Hobson’s Choice

An illusion of a choice between two inequivalent options.

Hobson ran stable filled with many horses. This gave customers the impression that they would have many to choose from. However, he required that customers can only buy the horse in the first stall or nothing at all. This was to prevent the best horses from being chosen repeatedly and overused.

For example, White Rage describes the negotiations of school segregation as a Hobson’s choice—the state says you can either continue with segregated schools or have no Black schools at all.