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  • From: Rachel Cox <rachel AT hesketh.com>
  • To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] Trent Lott, segregationist
  • Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2002 12:15:24 -0500

At 11:30 AM 12/10/2002 -0500, Chris Hedemark wrote:
>On Monday, December 9, 2002, at 07:07 PM, Diana Duncan wrote:
>
>> The thing about many Republicans is that
>> they hide behind statements such as yours to cloak their racism in
>> some sort
>> of respectability.
>
>That statement implies two incorrect notions:
>
>1) That I am a Republican
>2) That I am racist

Actually, I don't think it does. All it says is that many Republicans use similar statements to cloak their own racism. She didn't say that's what you were doing, nor, IMO, did she imply it. She was merely using your statement to make a remark about how some others use similar ones.

[snip]
>Hiring should be done strictly on merit.

That is a lovely idea, and a goal we should all strive to achieve. We're not even close yet, and that failing can't be just dumped at the doorstep of affirmative action.

>If color is still a problem
>for some backwards people

And here's the interesting thing. Color isn't just a problem for "some backwards people". I think what folks forget sometimes is that racism isn't limited to the obvious bigot. Most people, I think it's safe to say, are most comfortable with people who are like themselves - who look like they do, talk like they do, dress like they do, and come from the same culture. And the people who do the hiring, even if they're not horrible bigots, are also likely to feel more comfortable with an applicant who is more like they are. And most hiring managers are still white. However good their intentions, when confronted with ten - or fifty - similarly qualified candidates, absent some other incentive most are likely to hire the one they're most personally comfortable with.

And then there are things to contend with like pop culture, poverty, a woefully over-burdened school system which is populated by people who *also* tend to respond most warmly to the people who are most like themselves, and so on and so on and so on. It's not a simple problem, as simple as it may seem when presented in black-and-white terms like saying the problem could be solved if all hiring were done on merit. Sure, all hiring should be done on merit, just like all grades should be awarded on merit, and all encouragement and aid should be given equally regardless of color or socio-economic class or accent or religion or what have you, and so on. But we're not there yet, and we won't get there by pretending we are.

>(the most blatant examples of which can be
>found in the minority community by the way), then instead of the
>reverse discrimination of affirmative action maybe we should hold all
>initial interviews by phone,

I wish I could remember where I heard the study, but I did hear one (maybe on NPR? maybe on 60 Minutes?) in which they tried something like that. Well, the folks who "sounded black" got a much less positive response than the folks who "sounded white". So I don't have a lot of faith in the idea that this would work, as hopeful as it seems at first blush.

I understand people's frustration with affirmative action, and indeed I share some of it. But I've yet to hear an alternative that I thought was viable and fair. Until then, I'm unwilling to abandon it, flawed though it may be. I'm not ready to tear down the house, even if it's got holes in the roof, until we've got plans for building a new one, since some shelter is a whole lot better than none.

Cheers!
-Rachel


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Rachel Cox | Web Developer | 919.834.2552 x16 | hesketh.com/inc
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