From “Abundant Lives: A Progressive Christian Ethic of Flourishing” by Amanda Udis-Kessler
We can also think about respect and positive treatment as moral inclusion. If moral exclusion involves defining some people as outside the moral community and as, therefore, undeserving of moral treatment, we need moral inclusion to flourish. We need to be part of the community of people seen as deserving of moral treatment. In our interactions with strangers, both in public places and in organizational contexts, this means that we need to receive the benefit of the doubt. We need people to presume that we are (for example) trustworthy, dependable, competent, moral, and harmless, and to treat us accordingly.
If we consider the concrete ways in which systemic inequality plays out, we’ll notice that members of devalued groups cannot count on having these preconditions available to them. They cannot count on having access to the resources, experiences, and opportunities that support flourishing. They cannot count on safety or freedom from harm, trauma, mistreatment, violence, and danger. They cannot count on having their autonomy and self-determination respected by others, whether those others are individuals or social institutions. And they cannot count on respect and positive treatment across society. In contrast, members of valued groups can often count on all of these preconditions. Those of us who belong both to valued and devalued groups can count on these preconditions in some contexts but not others.