When you fill out an application for employment in the UK, and I'm sure it is very similar in the US, as after all, PC is an American import (thanks guys), the employer is legally obliged, whether they desire to or not, to ask you to 'please state your race or ethnic origin'. A typical list will run something like this (white is always, and I mean always, the last option) :
Black African
Black Caribbean
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Indian
Chinese
Irish
White
Well, it goes something like this. Now, what has always made me laugh about these forms in the UK, is that 'Irish', is always, but always, put as a seperate category to 'white' - as if the Irish are something other than white people like the rest of us. : S
Now the idea here is ''positive discrimination'', you are not allowed to discriminate, unless that discrimination is 'positive', which is to say, that if a company has no black people working for it with ten employees, in an area in which one in ten people are black, then one of their employees has to be black, and so, when a black person applies, they are legally obliged to give them the job, and this is regardless of their ability to do the job, their qualifications or how well the interview went - they apply, they get. I have never known anything so ridiculous, and even if I was black, I would find it very offensive, because I would want to be recognised for what an employer would feel I could contribute, not just for 'being black', in order to satisfy a governmentally imposed statistical measure.
Here is an example of the kind of bullshit that you get on the average British application form for pretty much any area of employment :
''We are committed to equal opportunities policies and action to ensure that it appoints the best candidates for any post irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, religion or creed.''.
This is bullshit, because to me it seems glaringly obvious that if you are seeking to ensure that a person in not discriminated against in any way whatever in being selected for employment - then surely the best way to do that - is to NOT ASK. : P
They say that they are seeking to appoint the 'best candidates', but they do not tell you that on occasion, the criteria for discerning the 'best candidate', may in fact be nothing more than the colour of your skin, via legal obligation. Therefore, they most definately do discriminate, against whites for that their chances may be minimised thanks to PC, and against blacks because they actually seek to insult people enough to award a job on the grounds of their colour alone, if this is deemed necessary - hence, they are being viewed merely as a member of a race and not as a person.
''All aspects of recruitment are monitored to ensure that our policies and procedures are not discriminatory.''.
Bullshit. What they are failing to say, is that we are not 'discriminatory', but we are 'POSITIVELY discriminatory', so that makes it okay.
''Without accurate data on the composition of our workforce and on job applicants, we are unable to monitor the effectiveness of our commitment to equal opportunities in all our policies and procedures.''.
What they actually mean in this statement is that without 'accurate data' on your race etc., they are unable to 'positively discriminate', i.e., give people other than white people the job, merely for what colour they are, to show what a nice, caring, sharing, multi-ethnic society we are - never mind that it might just be as simple as the fact that people of different colours might just be inclined, for a whole multitude of reasons, to go for different kinds of work. Why not just leave people alone and let them do what they want?
''It is now also a statutory requirement under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2002 for all public authorities to promote race equality. Please help us comply with this requirement by filling in your form and returning it with your application.''.
Big Brother indeed. Scary.
Now, there is no legal obligation in the UK for a person to have their sexuality (!) of all things, inquired of in an application for employment. However, there is also no law to stop them asking such things, and so if the employer decides that they want to poke into their potential candidates most private of private lives, they can (as well as decide to employ people according to their own sexual tastes).
I once stared down in astonishment at an application form which has the audacity to ask me my sexual orientation, I wouldn't mind I was applying for a job in a shop, not to star in a porn-film. I was even more offended, when I considered my options :
Straight
Gay
Lesbian
Bi-sexual
Transgendered
The trouble is, NONE of these apply to me. Not only does the PC brigade seek to ask us that which should simply never be asked in any formal context, but they seek to force us to categorise ourselves, into their politically correct little pigeon-holes, that we may not even have been aware that we were supposed to be in.
Black African
Black Caribbean
Pakistani
Bangladeshi
Indian
Chinese
Irish
White
Well, it goes something like this. Now, what has always made me laugh about these forms in the UK, is that 'Irish', is always, but always, put as a seperate category to 'white' - as if the Irish are something other than white people like the rest of us. : S
Now the idea here is ''positive discrimination'', you are not allowed to discriminate, unless that discrimination is 'positive', which is to say, that if a company has no black people working for it with ten employees, in an area in which one in ten people are black, then one of their employees has to be black, and so, when a black person applies, they are legally obliged to give them the job, and this is regardless of their ability to do the job, their qualifications or how well the interview went - they apply, they get. I have never known anything so ridiculous, and even if I was black, I would find it very offensive, because I would want to be recognised for what an employer would feel I could contribute, not just for 'being black', in order to satisfy a governmentally imposed statistical measure.
Here is an example of the kind of bullshit that you get on the average British application form for pretty much any area of employment :
''We are committed to equal opportunities policies and action to ensure that it appoints the best candidates for any post irrespective of gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, religion or creed.''.
This is bullshit, because to me it seems glaringly obvious that if you are seeking to ensure that a person in not discriminated against in any way whatever in being selected for employment - then surely the best way to do that - is to NOT ASK. : P
They say that they are seeking to appoint the 'best candidates', but they do not tell you that on occasion, the criteria for discerning the 'best candidate', may in fact be nothing more than the colour of your skin, via legal obligation. Therefore, they most definately do discriminate, against whites for that their chances may be minimised thanks to PC, and against blacks because they actually seek to insult people enough to award a job on the grounds of their colour alone, if this is deemed necessary - hence, they are being viewed merely as a member of a race and not as a person.
''All aspects of recruitment are monitored to ensure that our policies and procedures are not discriminatory.''.
Bullshit. What they are failing to say, is that we are not 'discriminatory', but we are 'POSITIVELY discriminatory', so that makes it okay.
''Without accurate data on the composition of our workforce and on job applicants, we are unable to monitor the effectiveness of our commitment to equal opportunities in all our policies and procedures.''.
What they actually mean in this statement is that without 'accurate data' on your race etc., they are unable to 'positively discriminate', i.e., give people other than white people the job, merely for what colour they are, to show what a nice, caring, sharing, multi-ethnic society we are - never mind that it might just be as simple as the fact that people of different colours might just be inclined, for a whole multitude of reasons, to go for different kinds of work. Why not just leave people alone and let them do what they want?
''It is now also a statutory requirement under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2002 for all public authorities to promote race equality. Please help us comply with this requirement by filling in your form and returning it with your application.''.
Big Brother indeed. Scary.
Now, there is no legal obligation in the UK for a person to have their sexuality (!) of all things, inquired of in an application for employment. However, there is also no law to stop them asking such things, and so if the employer decides that they want to poke into their potential candidates most private of private lives, they can (as well as decide to employ people according to their own sexual tastes).
I once stared down in astonishment at an application form which has the audacity to ask me my sexual orientation, I wouldn't mind I was applying for a job in a shop, not to star in a porn-film. I was even more offended, when I considered my options :
Straight
Gay
Lesbian
Bi-sexual
Transgendered
The trouble is, NONE of these apply to me. Not only does the PC brigade seek to ask us that which should simply never be asked in any formal context, but they seek to force us to categorise ourselves, into their politically correct little pigeon-holes, that we may not even have been aware that we were supposed to be in.
