In the light of recent events in France (see below), I wish to discuss one question: What is discrimination?
This word is unknown in my time (not because the phenomenon doesnt exist but because it is considered normal). However, even to me it seems to be a quite simple thing: Treating people differently depending on generalizing criteria, like gender, race, sexual orientation, religion and so on.
In my time, a world which condemns discrimination seems like Utopia. Do you, citizens of the 21th century, live in this Utopia?
Before we try to answer this question, lets think a bit more about what is discrimination. More precisely, allow me to enumerate some examples of what discrimination is not:
- A nun, a rabbi and an imam walk into a bar. The bar happens to serve only anti-alcoholic beverages, which pleases the imam. All three are treated the same way and are allowed to order the same drinks. Is this discrimination? In my not-so-humble opinion it isnt.
- Now, they walk into a bicycle shop. The shop happens to sell only step-through bikes, which pleases the nun (and possibly the imam, depending on his cloth). All three are treated the same way and are allowed to buy the same bikes. Is this discrimination? I dont think so.
- Eventually, our three friends walk into a sex shop wait, lets say a grocery. The grocery happens to sell only kosher food, which pleases the rabbi. All three are treated the same way and are allowed to buy the same food. Is this discrimination? I doubt it.
- Finally, the three people walk into a fast food restaurant. The restaurant happens to sell only halal food, which pleases the imam. All three are treated the same way and are allowed to buy the same food. Is this discrimination?
You may be surprised to learn that for some politicians in France, it is!
The restaurant in question belongs to Quick, a French-Belgian chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, which decided end of 2009 to serve exclusively halal menus in eight of its 362 restaurants in France. The restaurants, situated in districts with strong Muslim population, serve only halal beef and replace bacon with smoked turkey. (You can order a beer, though.)
Now it gets funny (or sad, if you still had some hope that this world makes sense): One of said restaurants is in Roubaix, northern France. In February 2010, the socialist mayor of Roubaix, Ren Vandierendonck, feels this is discrimination. He has filed charges against Quick with a regional court, as well as a complaint with France's main antidiscrimination authority.
But he is anything than alone. Soon afterwards, politicians of other parties jumped on the issue not surprisingly Marine Le Pen, vice president of the far-right National Front, but also politicians from the ruling UMP, including the partys secretary general Xavier Bertrand and the agricultural minister Bruno Le Maire. They all feel discriminated when they walk into a restaurant and cant have the burger they want. Not that the burger is refused because of their race or religion, but it simply isnt on the restaurants menu.
(That reminds me my last incognito visit in the 21th century when I walked into a Burger King and ordered a Big Mac, but didnt get it. I felt very, very discriminated...)
But this isnt the end of the story. Quick announced they were thinking about offering both halal and haraam (non-halal) burgers. In exchange, Vandierendonck has retired his complaint. On 1st September 2010, Quick extended [french link] its halal experiment to 14 new restaurants, making it a total of 22. To avoid new complaints and accusations, the chain decided to offer also one non-halal burger in these restaurants (however not prepared on-location but defrosted). Nevertheless, the decision has triggered new outbursts of public stupidity; local politicians and mayors all over the republic complain about this supposedly discriminating decision.
Let me get this straight: Discrimination is when two clients want to buy the same dish, but one of them doesnt get it due to some generalizing criteria. Discrimination is not when two people want different dishes but one doesnt get his dish because it isnt sold in this restaurant.
Every restaurateur, every merchant has the right to adapt his offer to the preferences of whatever group of clients might be most likely to buy from him I understand this is what you guys call a target group. The point is that he hasnt the right to refuse one of his merchandises to someone who belongs to another group. So, those complaints about discrimination are nothing but utter nonsense.
Strangely, nobody in France complained about kosher restaurants, or about restaurants who serve only fish on Friday, according to catholic tradition. Why is this not considered discrimination? What is the difference?
Well, the difference is maybe that halal is islamic. France is home of about five million Muslims, and naturally, due to human nature, not everybody thinks they are welcome. Good old xenophobia. This discussion is far from being the only recent outburst of public islamophobia in France: The ban of the niquap, the discussion about national identity, to quote only some examples... In consequence, when some idiot mayor maunders about discrimination of non-muslim citizens, there are a lot of other idiots ready to jump on the issue, without even knowing what they are talking about.
Maybe your time is still far from being Utopia. Even my beloved France.
P.S.:This post was originally written as news article, but was not published by SG.
