There is no such thing as “reverse discrimination.” The headline of The GW Hatchet’s March 4 editorial (p. 4) erroneously referred to an instance at Boston College of the denial of male students’ civil rights on the basis of sex under this absurd, illogical term.

Discrimination is a social wrong perpetrated by one group against another. Blacks barring whites from membership in an organization or women preventing men from enrolling in a given class are quintessential examples of textbook discrimination.

According to Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, no person can “be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity” receiving federal financial assistance on the basis of race, color, national origin or sex.

These standards apply to all citizens and groups, not just whites and not just males. Discrimination is not a white-against-black or men-against-women concept; any group can discriminate against another.

To label an instance of injustice based on sexual discrimination like the case at Boston College as reverse discrimination is to imply that in some way the normal order of things has been disrupted. This concept is ridiculous – the way society is supposed to function is without discrimination of any kind. In the United States, no sanction allows one group to deny another person the civil rights granted to all, regardless of a group’s majority or minority status.

Discrimination is an offense against an individual based on circumstantial characteristics that are beyond that individual’s control. The denial of a person’s civil rights must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis; no absolute rule applies. Certainly when a group of white men prevent a black female from attending a high school, such a situation constitutes discrimination.

While a number of high profile cases of discrimination have historically included white males denying other social groups their civil rights, discrimination against a white or a male is no less serious, no less against the law, no less wrong.

Use of the term “reverse discrimination” is simply further evidence of how the movement for political correctness is continually dumbing down America. Call what happened in Boston exactly what it is: discrimination in an educational setting on the basis of sex – a clear violation of Title IX.

The law may be color blind as written, but until everyone realizes that the protections contained within the statutes, opinions and cases that make up that law apply to everyone white and black, male and female, we will never live in a truly free society.

-The writer is a freshman majoring in history.