Race thingy topic.

[old.Tohtori]

Just was wondering;

If racism is treating someone different due to their race and so forth, isn't demanding diversity racist? It's afterall demanding that a group of people is mixed with different races, just so there's diversity everywhere. It has no merit to skill, talent, proficiency or anything like that, just race.

You may do two things;

Call me stupid etc etc, start a fight.

or

Explain how it's not politely.

Your call

 

[Raven]

I quite agree. In this day and age I don't think race should have any bearing whatsoever in anything. Quotas for ethnic minorities and what not do more harm than good. Who gives a toss what colour someone is, its whether they are up to the job that counts.

 

[Job]

We don't even know what a 'race' is.

Heavy reading

 

[Thorwyn]

Not exactly sure what you mean by "diversity". I mean... I understand the word and the idea, but it´s one of those sponge-words, that has a lot of connotations.

Regardless... I think your point is just a variation of the old equalization dilemma. You acknowledge a substancial discrimination, try to fix it by postualting rules to avoid that very discrimination and - thereby - create another discrimination.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Meant the "you must hire a token black guym two asians and an eskimo to look politically correct and not racist" thing

 

[Vasconcelos]

Just a bit of black humour, this topic always reminds me something I heard from one of the mountain rednecks in Madrid:

"I am not racist, I am just a tidy person: the whites here and the blacks in Africa"

 

[Aoami]

positive discrimination. not exactly a new topic.

 

[Killswitch]

At the end of the day, we need to have laws and those laws need to protect the majority of people and be seen to be as even-handed as possible. It's painfully obvious that racism (and other "-isms") exist in society, so we need to do *something* to stop people's prejudiced views having an impact on real people's lives.

Unfortunately, it cuts both ways. Lets say I ran a Window company. If I could statistically prove beyond a doubt that black men between the ages of 30 and 34 were the best installers of double-glazing. I would not be allowed to advertise jobs or hire on that basis.

In general, while positive discrimination attempts to ensure that all jobs are allocated fairly, it also ensures that the best person for any given job has a chance of being passed over because they don't fit a certain racial profile. Surely this is exactly the kind of thing these laws set out to avoid!

Hopefully in a few generations the relatively recent history of segregation, slavery and women and second-class citizens will be totally forgotten and we'll be able to return to a proper meritocracy, instead of the current broken system.

 

[Cerb]

I would have to agree with a lot of the sentiments expressed by others up to this point.

It's positive discrimination no doubt, but it's what is remaining of a system that was put in place to solve a problem. It was a start, and while it is flawed it was probably the first step that needed to be taken. I wish we lived in a world where every workplace was diverse naturally rather than by design. As it stands this forced diversity has acclimatised people to a certain degree. I believe it's all about perception. If you are raised in a home or are subjected to an environment where it is normal and right to have diversity this will rub off on you and your perspective will change somewhat. You pass this off to those around you in particular your children and I believe that racism is something that will for the most part eventually fade away. This is not to say that we don't need to be proactive about it. By all means pass on the idea that a person of a different race is just the same as you are to your children. But showing them a person of a different race is the same through your actions is what will really end racism. People who have deep rooted prejudices aren't likely to have their opinions changed now, but if we focus on the opinions of the next generation we could hopefully end racism with ours.

Just my two cents. I realize now that it's a bit rambling but oh well.

 

[Calaen]

I agree with you Cerb.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Not disagreeing at all.

Wow..wait.

Yeah, that just happened.

Umm...think i need a moment.

...

Anyway, yeah, diversity was a good thing when it started. It helped people to mix up things, avoid racism and all in all, promote equal rights to everyone.

These days though, i think humans have grown, to a certain degree, non-racist enough so we don't need to force it anymore.

By forcing i mean that if there's a, say, workplace with an all white work crew, it doesn't mean they're not considering other races for the jobs, they just have the right peeps working for them. If someone was to come along and say "You need to hire other races you racists", then it's simply calling out attention to race differences and as such, racist in itself.

What we need to do is, it may sound weird, but forget pointing out equal treatment alltogether. The less we focus on equality, the less race becomes an issue. (Note, i may have said that in a wrong way, so do allow me to explain it if it's something that sounds bad in some way)

 

[Huntingtons]

it has a name. called positive discrimination

 

[old.Tohtori]

Well doesn't really matter what it's called.

The point is; if we want to remove discrimination and racism, we need to stop it.

Anything, and i do mean anything, that points to anything about race/gender/sexual preference/etc needs to be dropped.