On the Parity of Groups

One sign of the lengthy distance we have traveled away from the liberal, individualist origins of the American political order is the surprising prevalence of that visualization of social discrimination which sees it more as a problem of attaining the proper ratios between groups than of attaining justice for the individuals that compose them. Basic to the persuasive force of this view is the failure to recognize the fact that framing social policies in terms of groups actually damages substantial numbers of the individuals who compose them, a result exactly contrary to the ostensible purpose of these policies. This comes about because justice- to-a-group can be in fact nothing more nor less than justice to its individual members. Thus, if the component individuals have been treated fairly, then eo ipso the group, too, has been fairly treated. And conversely, it is impossible to treat a group unfairly without being unfair to at least some of its members

Volume 2, Number 2 (1978)