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I could definitely see that being possible in some cases &
Posted on: June 8, 2020 at 15:03:32 CT
JeffB MU
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the opposite being possible in others.
Two stories I heard:
1. An insurance broker, now deceased, received a call from a client. He was upset about the horrible treatment he had received in an interaction with an employee of an insurance company. The person was exceptionally rude and insulting and he just couldn't believe it. The broker called his company rep to let him know what had happened. The rep asked him to see if his client would write a detailed letter explaining what had happened. He said that they had been receiving a large number of complaints about this woman for quite some time but needed to document the problems for her file because she was black and was likely to file a complaint with the EEOC if she was fired. They already had a large file of these complaints, but wanted more just to be sure.
The customer agreed and wrote a lengthy letter with all of the details.
Some time later the broker asked his rep what had ever happened with that problem employee. The rep said that several months later they finally fired her. She did indeed file a complaint with the EEOC and the insurance company was fined for discrimination and had to hire her back, and give her all of her back pay and seniority to boot.
The broker said that it was because of this type of governmental stupidity that so many small businesses were reluctant to hire minorities. He said once you hire one they become nearly impossible to fire no matter how terrible they are.
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This seems to me to be an instance of governmental bureaucracy making things worse than they should have been, and perhaps worse than if they didn't even exist at all.
I remember reading a book as a young boy about the integration of baseball. The stories were pretty eye opening for me as the racism was blatant, in your face and very cruel. Branch Rickey said that he knew he would have to bring in an all star player to break the color barrier or it probably would be a failure. He needed someone head and shoulders above the average white player.
He found that player in Jackie Robinson. Jackie was indeed an All Star and a Hall of Famer, but that didn't make his road any easier. The racism and discrimination was severe but he and those who followed him eventually prevailed.
Because they were so much better qualified in those early years even the racists had to concede that they were every bit as good as the white players and they earned the respect of virtually everyone. Many of the white players were moved at seeing the horrible ways that they were treated by so many and went out of their way to try and help them and to make up for the discrimination in any way that they could.
I've heard that when the opposite type of discrimination happens there can be a backlash as I mentioned in the 1st story above. I could see where people looking at 2 similar resumes would wonder whether the black candidate's numbers were padded because of reverse discrimination. Maybe s/he got into a better school because the standards were lowered for blacks (& raised for Asians). Maybe the grades were curved to make sure the correct ratios of graduates were black, or women.
I remember reading a column by Bill McClellan, a self-avowed liberal, in the Post Dispatch. He was talking about choosing a doctor. He said he always chose the foreign doctors with weird names and for whom English was obviously a second language. He said that he knew that the standards for them to immigrate to the US were more difficult than for the American doctors. Like the blacks in the early days after the color barrier was broken they had to be better than their average American born counterparts.
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2. I spoke to a guy who did the hiring for TWA (for his department) back in the day. He said that as per his instructions, whenever he was presented with two fairly similar applicants he ALWAYS took the black, and a black female was even better. He said that it was a no brainer. If he picked the white guy he would need to demonstrate that he was clearly superior to the black applicant. If he hired the black, there was no justifications or explanations needed.
Two stories I heard:
1. An insurance broker, now deceased, received a call from a client. He was upset about the horrible treatment he had received in an interaction with an employee of an insurance company. The person was exceptionally rude and insulting and he just couldn't believe it. The broker called his company rep to let him know what had happened. The rep asked him to see if his client would write a detailed letter explaining what had happened. He said that they had been receiving a large number of complaints about this woman for quite some time but needed to document the problems for her file because she was black and was likely to file a complaint with the EEOC if she was fired. They already had a large file of these complaints, but wanted more just to be sure.
The customer agreed and wrote a lengthy letter with all of the details.
Some time later the broker asked his rep what had ever happened with that problem employee. The rep said that several months later they finally fired her. She did indeed file a complaint with the EEOC and the insurance company was fined for discrimination and had to hire her back, and give her all of her back pay and seniority to boot.
The broker said that it was because of this type of governmental stupidity that so many small businesses were reluctant to hire minorities. He said once you hire one they become nearly impossible to fire no matter how terrible they are.
--------
This seems to me to be an instance of governmental bureaucracy making things worse than they should have been, and perhaps worse than if they didn't even exist at all.
I remember reading a book as a young boy about the integration of baseball. The stories were pretty eye opening for me as the racism was blatant, in your face and very cruel. Branch Rickey said that he knew he would have to bring in an all star player to break the color barrier or it probably would be a failure. He needed someone head and shoulders above the average white player.
He found that player in Jackie Robinson. Jackie was indeed an All Star and a Hall of Famer, but that didn't make his road any easier. The racism and discrimination was severe but he and those who followed him eventually prevailed.
Because they were so much better qualified in those early years even the racists had to concede that they were every bit as good as the white players and they earned the respect of virtually everyone. Many of the white players were moved at seeing the horrible ways that they were treated by so many and went out of their way to try and help them and to make up for the discrimination in any way that they could.
I've heard that when the opposite type of discrimination happens there can be a backlash as I mentioned in the 1st story above. I could see where people looking at 2 similar resumes would wonder whether the black candidate's numbers were padded because of reverse discrimination. Maybe s/he got into a better school because the standards were lowered for blacks (& raised for Asians). Maybe the grades were curved to make sure the correct ratios of graduates were black, or women.
I remember reading a column by Bill McClellan, a self-avowed liberal, in the Post Dispatch. He was talking about choosing a doctor. He said he always chose the foreign doctors with weird names and for whom English was obviously a second language. He said that he knew that the standards for them to immigrate to the US were more difficult than for the American doctors. Like the blacks in the early days after the color barrier was broken they had to be better than their average American born counterparts.
---
2. I spoke to a guy who did the hiring for TWA (for his department) back in the day. He said that as per his instructions, whenever he was presented with two fairly similar applicants he ALWAYS took the black, and a black female was even better. He said that it was a no brainer. If he picked the white guy he would need to demonstrate that he was clearly superior to the black applicant. If he hired the black, there was no justifications or explanations needed.
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I could definitely see that being possible in some cases & - JeffB MU - 6/8 15:03:32