Sexism And Racism

People who wish to avoid even the slightest hint of actual racism might be quick to defend a thoroughly sexist belief or practice rooted in tradition.  The evangelical church, for instance, is eager to denounce racism and promote racial reconciliation wherever it is needed--yet it hesitates or objects to doing the same with sexism!  It is ironic that those who lament racism are sometimes the very people intentionally perpetuating sexism, whether or not they know their own cognitive dissonance.

Though both sexism and racism are illogical and immoral for the same basic reasons, one of them is objectively worse than the other because it affects, or at least can affect, more people.  If every racist person was absolutely consistent with their racism, they might horrendously mistreat a large number of people with their words or behaviors, but a sexist person who is absolutely consistent in living out sexism will negatively affect far more people.  This is why sexism can be far more devastating than racism.

Despite this, some complain more about racial injustices from decades and centuries ago than they do about sexism that persists in the present.  It is refreshing to see even conservative Christians denounce discrimination according to ethnicity, but too many do not go far enough: they do not even call attention to how deeply sexist ideas are rooted into both secular and Christian cultures.

Call a black person a probable thief or murderer because he or she is black, and you will likely be despised by many.  Call a man a probable sexual harasser or brute because he is a man, and some of the same people who would furiously condemn extrapolating from one black person to another will either be silent or join in.  Yet if one is illogical, so is the other; if one is immoral, how can the other not be?  Both charges are the result of intellectual ineptitude and moral failure.

Consistency is instrumental in living rightly.  All too often, people focus on one aspect of morality in a way that excludes taking other aspects into consideration.  If something is evil, then all analogous things must by necessity also be evil.  The person who selectively condemns what is irrational or immoral is inevitably plagued by ignorance or selfishness.  It is rather easy for one to fuel the other, perpetuating or deepening even simple moral errors.