Is it discrimination to treat Handicapped people better than the rest of us?

[krazykidd]

Before i begin , i will state that i know the politically correct thing to say is no.

That being said, isn't treating someone with a physical and/or mental hadicap better than "normal" ( i know i might get some shit for saying normal, sorry for the lack of another word in advance ) people discrimination ? Isn't discrimination by definition treating a group of people differently because of "x" reasons?

I'll give you an example. Handicap parking. Handicap parking is a parking spot that can only be used by people with a handicap. Thus discriminating towards people who DO NOT have a handicap , because we cannot park there.

Another example. If i looked at a random person , and laughed at them because i thought they looked funny , it would be okay ( okay in the sense that although it would be mean , people wouldn't throw a FIT over it ) . But if it was to laugh at a random person that had a mental handicap , well then i would be looked down upon by everyone and be a heartless bastard. Meaning i could laugh at a "normal" ( sorry again for this term no mean to offend ) person , but not a handicapped person. Thus putting the handicapped person on a sort a social pedestal, in other words, they are higher up on the social ladder ( almost like better people that shouldn't be messed with )

This , in my opinion is discrimination , we treat one group of people ( the handicaps ) better than the rest of Us. Handicaps are like in a "no touch" zone, while everyone else is fair game.

I'll tell you what lead me to this thought. My girlfriend is watching tv in the living room . I enter the living room , look at the tv, and look at the girl on the show. I tell my girlfriend that the girl is ugly, to which she replies, "she has cancer"( i did not know this prior to her telling me this ). I said so what? Her having cancer does not make her any prettier , i don't discriminate. Cancer or not she's ugly. Does her having cancer make her prettier ? To which my girlfriend replies " well no i guess not, but she has cancer so it's not right to say she's ugly ".

I will end this post stating that , i am pro-equality for everybody , including people with handicaps, but to achieve equality wouldn't we then need to treat everyone as equals, and not treat one group differently for whatever reason ?

What do you escapists think?

 

[BanicRhys]

As I see it, catering to the special needs of handicapped people (the parking spaces) is not discrimination.

Giving a handicapped person an advantage in any real competition (job interviews, contests, sports etc) is discrimination.

 

[emeraldrafael]

Yes.

which is whyI always tell people at kennywood that tom should not be allowed on the rides unless he get out of his chair and measured to ride.

...

Just and fyi, tom is missing both his legs from half way between his hip joints and knees down. So he has to use a wheelchair, which means we get to the front of the line of every ride.

so yes, im being a dick to the guy who gets me to the front of the line of every ride.

...

but in all seriousness I dont know. I guess it would depend on the handicap, becase i dont believe that people who are obesely overweight should be allowed to use the handicap spot. and instead they hsould have a spot just for them at the back of the parking lot just to give them exercise.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Yes, just like it would be discrimination to treat handicapped people worse than non-handicapped people. It's just that there are two forms of discrimination. Positive discrimination and negative discrimination. Positive discrimination obviously being that we treat handicapped people better because of their handicap, and negative discrimination being that we treat them worse because of their handicap. It would be the same with race, gender, sexuality etc.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I believe the proper term for that is 'reverse-discrimination' and it applies to all minorities not just the physical and/or mentally handicapped. Also it is just as stupid and harmful to society as regular discrimination.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

As I see it, catering to the special needs of handicapped people (the parking spaces) is not discrimination.

Giving a handicapped person an advantage in any real competition (job interviews, contests, sports etc) is discrimination.

I agree. Then again, I also found myself in need of handicapped parking for a couple of months (knee surgery), so I might be biased.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Not being funny but I have a friend who is disabled, he has it much worse off than other people to get in and out of places and has to rely on people to take him places and suchlike. Its just kindness and courtesy to make life easier for people who have difficulties. His day to day life is much harder than 'normal' people, why the hell shouldn't we try and make things a bit more pleasant for him?

And btw if you had cancer you would look like crap too...>_>

 

[Rin Little]

I agree with this mostly for the reason that its beyond irritating when mentally handicapped kids get away with things that other kids don't. Case in point, there was a kid my ex went to school with and this kid slammed my ex's fingers in a door so my ex punched him. My ex was going to get detention and the kid was going to get nothing because he was "mentally handicapped." I call bullshit on that. Just because they're mentally retarded or whatever does not mean they get excused when they do shit like that. They should be disciplined like everyone else. And no one give the whole "but they don't know what they're doing is wrong" bullshit. A two-year-old doesn't know either, that's why you teach them and discipline them!

 

[Mr Thin]

Calling handicapped parking spaces a form of discrimination makes as much sense as calling tampons a form of discrimination. After all, they are specifically made for women, men can't use them; thus, discrimination.

Oh what's that you say? but tampons provide a specific service that men don't need? So do handicapped parking spaces. They shorten the journey from parking space to destination, making it easier on the disabled person who probably has a harder time getting there than you do.

As for the cancer thing, well, I expect a woman with cancer has enough on her plate to deal with without some prick calling her ugly. Normal, healthy people could just shrug it off; what if someone has no arms? How can they shrug it off then?

 

[lacktheknack]

Yes. Is that a bad thing? There's a good form of discrimination (ie. not making the disabled have to move as far) and bad (ie. refusing service to the disabled).

 

[bushwhacker2k]

"Is treating a handicapped person better than other people discriminatory?"

Technically, yes.

Will I still be more helpful to them than other people? Yyyyep.

 

[Something Amyss]

Not being funny but I have a friend who is disabled, he has it much worse off than other people to get in and out of places and has to rely on people to take him places and suchlike. Its just kindness and courtesy to make life easier for people who have difficulties. His day to day life is much harder than 'normal' people, why the hell shouldn't we try and make things a bit more pleasant for him?

And btw if you had cancer you would look like crap too...>_>

Because being a raging sociopath is cool.

I can't STAND it that anyone might have it better than me! RAWR

 

[Erana]

Ideally, you're a nice and considerate person to everyone, right?
People blatantly having much harder lives than you should just be a reminder that you should behave as the good person you'd like to be.

Really, though, people complaining that people do more nice things to people who have harder lives and not them are being so damn greedy. Is there any good reason to justify the idea that, say, the Make a Wish foundation shouldn't do nice things for terminally ill children just because they aren't going to, say, convince Blizzard to make a cool phoenix mount for you?

You do good where you can, and being kind to someone with real life issues can make an act of altruism go even farther. Life isn't fair, no, but when fairness comes down to superfluous things that make people feel loved and happy, is it really worth complaining about?

I mean, when you have a real problem in your life, even little acts of kindness can make a world of difference.

I'll tell you what lead me to this thought. My girlfriend is watching tv in the living room . I enter the living room , look at the tv, and look at the girl on the show. I tell my girlfriend that the girl is ugly, to which she replies, "she has cancer"( i did not know this prior to her telling me this ). I said so what? Her having cancer does not make her any prettier , i don't discriminate. Cancer or not she's ugly. Does her having cancer make her prettier ? To which my girlfriend replies " well no i guess not, but she has cancer so it's not right to say she's ugly ".

Wait, seriously?!
You walk in, see a girl on the television, and the first thing that pops up in your head is to criticize her appearance?

You really need to stop and reflect on your behavior here.

 

[burningdragoon]

Technically yeah. But also... so? Not all 'discrimination' is 'equal' (which is an interesting statement to say the least).

As a pretty shaky, but still mostly valid analogy, you know what else could be considered discrimination? Only putting urinals in men's bathrooms. Why should men get special treatment just because we can easily pee standing up? Why should women be not get urinals just because they can't pee standing up as easily? (man, sometimes... I just don't know what to do with myself)

Sidenote: I believe the 'pc' term for non-handicapped is 'able-bodied'

 

[SenseOfTumour]

To me, it's almost the PC argument again.

I'm with Stewart Lee that PC is really just 'institutionalised politeness', and because we we can't be trusted not to call people niggers, faggots, cripples, spastics and the like, PC's arisen to try to push us to try and at least achieve some base level of politeness.

Sure it gets out of hand sometimes, but I think it's a small price to pay to stop assholes being assholes.

As for things like parking spaces and their own toilets, good. They have a harder time of it, they should get some kinda perks to make up for it.

On the flipside, I do agree that mental illness shouldn't excuse violent or antisocial behaviour, to the point where I think being mentally below normal shouldn't excuse crimes, either the criminal asylum or regular jail, whoever you are.

If you can't help yourself due to mental problems, you can't stop yourself doing it again, therefore you need to be locked away for the good of society against the good of the individual.

I would suggest you're probably not going to score points with your girlfriend by going 'damn that's an ugly *****' about other women, too. It's just not going to make you look very..caring. In fact it's generally safest to pretend you don't even notice that other women exist, as negative or positive comments tend to land you in it

 

[Ickorus]

Calling handicapped parking spaces a form of discrimination makes as much sense as calling tampons a form of discrimination. After all, they are specifically made for women, men can't use them; thus, discrimination.

Oh what's that you say? but tampons provide a specific service that men don't need? So do handicapped parking spaces. They shorten the journey from parking space to destination, making it easier on the disabled person who probably has a harder time getting there than you do.

As for the cancer thing, well, I expect a woman with cancer has enough on her plate to deal with without some prick calling her ugly. Normal, healthy people could just shrug it off; what if someone has no arms? How can they shrug it off then?

Not sure if the no arms guy can't shrug bit was a joke 'cause he can't physically shrug.

But yeah, agree with this.

I'd also like to add that I think the discrimination where disabled people get jobs over other able-bodied people is bullshit, it should be whoever can do the job best and (for example) hiring a bloke with a back problem to do cleaning over an able-bodied bloke of the same qualification is just stupid.

OK, that example was based on something that my Father witnessed a couple of years back in a place he was working.

 

[Rin Little]

I agree with this mostly for the reason that its beyond irritating when mentally handicapped kids get away with things that other kids don't. Case in point, there was a kid my ex went to school with and this kid slammed my ex's fingers in a door so my ex punched him. My ex was going to get detention and the kid was going to get nothing because he was "mentally handicapped." I call bullshit on that. Just because they're mentally retarded or whatever does not mean they get excused when they do shit like that. They should be disciplined like everyone else. And no one give the whole "but they don't know what they're doing is wrong" bullshit. A two-year-old doesn't know either, that's why you teach them and discipline them!

Yeah! Them damn retards, not actin' like decent reg'lar folks! Beat 'em! Cane 'em! Lock 'em inna shed, that'll learn um not to talk back to their betters!

Holy crap you're a cretin. The reason mentally handicapped children are given more latitude and understanding(by anyone with a basic understanding of disability and/or a functional fucking brain) is because they commonly have severe learning difficulties, which kind of makes teaching them bloody difficult.

If your thuggish prat of an ex had been under my authority, detention would have been the least of their problems, they'd have been expelled and referred to the police for assault.

Oh for the love of the gods dude... Are you serious? Just because they have "learning difficulties" doesn't give them the right to go and hurt others and not be reprimanded for it. They CAN learn, even if it's a slow process, they can still learn.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

I think you've just tripped across the definition of "handicap"!

Of course they're treated better. They have a handicap.

 

[Mr Thin]

As for the cancer thing, well, I expect a woman with cancer has enough on her plate to deal with without some prick calling her ugly. Normal, healthy people could just shrug it off; what if someone has no arms? How can they shrug it off then?

Not sure if the no arms guy can't shrug bit was a joke 'cause he can't physically shrug.

It was. You are most a most observant fellow.

And I am a smart-ass.

 

[Creator002]

i dont believe that people who are obesely overweight should be allowed to use the handicap spot. and instead they hsould have a spot just for them at the back of the parking lot just to give them exercise.

Ha ha ha ha. I would totally be all for that. Hell, I'd use it myself.

But yeah, I see it as discrimination too. There's a special needs guy at my school and I'm known for "being a bully" to him because he makes stupid faces and I laugh.. Half the time, he does it in order to MAKE me laugh.
Why can't I laugh at his faces? I'd laugh at anyone else's. Not laughing at his is discrimination. You could say that I think people with special needs are less funny than "normal" people.