Is discrimination (in hiring) morally wrong?

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You have to use the dictionary definition of discrimination any time you make a decision. Is it morally wrong to use discrimination to determine what characteristics you want in an employee? Of course not. But your characteristics should pertain to the position. With the exception of the theatre, a person’s color has no baring on how they do their job. In nearly every position, a person’s sex doesn’t matter. A Catholic in a position to hire others should take good care to guard themselves against a mindset that produces unjust discrimination.
 
If your definition is completely different from what everyone else is talking about, then the fact that it happens to attach to the same sounds is irrelevant to the discussion.
 
I don’t see any good reason why a private employer couldn’t select anyone he wanted (assuming they were qualified) for whatever reason he wanted. Though certain forms of systemic discrimination could be morally problematic, as distributive justice requires that everyone have the means to support themselves, and that adult men have the means to support a family. Laws or customs that impeded a section of society in that regard would thus be unjust in the broad sense.
 
But who gets to decide what is a “legitimate business need”? That could be literally anything which the employer thinks will help the bottom line. If it’s a small organization, let’s arbitrarily say 4-5ppl total, in which the employer works very closely with all employees, something seemingly fickle like the fact that an employer simply doesn’t like a certain type of person could affect the bottom line.
 
True, but in that case, we are de facto having a different discussion than the one I initiated, in which case the discussion is irrelevent to the discussion… :confused:
 
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