Are People too Sensitive?

[Alpha]

So you say people are too sensitive? I say there are too many insensitive people out there who still don't understand the difference between right and wrong, and who are only out there for personal gain. There is nothing wrong with being sensitive.

YES.

I think the biggest problem is that a lot of what is called 'racist' or 'sexist' (etc.) is not explicit. Not many people nowadays seek to keep black people as slaves, or prevent women from voting, but there are other forms of racism and sexism that still pervade society to an extent.

Here's a few extracts from an (American) economics textbook (of all places):

Forty years ago, there was open and outright discrimination kin the labor [sic] market. Some employers simply refused to hire African Americans. Today much of the discrimination that occurs is more subtle. Firms seek to hire the best workers they can for each job at the lowest cost possible, operating with imperfect information [about potential employees]. In making predictions about future performance, employers use whatever information they have available. Employers may have found that those receiving a degree from a well-established school are more productive, on average, than those receiving a degree from a less-established college. Of the Africna Americans and Hispanics who are college graduates, many more may have gone to less-prestigious schools. Screening the applicant pool to pick those with degrees from well-established colleges effectively excludes many African Americans and Hispanics. This more subtle form of discrimination is called statistical discrimination.

Statistical discrimination is a valid argument in support of affirmative action.

Some discrimination reflects neither old-fashioned prejudice or statistics. Employers may just feel more comfortable dealing with people with whom they have dealt with in the past. Highly uncertain about who is a good worker, and knowing that a bad worker can do enormous damage, top management may rely on certain trusted employees for recommendations. And such judgments are inevitably affected by friendships and other ties. Many claim that if discrimination is to be eliminated, this associative form, based on "old boy networks", has to be broken.

When firms pay lower wages to, say, women or minorities, they are practicing wage discrimination. Today, wage discrimination is perhaps less common than job discrimination, the denial to disadvantaged groups of equal access [FREEDOM OF OPPORTUNITY] to better-paying jobs. Women are said to face a "glass ceiling": they can climb up to middle management jobs but can't get beyond that level to reach top management [somewhat due to "old boy networks"].

And that's just an economic argument.

Locke, discrimination still exists. Stereotyping happens everyday. Being politically correct, as I see it, is being aware of this. To not be politically correct is to just carry on with your day, happy because slavery's gone and women can vote, ignoring other, more insidious forms of discrimination. This is not to say that we shouldn't be able to say 'black' or (if you so wish) to call a woman 'average-looking', but it is to acknowledge that the world is not a level playing field. Sensitivity to this exists for damn good reasons.

I understand that this has diverged somewhat from the OP, but I'm just exploring what Locke moved toward in his rant.