Ethics of stigma and discrimination

Stigma and discrimination are serious and everyday ethical concerns. The work of four people immediately comes to mind when I think and talk about stigma and discrimination. You may be familiar with Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman and his foundational works, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life and Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity.

A memorable insight in the first book is Goffman's idea that our public interactions are like performances. There are expectations as to how each party is supposed to behave when they come together. Sometimes everyone knows what is expected and what are considered to be "normal" behaviour or remarks. But often expectations vary, behaviours falter, misunderstandings occur, and people are judged. What follows are hasty efforts to replace the misspoken word, the inappropriate movement, the not funny joke.

Goffman's second book explores stigma in terms of its impact: "Failure or success at maintaining such norms has a very direct effect on the psychological integrity of the individual," Goffman writes. This is much more than feeling awkward or slightly embarrassed. This is about someone's image and appreciation of him- or herself!

Sociologists Bruce Link and Jo Phelan in a 2001 issue of the Annual Review of Sociology wrote a helpful article identifying five components of stigma: (1) Labelling someone can be ethically problematic because complicated people are reduced to one "thing" - for example, "He is a schizophrenic" or "The drug addict is requesting ..." (2) Stereotyping can involve dishonesty because the person is incorrectly presumed to have all the qualities of that type. (3) Considering people as "they" separates them from "us" and so coldly excludes them from our community and companionship. (4) Reducing the person's status means less respect and consideration, which is ethically unacceptable. (5) Treating people unfairly means they receive fewer benefits and more burdens compared to others, which results in discrimination.

I value Link and Phelan's work because it affirms that a variety of behaviours result in ethically indefensible stigma. We therefore need to pay close attention to our actions and words. In an ethics article I read many years ago, the writer wrote about "an ethic of attention," which is much like a line in the blockbuster movie Avatar, when one of the Na'vi asks others "to see me." There's an important difference between looking and seeing. The writer of the ethics article concluded that adopting an ethic of attention would help to improve how we live together. The busyness of contemporary life, however, significantly decreases our ability to attend or see.

The works of French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) also resonate in considering ethical issues around stigma and discrimination. Levinas' family emigrated from Lithuania to France, where he became a French citizen in 1930. He served in the French army in World War II and was held in a German prisoner of war camp for many years. Friends hid his wife and daughter in order to save them from the Holocaust.

These personal experiences help to explain why much of Levinas' thought examines our inescapable duties to other people. When another person is "before me," I am obligated to behave in ways that are kind, patient and respectful. The very presence of this person commands this of me. I must not turn away from this demand or calling, just as the other must hold fast and not turn away from me, once we are together. Why? At a most basic level, we share our human-ness. And yet we are still unique, given our different upbringings, experiences, aspirations, values and so on.

This perspective is very different from positions that stress independence, individualism and maximizing happiness. To stigmatize or contribute to the ongoing stigmatization of others is completely contrary to Levinas' thinking. In fact, if I stigmatized or discriminated against someone, it wouldn't really say anything about him or her as a person. Instead, it would say something about me as a person and the qualities I have, namely ignorance, self-centeredness, or cowardice.
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Submit your ethics questions to be considered for this column to CrossCurrents editor Hema Zbogar at hema_zbogar@camh.net. Please omit personally identifiable health-related information in order to respect people's privacy and follow privacy legislation.