Mar

15

Racism is OK, So Long as It’s Fair

March 15, 2008 | |

Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been contributing very much lately. I’m in the last year of school at Regis University, working towards my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science with a minor in Communication. Some say it’s a strange combination, but I’ve found that employers seem to like geeks that have people skills.

I just completed a course on Strategic Leadership. The book used for this course is called The Fifth Discipline. I found good and bad with this book, much like the others I’ve used in school.

Regis University’s College of Professional Studies is a fast-paced program primarily for working adults. Others like myself, who did not get a degree in their younger years, are who you’ll find in these classes. Often, part of our coursework is giving a presentation on some aspect of the material covered in the book.

This brings me to the purpose of this blog. One of my classmates presented on something called The World Cafe. This was used at Colorado State University by the chief of Campus Police to look into the lack of diversity among the police officers. At that time, the demographic makeup of the force was 98% white male.

Several examples were given about students that did not report a crime, or when they did it was not taken seriously by the existing police officers. Results of these examples were also stated (e.g., unreported rape, disenrollment, and suicide).

The way The World Cafe works is you sit around at a bunch of tables and come up with questions. The classmate-moderator apparently didn’t care much for my question,

Why do you assume that a 98% white male police force is not diverse?

because she actually wrote it down like this:

Why is a 98% white male police force not diverse?

Notice how the student didn’t even hear my question. Notice that this person heard what they were sure I was saying and wrote it that way.

Ultimately what happened was the campus police force intentionally recruited by race and gender to obtain a diverse group of officers. The stated intent was that students would always have someone to talk with that they felt comfortable doing so.

Wasn’t it Martin Luther King, Jr. that stated,

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have no problem whatsoever that they opened up recuiting to a larger geography and that qualified minorities then applied for those positions. That’s what would happen anyway, even if your stated purpose was not intentionally targeting minorities for hire. Instead, they turned Dr. King’s dream on it’s head with an intentionally racist and sexist hiring program (quotas).

There were some questions I would’ve like to have asked if given the opportunity (there wasn’t time):

1. If I call the police force now, can I request a white male police officer to take my report?

2. If I’m being arrested by a minority or female officer, can I request a white male officer be dispatched to the scene?

I fully understand the need to eliminate any type of racism or sexism in hiring practices. Unfortunately, in our politically-correct society, we’ve simply changed our method of discrimination.

I believe in Dr. King’s dream. I too long for a color-blind and gender-blind society where people are judged (and hired) solely on their qualifications. That’s not going to happen until perceptions are changed by those that assume every white male is a racist and sexist.


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