4 November 2026
Contested Discrimination: A Theory of the Societal Struggle over Definition and Prevalence
People often disagree about whether something counts as discrimination.
This article argues that the disagreement is built into the concept itself, and that the disagreement about how common discrimination is grows over time. It makes two points. First, there is no single agreed rule for when treating people differently becomes discrimination, so people sort the same situation in different ways. Second, as a minority group’s position in society improves, these differences in judgement lead groups to see the amount of discrimination very differently.
The result is that discrimination is less a problem that can be solved once and for all than an ongoing argument over where legitimate differences end and unfair treatment begins.