Monday, December 19, 2005

Skin color is more important than work ethic

The opening paragraph at several county "jobs" websites:

Diversity is a key to the future success of Lane County.

Multnomah County is building a diverse work force and encourages applications from candidates who will contribute to our diversity.

At TriMet, you'll find a diverse workforce that reflects our community, and a commitment to providing world-class transit service.

Other more reasonable counties talked about having a "drug free" workplace and talked about passing a background check. Our two most "progressive" counties only care if you have the right skin color or sleep with someone of the same gender.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Daniel, I recently applied for a job with Washington County and almost vomited when I say that every single application had these four questions on it:

#

The County recognizes that a diverse workforce promotes a work environment that fosters cultural awareness, mutual respect, increased productivity and progress toward common goals among the diverse community we represent and serve.

With the above statement in mind, please answer the following questions:

A. How does diversity benefit an organization and your own personal growth?

B. Please describe a personal or professional experience you have had with diversity.

C. What impact has this experience made on how you deal with others?

D. What specific training or workshops have you attended regarding diversity issues?

Anonymous said...

I work in State government, but I am here at Washington County at the moment. I can't believe those questions were on that job app. I haven't seen that on a state app. but I have been with the state for more than 5 years, so maybe it has changed. At any rate, that is disgusting. This will not come as a surprise to anyone. There are a lot of slackers here in government. In my department, I am the only straight white male. I wonder what that means? It's ridiculous, but I get by. :)

MAX Redline said...

It's kind of interesting, when you consider that "diversity" is nothing more than racism. The whole concept is about pointing out, recognizing, differences based upon skin color or other "attributes". However, whenever you mention this, you are the one labeled a racist or a bigot. Orwell was dead-on.

Daniel said...

Wow, I'd love to see that as a .pdf file.

I don't know if I could handle working for government. I know that you can sleep on the job and not get fired but I don't think that they allow you to be a conservative.

Anonymous said...

Those questions are sickening. I mean, I grew up in a mixed neighborhood and was even bused to a "white" part of town when the whole desegregation thing was going on in the 70's.

BTW, I am white and I cannot think of how that experience "enriched" my learning experience, either being with people who looked more like me or being with a racially mixed school. I thought we were not supposed to notice things like race? How come the liberals are constantly pointing these things out, more than 30 years plus past the whole civil rights thing?

Robin said...

diversity as long as you are bilingual
example...Lane Community College has this tag at the beginning of every job posting
MINORITIES, WOMEN, AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES, BILINGUAL PROFICIENCY AND/OR MULTICULTURAL EXPERIENCE ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY

Anonymous said...

The sad rants of angry white men. Clueless.

Anonymous said...

Your hostilities at liberals as imposing some sort of "diversity" regime on you is misplaced. The push for a more diverse workforce is a response to the interconnectedness of the modern world, which brings cultures of all corners of the world into contact with one another, not some left-wing conspiracy to "liberalize" you.

Hysterical much?

It's a globally connected world, byotch! Get with the times; stop blaming liberals.

Tim said...

Clueless is giving a drive-by opinion.

The thing I find funniest is the same people pushing for global economics are the same people protesting at WTO gatherings.

Anonymous said...

Tim -- This entire blog might as well be named drivebyopinion.blogspot.com -- drive-bys are ubiquitous here. Global economics? What do you mean?

Actually, I'm not one myself, but I'm pretty sure WTO protesters are protesting against globalization. Don't get me wrong. I'm no huge fan, but it's a behemoth. No sense denying its powerful force in the world.

P.s. trying to diminish someone's point by artificially linking their argument to the violent element of a social movement is about as drive-by as it gets.

Tim said...

I just thought it was funny and ironic to protest something one day and then support it when convenient. The argument is not artificial. Attempting to diminish my argument by saying so is running in the same vein as Daniel's comments about groups hating black people. At least his are not trying to be serious.

And Daniel is hardly driveby, and it's his blog. Shall I log off and call myself "anonymous"?

Anonymous said...

Tim -- What you just wrote made no sense.

I think you should log off and call yourself "dipshit".

Tim said...

Stay in school.

Anonymous said...

Only if you promise to get a vasectomy. Deal?

Daniel said...

Anon, the folks working at DHS need to be culturally competent to compete in the global marketplace?

Don't they just serve Oregonians? You know, American citizens who live in Oregon.

Please let me know how this involves world trade or the global market.

Tim said...

You'll have to tell me which high school you attend.

Anonymous said...

Tim -- I attend Tim Lewis School for the Mentally Challenged.

Daniel -- I already answered your question:

"The push for a more diverse workforce is a response to the interconnectedness of the modern world, which brings cultures of all corners of the world into contact with one another"

One out of five people in the U.S. is either foreign-born or the child of foreign-born parents. Oregon is not immune to the drastic racial/ethnic/national-origin change underway in this country. By 2050, persons of European ancestry will be a minority.

Tim said...

It's rough being outed, isn't it? If you keep saying statistics, they might come true even without a source.

One in three anonymous posters are mentally challenged. Hey, you said it, not me.

Anonymous said...

Tim -- not that any regular bloggers here back up any of their assertions with sources but, since you asked:

For statistics on the foreign-born population:

http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p20-551.pdf

Also, my numbers on the foreign-stock population (foriegn-born and their children) came from Chapter 2 of:

Portes, Alejandro and Ruben Rumbau. 2001. Legacies: The Story o fthe Immigrant Second Generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Regarding the 2050 population projection, see Introduction, page 1, of:

Suarez-Orozco, Marcelo and Mariela M. Paez., eds. 2002. Latinos: Remaking America. Berkeley: University of Calfiornia Press.

Tim said...

Thanks. I'll check them out.

Daniel said...

You didn't answer my question anon, DHS serves Americans. Their culture should be the American culture.

How come you don't see the huge push for "diversity" and "multicultural" training across the board in private sector jobs? Why is it unanimous in the public sector?

Bottom line: I don't care if the guy at the local DMV can dance mariachi, speak English and give me my drivers license.

Gunslinger said...

And those minority european ancestry will still be running the free world.

Diversity is a cop out for people who chose not to live up to the qualifications of a job. Just like affirmitive blacktion. Don't have the qualifications? Just claim to be culturally diverse, then you can sue your way into a position. Who cares if you have the necessary training/abilities.

If I didn't love this counrty so much, I would whole heartedly support this diversity nonsense. By allowing unqualified employees to hold a job just on the basis that they posess some sort of "diversity" the government will cease to be able to function.

Anonymous said...

Hey Shitslinger -- Nice opinion. I don't believe it, but nice opinion. Actually, China will be running the free world before long. Fucking economic vortex.

We're in the twilight of the reign of people of European ancestry. It's simply a demographic fact. Nations of European ancestry are, relatively speaking, old, and the Europeans in those countries are the oldest of the old. Countries wanting to compete with China will have to decide whether or not they're going to import labor on an even more massive scale than now, because if we all relied on native-born labor forces, our economies would contract. Besides the aging of the European ancestry population, inter-marriage is on the rise, and this will result in an increased "browning" of European ancestry peoples.

Is this something that scares you?

Back to China, evidence of our diminishing power in the world is evident if we just look to the south. You know the story of Venezuela. Brazil has repeatedly thumbed its nose at the U.S. since 9-11. Argentina is slowly but surely resurrecting its economy without a single dollar borrowed from the U.S., but with loans from China and Venezuela. Bolivia, which has huge natural gas reserves, just elected an indigenous and populist president who was elected primarily due to the suppport of poppy farmers and on the promise that production would increase. This is a vociferous thrusting of the middle finger at the US. These scenarios would have been unthinkable even ten years ago, but now there's a new game in town, China, and the U.S. is losing power.

So, why don't you stop acting like you're the member of the "we rule the world club" and accept the fact that the world is changing drastically, and the changes will be evident right down to your very neighborhood. Blame the world, not liberals. But ultimately, get over it.

Sorry if you expect me to cite all of this, but I can't dig up every news story and book etc. Let's just say I didn't hear it on Lars Larson.

Gunslinger said...

Poppy farms, and radical governments being formed by a largely communist nation. That doesnt bother you?

All the joking and mockery aside, the fact that another huge nation (oh, who also is in the market of buying American Greenbacks to uphold their economy, so we can continue to buy their shit) is financing drug nations, and other "we hate America" countries is frightening. So, instead of just laying down like a pussy, and giving up the farm under the guise of "lets all play nice in the global economy" I chose to fight. But you do what you want.

Anonymous said...

No, it doesn't bother me. I don't think that Bolivia intends to import drugs into the U.S. The chewing of coca leaves is a long-standing indigenous tradition, it acts as a very mild stimulant, like coffee. Rallying around coca (i need to correct myself; I meant coca and not poppy) farmers is symbolic more than anything.

For such a communist nation, China is sure teaching the world a few things about capitalism.

Viewed within the context of broader history, the decline of Western hegemony is just one in long line of similar declines by powerful nations. Fight all you want, this is the course of history.

I hope that we, as a nation, will choose wise leaders, reasonable enough to know the difference between bravery and stupidity. I think we have no choice but to play nice now. A war with China would be cataclysmic.

How many billion live in that country? C'mon, man. Get serious. I think you've been playing too many video games.

Tim said...

It's 1.3 billion.

Anonymous said...

Right. I would prefer not to have some maverick gunslinger in office trying to make war on a country of 1.3 billion when we currently have our hands full in a nation of 26 million; 8 million shy of the population of California.