that the Electoral College has that effect on voters, that does not mean it is now racist. It would be justifiable to describe the Electoral College (or other law or policy) as racist if its original intent was to create some negative effect upon nonwhite voters or other protected classes of voters. However, the letter writer specifically acknowledges in his letter that it is unlikely the Electoral College was intended to be racist when it was first designed.

In the absence of such an intention, we can conclude only that the negative impact the Electoral College has had on nonwhite voters over time apparently has been unintended discrimination. Such a discriminatory effect is neither fair nor just, so it may be time for the Electoral College to be amended or abolished, as the letter writer suggests.

However, it is important to understand that, in the absence of other evidence, the fact that a policy or law has a discriminatory effect does not make the policy or law racist under the laws of our country.

Indeed, the terms “racist” and “racism” are used so frequently and cavalierly in the media that those terms may ultimately lose potency when they are appropriately used.