Re: Employment discrimination is alive and well

["Laura Walker" <LJW6626@worldnet.att.net>]

Greg,

>  You know what I find interesting about discrimination...it is
>fundamentally counter-productive to the very people who are doing it. When
a company engages in that kind of behavior, they eliminate their opportunity
to take full advantage of the talent pool that is out there.
>The more they discriminate, the more they cut off their own potential. It
boggles the mind that the idiots who engage in these practices can't seem to
see that.

You are right, Greg.  It is mind-boggling.  However, racism/sexism/
agism is alive, well and thriving in many, many corporations and companies,
both large and small.  I have never understood the mentality of it, although
I've come to believe over the years that it's based in power and fear: the
white males have held positions of power so long and are so accustomed to
things being this way that any perceived threat that it might be "taken"
from them comes out in reactionary actions -- discrimination.  I also
believe that, as much as we like to tout our breaking down racial and sexual
barriers, the old prejudices continue to thrive out of the same fear, and
out of ignorance and simple intolerance.
>
>  Again, however, I'm torn with respect to the solution. On the one hand, I
would like to see the "remedy" for the problem addressed by the competitors
of these discriminatory businesses. By taking advantage of the full talent
pool available to them, companies that do not engage in discriminatory
practices should be able to attract a more diverse, more flexible, and more
capable workforce. They should be able to get the discriminators where it
hurts them the most...in the pocketbook, and put them out of business.

There are GOOD companies and good people out there.  They are few and far
between, however.  I think they have served as examples for other businesses
in how to grow a healthy, satisfied, diverse work-force, but too little and
too few.
>
>  On the other hand, affirmative action carries with it a multitude of
>problems, as a number of thoughtful black leaders have articulated.

Initially -- from its inception -- affirmative action was never meant to be
a "quota" system.  I have written on this subject, as well as worked for
years dealing with issues like this.  One of the things that happened along
the way is that corporate executives -- who didn't want anybody telling them
they had to interview/consider/hire qualified minorities and women -- turned
affirmative action on its head; they are the ones who turned it into a
"quota" system; they are the ones who fueled the rancor of white males, by
lowering the bar, so-to-speak.  I find it fascinating the lengths to which
corporations have gone to twist and abuse affirmative action into something
it was NEVER intended to be.

Affirmative action, in writ, was and is about "establishing goals and
timetables" for training, hiring and promoting minorities and women into
jobs FOR WHICH THEY QUALIFY but which they would other-wise be kept out.
This is, in a nutshell, the language of affirmative action.  Yet over the
years, as I said, it has been twisted, reworded, abused in order to get rid
of it.
>
>  My guess is that the solution lies somewhere in the middle. One of the
problems with cultural change is that it is a damnably slow process. You can
pass laws, and you can try to enforce them, and that is necessary. But
changing the way people really think and function is a far more difficult
and time-consuming process. And that's what it takes. It takes a change in
mindset and culture. As long as people cling to their blind prejudices and
fears, they will find ways to subvert the process.

Which is why more and more unions, professional organizations and
associations, advocacy groups, are developing workplace diversity training
programs.  Such programs aren't limited to the workplace, either.  They've
sprung up in high schools and colleges, in welfare-to-work programs (oddly
enough) and other places, to address head-on the cultural and mindset biases
that exist.  I know a woman whose sole job is to travel to union locals
around the country and conduct diversity training workshops for union
members AND employers.
>
>  So...I wonder...are there some innovative ways to approach changing
mindset and culture that we have not yet explored? I've often wondered what
would happen if we took about $30 billion a year out of things like tobacco
subsidies, farm subsidies (yes, I think farms should be subject to the free
market like every other business), the IRS (via a vastly simpler tax
system), and by closing about 400 other non-value-added government
departments, and used it to set up a network of counseling services that
would help educate people in family systems, work with young parents and
teach them how to deal with practical problems of raising children...in
short, provide a framework for helping address the "normal neuroses" that
permeate American life.

I don't know what exists around other areas of the country; however, in D.C.
and Seattle, Washington (my former home), such programs DO exist.  They are
primarily for the long-term unemployed, the urban youth and inner city
minorities and poor who don't have access to high-quality services in the
private sector.   We are only now starting to recognize the "neuroses" that
limit people from being who they want to be, doing what they want to do.
And, while I absolutely agree that these programs are necessary for
individuals, discrimination and bias are systemic; therefore, efforts must
also include enacting and enforcing laws against
hiring/promotion/housing/credit/health care and other forms of
discrimination.

I'm reminded of my age when I say this.  It's a good reminder.  People who
have never been discriminated against will at some point in their lives run
into it: older people (those who aren't wealthy and can have the luxury of
living out their golden years basking in sunshine...) are discriminated
against in more ways than you can imagine!  In addition, if you have a
spouse, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, cousins, whatever -- think
about them.  Women and minorities -- whatever their status -- are almost
certain to face some type of discrimination at some point in their lives.
Certainly not the blatant discrimination that existed pre-60's, but they'll
be faced with it somewhere down the line.  If for no other reason than to
ensure these young people have less of it than people of my and my parents'
generation, it is absolutely necessary to maintain and enforce laws and
regulations; to do everything we can to educate ourselves, our neighbors,
our co-workers, our employers to its consequences and to wipe it out!
>
>  What would happen if thousands or hundreds of thousands of troubled and
dysfunctional families took a big step toward emotional health? What would
happen if we could, on a fairly large scale, make real progress in
self-growth, self-actualization (in the sense of healthy psychological
autonomy), healthy self-esteem and emotional "connectedness" (including, by
the way, the integration of the male and female parts of
ourselves...something with which I am very familiar). What would happen if
people, on a large scale, learned how to work through their terrible inner
pain? What if they began to get past the ineffective childhood defense
mechanisms they needed early in life but which are now inappropriate for an
adult? [Yes, Laura...I'm very familiar with psychotherapy. I'll have to tell
you about my 'former life' sometime, when I was seriously considering going
into that field, took many hours of clinical training, and worked at a
counseling center. ;-)] What if people, on a large scale, took a step toward
being "whole"? I know...I sound ridiculous...Like John Lennon in "Just
Imagine." But, I wonder...  What kind of difference would it make? It
would be interesting to take a city or a whole state and try it for a few
years, and see what happens.

Now you're thinking like a progressive, Greg ;-].  It's not at all
ridiculous.  I believe that most people are inherently good and want to do
the right thing (I'm not speaking about the extremely wealthy or the
big-shot corporate/company executives -- most of whom never deal with the
"riff-raff").  I also believe that there is a parallel between the growth in
fields like social work and psychology and our coming to grips with our
inner demons, finally moving beyond them.  There are, however, many wounded
souls out there -- who don't even realize they're wounded -- who continue to
reenact their personal traumas and struggles onto others.  How to reach
these souls?  I don't know.  More and continued public education would
probably help.  You're right about taking money from tobacco subsidies (for
example) and $$ from the alcohol and gun industries (two of my favorites...)
and putting it into programs like these.  The way I see it, these two:
alcohol and guns are probably THE MOST responsible for fanning individual's
problems.  Why shouldn't they help pay for some of the cost of rebuilding
the lives they've helped shatter, and help make sure the next generation or
the one after doesn't grow up with so many problems?
>
>  By the way, Laura, thanks for relating the information on WOW. Now THAT
is the kind of an organization that I could get really enthusiastic about
supporting! Are they spreading out "chapters" to other cities?

WOW has offices and chapters in many major cities, and have for many years.
They're not a splashy organization.  They get down to brass tacks, zero in
on the problems and work to change things.  Check out your phone directory:
white pages or y.p. under "Women's Organizations" or "Women's Groups".  I
don't know how each city's WOW handles their listing.
>
Laura