"DISCRIMINATION against dominant white males will soon be encouraged in a bid to boost the status of women, the disabled and cultural and religious minorities.
Such positive discrimination – treating people differently in order to obtain equality for marginalised groups - is set to be legalised under planned changes to the Equal Opportunity Act foreshadowed last week by state Attorney-General Rob Hulls.
The laws are also expected to protect the rights of people with criminal records to get a job, as long as their past misdeeds are irrelevant to work being sought."
[quote]LIFTICVSMAXIMVS wrote:
What is ethically wrong with discrimination?
Is it wrong when individuals do it on their own or only when government enforces it?[/quote]
Skimming through the article, I saw a lot more going on than just that. The government in Australia will have more power to seize records and strong-arm businesses into hiring more people from certain groups.
[quote]abcd1234 wrote:
Oh well. We had a good run. ha[/quote]
I see you are from California, USA. This is taking place in Australia. Not the USA. SO we are still having a good run. FUCK YEAH!!!
High Fives all around!!!
I hope whoever sponsors this stuff is about to go into major surgery, looks at the surgeon who says: “Hey, I got in because of your law, man! There were many people way more qualified than me, but they were white males. I made mostly C’s and D’s, but thank God for your affirmative actions policies!!”
[quote]Headhunter wrote:
I hope whoever sponsors this stuff is about to go into major surgery, looks at the surgeon who says: “Hey, I got in because of your law, man! There were many people way more qualified than me, but they were white males. I made mostly C’s and D’s, but thank God for your affirmative actions policies!!”
“Here comes the scalpel, baby!!!”[/quote]
This is happening in this country, too. I’ve seen it first hand.
[quote]Cortes wrote:
pookie wrote:
Yeah, it’s so fucking hard to be a white caucasian male in our society.
You black muslim handicapped lesbian females don’t know how easy you have it.
So I take it that you agree with the changes outlined in the article, then.[/quote]
No, you can’t legislate racism and sexism out of society. It’s a bad solution to a bad problem, but I don’t have a better one. I’d suggest education, but I’m not sure schools can undo the damage a sexist, racist upbringing can do.
But I’m amused by the WASP crybabies who feel it is so unfair to them, as if those laws really made that much of a difference in their lives.
If a company would’ve hired me but can’t because of some government imposed quotas, it sucks; but I’ll just take the next offer, no big deal. A company that can’t figure a workaround or exploit some loophole or another (hire as a consultant or contractor, etc.) is probably not a wise career choice anyway.
Every year, I turn down unsolicited offers for work. I really doubt that I’d have to turn down that many people if I was either a woman, black, mexican or muslim or part of any other “visible/audible” minority. I’m probably lucky atheism has no outward signs.
The most worrying aspect of this is that it makes it a rational choice for me to choose a male white doctor, lawyer or whatever in the future, because he is there despite “positive discrimination”, i.e. he had it harder.
In the end there will be less white doctors for example but they will make more money because of this and everyone will cry discrimination when those policies in fact make racism a rational choice.
[quote]pookie wrote:
Cortes wrote:
pookie wrote:
Yeah, it’s so fucking hard to be a white caucasian male in our society.
You black muslim handicapped lesbian females don’t know how easy you have it.
So I take it that you agree with the changes outlined in the article, then.
No, you can’t legislate racism and sexism out of society. It’s a bad solution to a bad problem, but I don’t have a better one. I’d suggest education, but I’m not sure schools can undo the damage a sexist, racist upbringing can do.
But I’m amused by the WASP crybabies who feel it is so unfair to them, as if those laws really made that much of a difference in their lives.
If a company would’ve hired me but can’t because of some government imposed quotas, it sucks; but I’ll just take the next offer, no big deal. A company that can’t figure a workaround or exploit some loophole or another (hire as a consultant or contractor, etc.) is probably not a wise career choice anyway.
Every year, I turn down unsolicited offers for work. I really doubt that I’d have to turn down that many people if I was either a woman, black, mexican or muslim or part of any other “visible/audible” minority. I’m probably lucky atheism has no outward signs.
[/quote]
Will you use the male white doctor or the female black doctor when one of your children is sick and why?
Plus, if minorities where discriminated against for other reasons than productivity you could make a killing hiring only minorities.
[quote]orion wrote:
Will you use the male white doctor or the female black doctor when one of your children is sick and why?[/quote]
If the doctor has a medical degree and a state licence, I’m good.
If he/she doesn’t strike me as knowledgeable or competent, I’ll get a second opinion, regardless of his DNA/culture/size of footwear.
For the staff that does not interact with the public, you can probably get highly competent people for much less money, since they won’t have that many other offers for their services.
My personal experience has been that many minorities (or people with minority sounding names) never even get the chance to demonstrate their competence and/or knowledge simply because they never even get called in for the interview.
[quote]orion wrote:
The most worrying aspect of this is that it makes it a rational choice for me to choose a male white doctor, lawyer or whatever in the future, because he is there despite “positive discrimination”, i.e. he had it harder.
In the end there will be less white doctors for example but they will make more money because of this and everyone will cry discrimination when those policies in fact make racism a rational choice.
Just plain stupid.
[/quote]
To me, this seems like a predictable (or should be) unintended consequence.