discriminatory statement?

[emrgtech]

Hi. I used the statement "I treat all the students the same regardless their color, national origin, race, gender and sexual orientation" in order to remind my students of my non-discrimination statements. Is this statement discriminatory?

 

[Proserpina]

Hi. I used the statement "I treat all the students the same regardless their color, national origin, race, gender and sexual orientation" in order to remind my students of my non-discrimination statements. Is this statement discriminatory?

Gotta be Friday night.

Sigh.

Discrimination in most forms is perfectly legal - it's only a problem when the discrimination is based on a Title VII protected characteristic.

(In the US, at least)

 

[emrgtech]

Title VII

Hi, Prosperina.

Thank you very much for your reply. I am not a lawyer. Can you say in simple English what does Title VII is about?

 

[eerelations]

Are you in the US? If yes, can you please explain why you are making this statement to your students? (i.e., what exactly are these "non-discrimination statements" you are reminding your students about?)

 

[emrgtech]

clarification

Hi.

I am in the US. Usually in the beginning of the semester, I explain clauses of my syllabus to the students by saying "in an effort to play in an even field" or "in an effort to treat everyone the same" or "in an effort to treat everyone equally". For example, my syllabi state that I consider all the exemptions at the end of the semester. I explain to the class that I a doing that in order to assure as much as possible the same treatment of similar cases. No one complained about my oral statements.

In the summer I was teaching a class that was kind of online. Two students wanted exceptional treatment. So, in an effort to remind them about my non-discrimination policy, I frequently ended my e-mail communication to them with the phrase "Thanks for assisting me in my efforts to treat all the students the same regardless their color, race, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation.”

Is my answer clear enough?

 

[eerelations]

Are you only interested in treating students equally with regard to legally-protected characteristics? If so, then listing those characteristics (as you have done) is fine.

Or are you interested in treating your students completely equally, regardless of whether or not their personal characteristics are protected by the law? For example, weight, fitness levels and aesthetic appearance are not characteristics protected by law, which means you are legally free to discriminate against those students whose weight, fitness levels and/or aesthetic appearances are not to your personal liking. However, if you don't want to discriminate against students on these and other legal bases, then I recommend you just limit your "non-discrimination statements" to a one-size-fits-all "I treat all of my students equally" or similar.

 

[eerelations]

And please elaborate on the two students who wanted to be treated differently. Their reasons for differential treatment may have legally obliged you to actually treat them differently, so by refusing to do so, you may have violated an anti-discrimination law (such as Title VII, and or others). But we need more information before we can know that.

 

[eerelations]

Finally, please do as you were requested at the beginning of this thread, and tell us what state you're in. Protected characteristics vary by state.

 

[Proserpina]

Hi.

I am in the US. Usually in the beginning of the semester, I explain clauses of my syllabus to the students by saying "in an effort to play in an even field" or "in an effort to treat everyone the same" or "in an effort to treat everyone equally". For example, my syllabi state that I consider all the exemptions at the end of the semester. I explain to the class that I a doing that in order to assure as much as possible the same treatment of similar cases. No one complained about my oral statements.

In the summer I was teaching a class that was kind of online. Two students wanted exceptional treatment. So, in an effort to remind them about my non-discrimination policy, I frequently ended my e-mail communication to them with the phrase "Thanks for assisting me in my efforts to treat all the students the same regardless their color, race, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation.”

Is my answer clear enough?

A simple, "No, you may not have extra time to complete your assignment" wouldn't suffice?

Because y'know, there are occasions where you are forced to treat a student quite differently to his classmates. Why invite complications into your life?

 

[Proserpina]

Are you only interested in treating students equally with regard to legally-protected characteristics? If so, then listing those characteristics (as you have done) is fine.

Or are you interested in treating your students completely equally, regardless of whether or not their personal characteristics are protected by the law? For example, weight, fitness levels and aesthetic appearance are not characteristics protected by law, which means you are legally free to discriminate against those students whose weight, fitness levels and/or aesthetic appearances are not to your personal liking. However, if you don't want to discriminate against students on these and other legal bases, then I recommend you just limit your "non-discrimination statements" to a one-size-fits-all "I treat all of my students equally" or similar.

'Morbid obesity' is about to become California's latest category.

 

[emrgtech]

clarification

My intend is to treat the students as equally and objective as much as possible. For example, if a student requests to take a day off for religious reasons, I feel I should give all the students the option to take a day off without any penalty.There are students who are agnostic or atheists. I feel these students should have the same rights as the devout Christians, Muslims or Jews or ... For this reason I urge the students to read carefully my syllabus and discuss things they do not agree with. So, if there are any changes, these changes will apply to everyone. Of course, there are always unforeseen situations that may arise but I expect these situations to happen on person-to-person basis not on group basis. However, "treat the same" does it not mean "treat equally?" In any case, before characterizing my statement as "discriminatory", should they have not asked me what my real indent was?

I reside in the state of Michigan, the students missed one of the assignments and they have not even realized it. I e-mailed to find out how they were doing and after about a week they came back to be students. At this point I realized that they were on vacation or in a period or relaxation and they did not have the diligence to consult their calendar or check their email account. So, I did what my syllabus states. I took points off and I did not grant their request for exceptional consideration based on the fact that their were too busy with their families.

 

[cbg]

In Michigan, weight is already a protected characteristic. Just sayin'.

You can run your classroom any way you want to as long as the school does not object. But the announcement that you are using smacks of "the lady (or gentleman) doth protest too much".

And no, "treat the same" does not always, in all cases, mean "treat equally". Think about it. REALLY think about it.

(And it REALLY does not translate to, treat fairly.)

 

[emrgtech]

clarification

From what I hear my statement is not inclusive enough, because overweight people are also protected, and is not clear enough, because "treat the same" does not always mean "treat equally". However, does this make it discriminatory?

 

[eerelations]

Yup.

When you approached the HR department at your educational institution (HR being the profession that generally knows more about this stuff than most other professions) for help with this issue, what did they say?

 

[emrgtech]

clarification

Up to now I was unable to meet any HR person. I emailed me about the accusation but I did not hear anything.

What makes the sentence discriminatory? If were residing in a state that being overweight is not a protective category, will the sentence be discriminatory? with respect to clarity I just found emails where I talk about equal treatment among the students. does that not clarify what I was trying to say by "the same"?