Let me state this as flatly and plainly as I can. I am not in favor of feminism. I am not in favor of the NAACP. I am not in favor of any organization which seeks to promote its own special interests over those of anyone else.I am a strict Constitutionalist. It is unconstitutional to deny anyone else’s freedoms and opportunities. Period. You cannot use sex, race, or religion as a basis for denial of same.
I insist that anyone may apply for any job they choose. Anyone may apply to any University they choose. Anyone may attempt to buy a house in any neighborhood they choose.
However – the employer should also have the right to hire the most qualified person possible for the job without the government dictating who must be hired. The University must be free to select the most qualified applicants with the best grades and not forced to admit people who do not measure up to the quality of learning expected just to meet some quota. The banks must be free to deny credit to those who do not qualify financially.
This does mean that I am opposed to any sort of quota system. I am totally against putting any one group above another group. I am for totally free competition. This does mean that if anyone is not hired or admitted because of sex or gender there are and should be heavy penalties.
However – if the search for the best means that a company is heavy on white males – so be it. If the company, in selecting the best people for the jobs winds up heavily black female – so be it. Let the most qualified people get the jobs.
I don’t want or need to know someone’s sexual orientation on the job. As long as we are all trying to do the best possible job for the company it is irrelevant what makes you horny. I’m not interested and don’t care as long as only consenting adults are involved and it does not affect job performance.
I think that race, sex, religion and all the other garbage that we carry around and get all wrapped up in are irrelevant. I am color blind and sex blind on the job. The only thing that matters in the workplace is the ability to perform.
Does it register that someone is tall or short, black or white, male or female, and all the rest? Sure. The things that are superficial characteristics register but generally are not important to job performance. They just don’t matter to me (and to most people). So – minority types, quit looking for something that exists mainly in your mind. If you do get hit with real anti-whatever discrimination then you can get wound up about it. But don’t see tigers in shadows that don’t exist. All humans are capable of maladroit social interaction, but clumsy behavior does not necessarily equal deliberate and malicious behavior.
In short – it is wrong to deny any group’s opportunities. It is equally wrong to promote one group over another. Reverse discrimination is still discrimination and oppresses ion. Just because the shoe is on a different foot does not change the fact that it is still a shoe.
Actually, I am not against minorities, I am against promoting minorities over anyone else. Or demoting them below anyone else. Level playing field all the way. That’s what I am for.
Rumblings of an Ol' Curmudgeon 
23 February 08 at 10:28 am |
As the wife of a civil-service employee, it grieves me to hear the negative comments that come his way about “slacker” or “incompetent” federal workers. *That* is the *true* legacy of a government whose primary goal has become social engineering. It’s especially painful to see women who are incompetent to be anything but secretaries, becoming high grades in the federal civil-service system — it’s so obvious that they’ve been promoted above their abilities solely because they are women. We call them “Hillary appointees,” on the theory that *she* was the one who had them appointed when she was living in the White House.
23 February 08 at 8:10 pm |
Herself Sez: As a former civil servant, I have to agree. I watched an awful lot of applied “Peter Principle” while I was in my position! I also watched an awful lot of political promotion and favoritism. As this was back in the 70s and 80s, much of it was based on correcting assumed previous racial bias, and assumed previous gender bias. I was insulted that it was assumed that I, as an intelligent, well-educated woman, could not “make it” based on my own merit – and I was doubly insulted to see people promoted over me who were less qualified in every sense of the word simply on the basis of their perceived history of injustice. And I still am!
1 March 08 at 10:26 pm |
AMEN!!! I totally resent affirmative action! I actually got into an argument with another [black] co-worker who disagrees with me, and who stopped just short of demanding that I turn over my membership card for my feelings on the subject (just kidding; there’s not actually a membership card). For the sake of peace, we no longer discuss the topic.
If a company doesn’t want to hire me because I’m black, or if they ONLY hire me because they are “forced” to by affirmative action, then it’s a company of which I want no part anyway! I am intelligent, skilled, articulate, professional and Damn it, I’m charming as hell! I don’t need a government program forcing someone to employ me! I resent the knowledge that my government doubts my ability to find employment without their help. Aside from our military and civil servants, I can’t think of the last time the government was useful to me.
Give me a phone interview so that they can employ me based on all that I have to offer. If I have to be black to get the job, then they can take that job and shove it!
2 March 08 at 9:27 am |
Herself Sez: You go girl! I’m with you! If I have to fall back on my American Indian heritage or my female gender to get a job or a business loan then “fergit it!” I will admit that I’ve been tempted . . . But I’ve never done it. It would be really “two-faced” after all that demonstrating back when and getting arrested and all that to fall back on “affirmative action.”