Word: biases
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Faced with the pervasive traces of Western thought embodied in American life, some multiculturalists claim that this Eurocentric bias discriminates against those from different traditions. But for openers, Eurocentric is decidedly a fuzzy term, lumping together a vast diversity of nationalities and peoples, past and present. In what person or doctrine can Eurocentrism be embodied? Savonarola? Jane Austen? Deism? Communism? Insofar as it means anything specific, Eurocentric looks suspiciously like a code word for "white." In attempting to combat racism, radical multiculturalists seem all too willing to resort to racism of another stripe...
...fundamental discord is not over quotas but over the aptitude of those classed as racial minorities. Non-"Anglos" may not typically be tapped to run FORTUNE 500 companies or manage professional sports teams, but the reason -- many whites quietly believe -- has less to do with racial bias than with the failure of such groups to measure up. Those sentiments are, of course, rarely voiced in polite society. When they are (as by the likes of former Los Angeles Dodgers vice president Al Campanis, who observed that blacks lack "necessities"), condemnation is quick and merciless. Americans, after all, draw little pleasure...
...seen as not much better. Obviously, if minority citizens are fundamentally flawed it is better to discriminate against them than against whites. Even if in the process a few deserving minorities are pushed aside, the meritocracy's essential integrity is maintained. To countless whites, such a rationalization of racial bias is morally defensible -- while naked racism...
...describe the difference in views as a disagreement over quotas is to deny the obvious impact of racial bias on American thought. White complacency about discrimination is not derived from mere opposition to preference programs. It is an example of how stereotypes, as they interact with a belief in the meritocracy, add up to a firm conviction that members of racial minorities deserve no better than they...
...avoid giving offense, except to good usage, the < dictionary offers comfort to very short people (though not very tall ones) with heightism ("discrimination or prejudice based on a person's stature, esp. discrimination against short people"); and to very fat people (but not very thin ones) with weightism ("bias or discrimination against people who are overweight"). Omitted, fortunately, are such high-fad content terms as lookism (bias against people because of their appearance), ableism (bias against the handicapped) or differently abled (alternative to handicapped...