Much as we "select" computer settings by default--reflexively, without
thinking, and sometimes without realizing there are other options--we
often discriminate by default as well. And just as default computer
settings tend to become locked in or entrenched as the standard,
discrimination by default creates a situation in which disparate
outcomes are expected, accepted, and taken for granted. The killing of
Amadou Diallo, racial disparities in medical care, the dominance of
Whites and men in certain professions, and even the uneven media
attention paid to crimes depending on their victims' race and class, all
might be cases of discrimination by, or as, default.
Wang contends that, today, most discrimination occurs by default and not
design, making legal prohibitions that focus on those who discriminate
out of ill will inadequate to redress the largest share of modern
discrimination. She draws on social psychology to detail three ways in
which unconscious assumptions can lead to discrimination, showing how
they play out in a range of everyday settings. Wang then demonstrates
how these dynamics interact in medical care to produce an invisible,
self-fulfilling, and self-perpetuating prophecy of racial disparity. She
goes on to suggest ways in which institutions and individuals might
recognize, interrupt, and override the discriminatory default.