Okay, so now I’m in a position where I (1) don’t want to seem like I’m harping on this thing about children’s rights when it’s not the point, and (2) don’t want to seem like I’m posting an opinion and then running away when people actually challenge it. Since I don’t feel like turning this blog into my personal soapbox, I’ll say my piece here and welcome anyone to email me if they want to continue the discussion: ijmaxwell AT gee-mail.
I could defend the black analogy, since I don’t think that whether people will continue to be X in the future has anything to do with whether it’s okay to discriminate against X. I mean, if hypothetically black people would cease to be black someday, would that mean it was okay to keep them out of your store after all?
Unfortunately, I’m having trouble coming up with a real-life example of a protected group that people grow out of (though religious affiliation is one that people can enter and exit as they please), so I’m limited to these hypothetical situations here.
But then, even if we’re only forbidden to discriminate against permanent attributes, why would an only 3 black students sign be a problem? Again, this is strictly more permissive than the rule this store actually has.
More importantly, they can’t vote and therefore can’t make something like this illegal in the future when they can vote (either because by then they’ll agree with it or they’ll have forgotten about it)
Yes, it’s true that this seems to happen. It’s kind of unfortunate, really, how short memories are… However, I can vote, I still don’t agree with it, and I still haven’t forgotten about it. My sixteen-year-old self had some dumb ideas, but so did my twenty-two year old self and many of my family members’ current, all-grown-up selves, and I think my dumb sixteen-year-old self should have been respected at least as much as all the other dumb people in the world. I think it’s unfortunate that the world spends so much time talking about special children’s rights while apologizing for the violations of actual normal rights that they deal with on a daily basis.