Racial segregation

Segregation is the separation of humans into ethnic or racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, riding on a bus, or in the rental or purchase of a home. Segregation itself is defined by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance as "the act by which a (natural or legal) person separates other persons on the basis of one of the enumerated grounds without an objective and reasonable justification, in conformity with the proposed definition of discrimination. As a result, the voluntary act of separating oneself from other persons on the basis of one of the enumerated grounds does not constitute segregation". According to the UN Forum on Minority Issues, "The creation and development of classes and schools providing education in minority languages should not be considered impermissible segregation, if the assignment to such classes and schools is of a voluntary nature".

Segregationist (short story)

"Segregationist" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. The story was written in April 1967 and was first published in December in Abbottempo, a magazine produced by Abbott Laboratories, then later included in the collections Nightfall and Other Stories (1969), The Complete Robot (1982) and Robot Visions (1990).

Plot summary

The story depicts a future where robotic prosthetics for humans and artificially-created organic body-parts for robots (known as Metallos) are commonplace. Metallos have been granted equal status with 'normal' humans.

A man, who has been granted the right to long life (possibly immortality) by an official Board of Mortality, meets the surgeon who is to assist in the performance of heart replacement surgery on the man. The surgeon offers him a choice between a metallic or semi-organic heart. The man stubbornly refuses the doctor's attempts to persuade him to accept an organic heart, saying that it's "weak," as compared to the cyber-heart.