Bigotry

The subject of bigotry came up in my last class, and I didn’t really get around to discussing it in much depth. It occurred to me that some folks seem to have a faulty notion of just what this word means.

The reference was to a fellow I know (who will remain nameless), who used a racial slur in a conversation with me. This fellow is actually (mostly) a pretty nice guy, but he does harbor significant racial bias. Of course, no one is a villain in his own eyes.

So, why is that bigotry? Bigotry is generally defined as an intolerance to other racial groups, but I think that bigotry can be explained in much more fundamental terms. Namely, bigotry is the process of making moral judgments which have no moral basis.

Morality, you see, is based on human choices. If the element of choice is not present somewhere, then there is no moral issue. When a person chooses to commit (or not) a crime, that is a moral choice. The aspects of a person about which he or she has no choice are not moral issues. This criterion of choice clarifies what is and what is not bigotry.

As an illustration, nobody gets to choose what color of skin they have, or gender, or the ethnicity of their parents. Therefore, any judgment that a person makes of superiority (or inferiority) of one racial group (or gender, etc.) over another is bigotry, because it is a moral judgment that has no moral basis.

A racial slur is a moral judgement of superiority of your particular race over another; a moral judgement without moral basis; bigotry.