The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Affirmative Action Is White Collar Welfare

Posted on | January 11, 2012 | 6 Comments

by Smitty

I don’t see the contradiction in saying that we will not discriminate, in a negative sense, while wanting the most qualified employees available, in the positive sense. These are ideas applied on a per-individual basis. Those ideas are applied in series, and the quota is far more important.

Things go pear-shaped when companies make sub-optimal hiring choices to fit that quota. “Well, we’ve gotta have a token WASP on the staff, or it looks like we’re discriminating,” said the Equal Opportunity Officer. The problem is that the WASP is an illiterate buffoon, and also a relative of the EEO, and two more people have to be hired to cover for the deadbeat. Does the company exist primarily to turn a profit, or to carry staff at the behest of the compliance gestapo?

Just because the government has found a way to enshrine the Raaaaacism Industrial Complex in law does not justify raaaaacism. Let’s drop race and gender both from all of our applications and let meritocracy reign.

Category: Racism

Comments

6 Responses to “Affirmative Action Is White Collar Welfare”

  1. Mortimer Snerd
    January 11th, 2012 @ 11:42 am

    “Well, we’ve gotta have a token WASP on the staff, or it looks like we’re discriminating,” said the Equal Opportunity Officer.”

    Yep, if only EEO officers would stop saying that, it would be a better world.  Well…..except for we “token WASPs”.

  2. Adjoran
    January 11th, 2012 @ 4:14 pm

    Odd that in the supposed drive to a colorblind society we fixate on color more than ever. 

    Affirmative Action, as conceived under Nixon, was the polar opposite of racial quotas.  All it meant was companies and universities should make an effort to recruit qualified minorities.  It was designed as a defense to the “discrimination in outcomes” argument:  you advertised on black radio, sent recruiters to ghetto schools, etc.  It was NEVER supposed to involve hiring/admitting a less-qualified minority applicant over a more-qualified white male.

    It has been fully distorted by the welfare lobby into an effective quota system, which is a clear violation of federal law.

    It’s one of the many things that needs to be fixed, although somewhat down the list.  A leaky pipe means trouble and demands attention, but not until the kitchen fire is put out.

  3. Mortimer Snerd
    January 11th, 2012 @ 4:36 pm

    “All it meant was companies and universities should make an effort to recruit qualified minorities.”

    Yes, that was and still is the Party Line, but only the terminally naive have ever taken it seriously.

  4. Anonymous
    January 12th, 2012 @ 8:46 am

    Mortimer, I happen to have been in the government contracting (all levels), and if you investigate at all, about 75% of the “8A minority set-aside” contractors are one minority as a figurehead CEO and a bunch of people of pallor (Asians / Indians count there, not necessarily as “minorities”, especially to quotamongers*) actually doing the work. Heck, I’ve seen published guidelines (Air Force) that said point blank “only 8A companies need apply).

    *I once sat in an AL Legislature committee hearing and heard state Rep Alvin Holmes say that to my boss.

  5. Bob Belvedere
    January 12th, 2012 @ 9:16 am

    As well intentioned as it may have been, AA was doomed to be a failure from the start and evolve into the mutant monster it has become.

    Any program implemented by the government will always be taken over by the always-scheming Leftists and perpetuated by selfish bureaucrats.

  6. Charles Martel
    January 12th, 2012 @ 1:23 pm

    Indeed.  What you’re saying resonates with my 30+ years in the govt (and, afterward as a “person of pallor” contract employee of one of those 8A companies you speak of).  What rather amuses me about Smitty’s post is his use of “token WASP” as an example.  In my experience, “token WASP’s” were never a problem.  In fact, I do not believe such creatures exist in nature :>)