I'm not absolutely sure of your meaning but I will say the following. Many words in our language have been perverted in our culture of PC correctness and doublespeak. I used to be a student of the English language many years ago. Discrimination implies the right to choose..nothing more. We should all have the right to choose our associations in our private lives.
Yes, giving people the right to discriminate may bring back segregated lunch counters in some towns, but society and the free market has ways to deal with that.
But, as you say, it is much more important that people have the right to choose their associations because it is one of the best ways that free people can manage evil. And it is the best mechanism for the free market to maintain efficiency. A man should not have to worry about being sued because he has too many white males employed on his engineering staff.