Discrimination occurs when individuals or groups of them in a given society, are not allowed the same rights or access to the same opportunities that everybody else has, because of a particular characteristic of that group, such as colour, creed, genre, and so on.
People will always group or be grouped and referred to on particular characteristics (the women, the Catholics, the liberals, etc..), and this is normal and acceptable. And calling someone a white or a black or making a joke on his religion might qualify as an offense depending on the tone used, but does not constitute discrimination. Discrimination is when you say, because you're black you cannot ride on the bus. This is obviously deplorable.
Because in modern societies we're afraid of being accused of discrimination we become sometimes complacent to self-discrimination. This is done by people who discriminate themselves based on the same criteria. Groups who will claim special rights that nobody else has, or not attend to community duties, because they claim to be different. In a community where anybody has the right to wear whatever clothes they want, forbidding the use of a scarf is discrimination. In a corporation where there are strict rules of dressing, like a military or police institution, allowing special groups to wear a scarf when everybody else is obliged to use a cap, is indulging in self-discrimination. It is allowing that group to say we're different and demand special rights. In such case then the use of head-wear should be free for all, and another policeman should be allowed to use a Napoleon hat or a helmet with horns if he wishes to. Otherwise this is also discrimination, and I find this equally deplorable.
There is a fine line between not discriminating and accepting others to self-discriminate. And the amount of self-discrimination phenomenas has been increasing lately. Having said this, I tend to accept positive discrimination, within limited time-frames or contexts, of groups who have for long been subject of negative discrimination in order to boost their access to equal opportunities and rights. But it has to be done to correct assymetries rather than sustain an inverse discrimination. And I actually appreciate that any special groups within a society will act to protect and promote the best of their culture heritage, such as language, music, art and festivities (without infringing the accepted rules of that society).
