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#### Systemic discrimination 

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I wonder exactly what they mean when people say that discrimination (like race or gender) is *"systemic"*. Do they mean *"it happens a lot"*? If so, what is *"it"* and what is a *"lot"*? 

Do they mean prejudice (attitude) or do they mean discrimination (behaviour) or both? It is only the latter that should matter. People's attitudes are their own business. Though perhaps they mean that in order to change behaviour you have to change attitudes. How exactly though? The only way I know that works systemically is to create an ***open competitive labor market where people learn to work together or fail***. And sometimes they learn to respect each other too.

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#### Systems don't discriminate, people do

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What do they mean by *"a lot"*? Who is doing the discrimination? Why? To say that discrimination is systemic essentially says nothing. It is a cop out by using vague words. The system is to blame. But systems don't discriminate. Only people do. And the only way it can happen a lot to give the impression that "the system" is doing it is for people to collude to discriminate. Like white employers collectively discriminating against black workers by paying them less, promoting them less, training them less, etc. Or male workers collectively discriminating against female workers. It is a white male employer plot. Or perhaps it is more subtly a kind of implicit collusion produced by rotten acculturation. While male employers have been morally poisoned. [Notice how this argument slips easily into prejudice and even discrimination against white males.]

If that is the case, why don't female employers (non-discriminators) out-compete the nasty white employers? Do all white male employers suffer from this mental culture affliction? If not, why don't the non-discriminators out-compete the discriminators. They have lower production costs after all. Maybe equal pay laws inhibit this?

The term "system discrimination" seems to me totally uninformative and misleading and implies no obvious responsive social policy as a fix.



#### Systemic discrimination in practice
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Things like misdemeanour law create systemic discrimination. Fines are based on money and the amount of the fine is the same no matter who commits the crime. Think of a speeding ticket. When a person without a lot of money gets a speeding ticket, the punishment effects their lives much more than a person with a lot of money. The percentage of people without a lot of money is much higher among specific minority groups. So, speeding tickets are systemically discriminatory against those specific minority groups.

It is pretty tough to come up with a way to punish that type of thing without building in systemic discrimination. I can't think of a way to do it properly. Every law would have to be so nuanced it would become impractical to try to enforce them.

Remember Hayek's One Lesson. When people use the term "systemic" they are, ***"...looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."***