I was reading this story on M&G covering a talk by Trevor Manuel. Essentially, Trevor covers two issues that are getting a lot of coverage in South Africa, BBBEE and gender equality.

What struck me (after some consideration) was the difference in my personal reaction to the two underlying issues - racial redress and gender redress.

When it comes to BEE, I have said before that I think it should be based on socio-economic criteria, rather than race criteria. So naturally I have a mildly allergic reaction to any EE with B's in it. At least as currently applied, where the elite are taking the lion's share of the opportunities at the expense of the genuinely needy.

By contrast, I also feel that woman have been getting a rough deal in general, and particularly when it comes to securing senior posts in companies. This is not a solely South African problem. It is possibly a global issue.

So, I found myself being critical of the BBBEE comment, but supportive of the gender equality comment. Which means my view was subjective as opposed to objective - or was it?

Tracking the positions back, I'm thinking there is no such thing as fair racial discrimination, but fair gender discrimination is OK?

Is there a key difference here that I am missing that makes these two apparently conflicting positions OK whilst still being totally objective, or is objectivity truly that difficult and rare?