My teenage sons just notice prejudice for the first time.

Same in my line of work.

I've had reporter and anchor friends interview for jobs and be told, "We're really looking for a hispanic male for this position" or "We love your work, but we're looking to hire a black female for this job".

It goes on behind the camera as well.

 

So?

I'm quite certain he did not put it in writing that was the reason my application was being denied nor was the interview recorded. He was actually pretty nice about it and I had some sympathy for his position though I was angry about it.

 

Awww, congratulations, you're oppressed now.

Did you ever stop to think about the REASONS he might have been under pressure?

 

Because society now supposes that equality between groups is more important than individual meritocracy?

 

Yeah, that must be it. There couldn't possibly be any deep-rooted systemic problems that it's in response to. Because, you know, systemic problems that benefit ME aren't problems at all!

 

Reminds me of a kerfuffle among the major NY publishers in the Eighties. Someone had done a study and discovered a dearth of minority writers and staff at these houses. (They’d already ditched any attempt at publishing “serious women’s fiction” during the Recession of ’82.) After decades of ‘splaining “Well, but we published James Baldwin when no one else would touch him!” (Um, yeah, fifty years ago), the majors were under scrutiny.

Several things happened. First, virtually every house turned one of their women-slash-minority authors into a best seller. Minority male writers, not so much. Second, most of them put out a line of “black romances” or “mystery novels featuring a female African American detective.” Third, every one of them hired a black front-desk receptionist.

Some would eventually integrate the senior editorial staff, and nowadays the staff is more representative of the readership and the general population, though the “Oh, ordinarily I take Metro-North down from Scarsdale, but I’ll be working from home for the next month so I don’t miss my daughter’s soccer games” caste still dominates.

But back then the front-desk receptionist served as a double whammy. “See? We hire black people. See? We hire women.” That they happened to be the same person, well…

And so much easier to blame the hiree or the HR person than the pervasive corporate policy.

 

If you're hiring for a large enough organization, there's no good reason an individual meritocracy shouldn't give you results that are more or less representative of society. That is, unless the people in charge of hiring let some (conscious or unconscious) bias slip into the process.

 

Even if I believed anything outta your ass, your work history is horrendous.

 

How did this "hurt you greatly"?

 

On his way out the door a Mexican weed wacked his pee pee.

 

Liar! You have never been the most qualified for anything. Case closed.

 

QFT

 

So what you're saying is, by hiring a black woman instead of Dayton, the hiring manager could have been saving TWO jobs for white men elsewhere in the business? Hey, when you look at it that way, Dayton took one for the team!

 

Really. This was the 1990s. At that time I had had ONE job and never been dismissed.

 

I'm trying to picture Dayton in a skirt and heels answering a 20-extension phone at S&S. Nah, can't do it...

 

I dunno, Poodle says Dayton's got the legs for it.

 

Doctor, I need 200ccs of brain bleach, stat!

 

Dude, why? That's worse than tub girl!

 

Ban?

 

He's now in line after Packard.

 

I say we avoid the rush and ban him now.

 

How are they holding their guts out of the way?

Proof?

 

What has been seen cannot be unseen

 

Is that Rob Ford with a beard?

 

Holy shit!