The making of a discriminatory ism

• Date: 09 May 2023
• Pages: 1038-1050
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-01-2023-0009
• Published date: 09 May 2023
• Author: Ognjen Arandjelović

The making of a discriminatory ism

Ognjen Arandjelovi

c

University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

Abstract

Purpose –The millennia long struggles of various oppressed groups have over time illuminated widespread

social injustices, organically leading to the recognition of yet further injustices captured by the umbrella of

discriminatory isms, such as racism, sexism, classism, ableism, anti-Semitism, ageism, heterosexism and many

others. In recent years, the debate has become increasingly fierce, polarized and even physically violent.

Design/methodology/approach –Oneof the premises of thepresent work is thatin part, the aforementioned

unconstructive behaviors are a result of the different understandings of what constitutes an ism and the lack of a

thoughtful consideration of this issue in the mainstream social debate as much as in the academic literature.

Findings –The author presents evidence for this and critiques the dominant lines of thought in this realm,

showing all the dominant lines of thought to fall short of both the fundamental philosophical as well practical

desiderata in how isms ought to be understood.

Originality/value –The author proposes an alternative which does not suffer from the weakness of the

existing one: one based on the denial of equivalence of sentience. The author shows how the adoption of this

understanding leads to constructive ways of addressing isms effected injustice.

Keywords Social groups, Sexual discrimination, Sex and gender issues, Racial discrimination, Psychology,

Individual perception

Paper type Conceptual paper

1. Introduction

Recent decades have seen an unprecedented increase of awareness of and interest in the

concepts of equality and discrimination, reflecting and corroborating Singer’sideaof

“expanding circles”of compassion (Singer, 1985).Thistrendisobservedbothintheacademic

published literature (Ocampo et al., 2003), as well as in everyday life and popular culture (De

Choudhuryet al., 2016). Indeed, hardly a day passes (if any does) without a well-known person of

influence, be it a politician [1–3], a celebrity, an academic [4] or an entir einstitution (Hardeman

et al., 2018), being accused of one discriminative (I use this qualifier to highlight that in the

present article I am not talking about artistic movements, say) ism or another: sexism, anti-

semitism, ageism, racism, etc. While there is a general consensus that isms are undesirable –

indeed, this is inherent in the nature of the specific concepts under the ism umbrella (noting that

under the notion of isms I subsume their synonyms, such as homophobia as a synonym for

heterosexism, as well as “phobias”without corresponding ism equivalents, such as

Russophobia) –such accusations nevertheless almost invariably end up polarizing the

society as there is disagreement whether a specific statement does imply an ism or not, or indeed

whethera particular ismis a meaningfulone at all. In part thisdisagreementis a consequence of

the oft-made implicit assumption that the aforementioned concepts are self-explanatory and that

hence there has been little in terms of nuanced analysis or what constitutes an ism; what are the

sufficient and what the necessary conditions? In the present work , I challenge the current

conceptions and propose a different view which is philosophically principled and better

grounded andwhich could facilitatea more dispassionate andproductive debate.

2. Contemporary philosophical stances regarding isms

Considering that the focus of the present article is on the very meaning of the notion of isms,

right at the start I would like to preface my argument by explaining what I am and what I am

EDI

42,8

1038

Author’s contribution: The entire article is the work of a single author.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 10 January 2023

Revised 12 March 2023

15 March 2023

Accepted 16 March 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 42 No. 8, 2023

pp. 1038-1050

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-01-2023-0009