effectiveness v social responsibility

Newsweek received several criticisms when it published an article in which they referred to Hillary Clinton as "Hillary" and Barack Obama as "Obama." The critics felt that using Hillary's first name, but Obama's last name shows more respect for Obama than for Hillary. But there are many famous Clintons. Former president Bill and musician George to name two. So it is actually somewhat easier for readers to use "Hillary." But there are no other famous Obamas, so that is simple. So to use last names for both would be harder for readers to process. When is it better to reduce effectiveness to increase social responsibility?

The same thing can be said for racial profiling. While there is a debate over whether using race is effective, there are many instances in which using race as one of several parameters can be used to increase the effectiveness of a data mining algorithm. But if we believe that it is better for social responsibility NOT to use it, should be sacrifice effectiveness to achieve this goal?

The same thing could be said for minority set asides, affirmative action, and many others.

Which is more important, and how should we resolve tradeoffs when they compete?