Anti-discrimination employment law seems to be geared towards preventing institutional discrimination against marginalised groups, rather than preventing individuals from exercising their personal preferences. I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to view it as legislation that helps negotiate peace between warring factions of equal status.
I think—correct me if I’m wrong—that outside of anti-discrimination law there’s also a commonly-held notion of voluntary toleration. Being an intolerant person seems to be held to be a bad thing, within certain bounds. We frown on some kinds of intolerant personal preferences—if I refused to ride in an elevator with foreigners, you might think I was pretty creepy. (But what if I refused to ride in an elevator with people who refused to ride in elevators with foreigners?)
I agree its quite clear that tolerance in some form has become a value of most Western societies and its quite easy to argue that citizens that value tolerance to some extent make a society more pleasant to live in and perhaps even more economically successfully.
However like many of our values tolerance on the borders clashes with other values.
Anti-discrimination employment law seems to be geared towards preventing institutional discrimination against marginalised groups, rather than preventing individuals from exercising their personal preferences. I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to view it as legislation that helps negotiate peace between warring factions of equal status.
I think—correct me if I’m wrong—that outside of anti-discrimination law there’s also a commonly-held notion of voluntary toleration. Being an intolerant person seems to be held to be a bad thing, within certain bounds. We frown on some kinds of intolerant personal preferences—if I refused to ride in an elevator with foreigners, you might think I was pretty creepy. (But what if I refused to ride in an elevator with people who refused to ride in elevators with foreigners?)
I agree its quite clear that tolerance in some form has become a value of most Western societies and its quite easy to argue that citizens that value tolerance to some extent make a society more pleasant to live in and perhaps even more economically successfully.
However like many of our values tolerance on the borders clashes with other values.