Find some area in the economy where a tradition of racism or sexism, or perhaps even the bigotry against sexual orientation, is being diminished by the forces of capitalism. Please don’t use the NBA, NFL or women working or driving because I’ve already used them. Your focus can be on an entire industry, a good or service, or something that you’ve identified at your workplace. Once you’ve identified such a force, describe the tradition that is supporting the bigotry and how capitalism (and its greedy entrepreneurs who only see green) is overcoming it. For those of you who are skeptics, and that’s your right because I did not scientifically prove my point, use you best objective and analytical arguments to refute my assertions. Text:
Capitalism and Bigotry
The undesirable characteristics that you see in our society, like racism and sexism, are often attributed to the institutions of capitalism. It would seem that the combination of freedom and self-interest can sometimes lead to a pretty unseemly cocktail of greed and selfishness. But I would submit to you that racism, sexism and other forms of bigotry are anathema to capitalism. Instead, they are the vestiges of tradition that are slowly disintegrating because they are inconsistent with the concepts of efficiency in capitalist economies.
Consider, for example, professional football and basketball. At one point, these leagues consisted of almost entirely white players. Currently, blacks comprise 67 & 78 percent of the players in the NFL and NBA, respectively. The sad tale of the Washington Redskins, which did not employ its first black player until 1962, and the recent case of Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles
Clippers, seems to indicate that professional athletics is probably not devoid of racial bigotry. How could it be, then, that in the presence of such racism, the representation of black athletes far outweigh the proportion of the black population in America? It is my contention that the owners, by and large, do not see black and white – what they see is green! As an entrepreneur, if my goal is the bottom line, I am not going to hire a less productive employee in favor of a more productive employee because of racial bias. I might do so if I feel strongly about traditions, and all of its biases (as was the case of George Preston Marshall, racist owner of the Redskins), but certainly not if I feel strongly about winning championships and maximizing my profits.
Since the industrial revolution in America, and especially since World War II, women have been considered an increasingly valued part of the workforce (although, in general, still not as highly valued as men). The so called "glass ceiling" has been shattered on many occasions. The number of female CEO’s in the Fortune 500 are at an all time high (click on the link for details). One of the most famous, Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, was not even included on that list because Yahoo is not in the Fortune 500. But in strictly tradition societies, such as many of those in the Middle East, women are not allowed to become educated, work outside the home, or even drive. Can you imagine what our society would be like if such sexism had not withered away in capitalist societies? In fact, I would contend that capitalist economies have done far more to eliminate racism, sexism and other forms of bigotry than any other form of economic organization.