How is this not covert racism?

[luciddreamer]

This reminds me of this law we have in Aus. You HAVE to have blacks, whites, hispanics etc. in your work place. To me this is just promoting racism. I find it hard to explain for some reason but I'm sure you get it.

It's like if there was a place without any racism whatsoever (which isn't Australia BTW) and they put this law in, it's acting like racism is rampant and people aren't gonna hire a black man because he's black. And maybe the white guy will be better for the job but because they need a black guy in the workplace by law they hire the black guy who in turn does a shitter job. Or vice-versa.

I mean, even if one place doesn't want 'minority' people there, there's always a tonne of places that aren't racist so just go there.

One thing that does piss me off though, is in supermarkets here, the guys pushing the trolleys into the trolley bay thing are almost always African. Which I can tell is major discrimination. But yeh that has nothing to do with this, just thought I'd add that in lol

[JaggedEdge]

So nobody is getting promoted because of all this. First of all, I see the merit in giving these tests in order for promotion. I'm not exactly sure what is on the test so I can't decide who is actually right. From what I gathered it is just testing your ability to read and write. Probably some questions relating to firefighting...

Regardless, I think it is important for the people being promoted to be able to read and write well. I would imagine those two skills are needed for those higher positions. Not to mention, if your going to be in command of others, you should be able to answer questions about your field.

I'm really interested in reading the test now.

[apocolips31]

Yeah, this is totally covert racism. I think even having a negro or minority fund is a good idea, as it only breeds racism. How does separating people, help then be closer together?

[justanotherbozo]

This reminds me of this law we have in Aus. You HAVE to have blacks, whites, hispanics etc. in your work place. To me this is just promoting racism. I find it hard to explain for some reason but I'm sure you get it.

we have laws like that here in the US too, they're called 'Affirmative Action'
and require company's to meet quota's based on what the gov. felt was 'fair'.

So nobody is getting promoted because of all this. First of all, I see the merit in giving these tests in order for promotion. I'm not exactly sure what is on the test so I can't decide who is actually right. From what I gathered it is just testing your ability to read and write. Probably some questions relating to firefighting...

Regardless, I think it is important for the people being promoted to be able to read and write well. I would imagine those two skills are needed for those higher positions. Not to mention, if your going to be in command of others, you should be able to answer questions about your field.

I'm really interested in reading the test now.

i'm sure the test must be pretty difficult and loaded with fire science questions.
that's the whole point, if you're gonna put someone in charge, it has to be
because he really knows his stuff and not 'cause you need to hire a minority.

what that tells me is that the white guys that actually passed the test must
have studied more than the black guys who didn't pass the test.

which says further that the white guys deserve the promotions and the black
guys don't, period.

promotions should be color blind and awarded only to those that are actually
qualified.

[higher4hockey]

it is a sad fact that racism is alive and well throughout the world.

[Clever85]

I remember I saw a two panel comic strip once. On the first strip you see two characters. One of them is black and the other white. What they were wearing obviously depicted a master-slave relationship. The black slave was hunched over as the white white master climbed up onto a tree by climbing on the black hunched over black slave, nearly reaching a sitting position. The obvious message of this first strip is to show the efforts, pain and struggle that this black slave endured to push the white master up to his comfortable position. The white master says something similar to "You know what, now that I'm up here, I think that we ARE all equal and everyone SHOULD have the same rights and same opportunities to reach this great view" (none of my quotes are verbatim, I do not remember the exact quotes but what I do have quoted are my paraphrases).

The next strip shows the black slave reaching an arm up to the white master saying something like "hey, give me a hand up yeah?". The white master's reply is "Now how would that be equal and fair?".

I remember this comic strip because I think it describes the attitude that many have taken nowadays. Everybody promotes the idea of equality and push for full equality forgetting the obstacles that many have faced and CONTINUE to face. People get ANGRY at the fact that disadvantaged people get "handouts".

I am NOT defending the university. I do see how what they did can be deemed as offensive, but I also see what their intentions could have possibly been. Who am I to pass judgment based on hearsay and people's personal opinions? I need more info to make up my mind on this situation.

I write this post to ask everyone to be more critical of articles and situations. As cannabis smokers, many of us pride ourselves on seeing the world in a different way, oftentimes correlated to a more critical way. I do not roam these boards often, but come from time to time because there IS valuable information here. Unfortunately, I have read too many posts based on ignorance and simple assumptions. When looking at situations, we have to consider the historical, psychological, social, financial, moral, etc. aspects because everyone sees the world in a different way, not one single unilateral way. More importantly, everyone ACTS on this world in a different way. There are injustices at all levels of this world. We have to learn to see them and act to erase the injustices in the world so that we can truly achieve a more equal world today. We have to make up for past mistakes and continue to push forward with what we learned. We do not exist in a vacuum not matter how you cut it (race, culture, time, etc.).

Thank you!

:smokin:

[SocialDem]

Its all a joke. The fact that anyone could believe that we're all equals is ridiculous. How do you judge two or more people and say that they're equal? Wouldn't you first have to define what qualities are desirable and which are not? That being said, who determines what those good qualities are? Its all stupid. Some of us are better than other in certain ways and visa versa. The thing that people seem to ignore is that we're all people and we all deserve to be TREATED equally. Just because those black firefighters couldn't pass the test thats no reason for the white firefighter to not be promoted. He was clearly qualified for the position if he could pass the test. This is a big problem in America and its sending the wrong message to our children.

[justanotherbozo]

Its all a joke. The fact that anyone could believe that we're all equals is ridiculous. How do you judge two or more people and say that they're equal? Wouldn't you first have to define what qualities are desirable and which are not? That being said, who determines what those good qualities are? Its all stupid. Some of us are better than other in certain ways and visa versa. The thing that people seem to ignore is that we're all people and we all deserve to be TREATED equally. Just because those black firefighters couldn't pass the test thats no reason for the white firefighter to not be promoted. He was clearly qualified for the position if he could pass the test. This is a big problem in America and its sending the wrong message to our children.

we're all individuals with different mental and physical abilities but we all have
an equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. that's what they
mean when they say we're all equal.

[JaggedEdge]

I remember this comic strip because I think it describes the attitude that many have taken nowadays. Everybody promotes the idea of equality and push for full equality forgetting the obstacles that many have faced and CONTINUE to face. People get ANGRY at the fact that disadvantaged people get "handouts".

What makes a person disadvantaged? There are certainly things that can make a person disadvantaged, but being black isn't one of them.

When looking at situations, we have to consider the historical, psychological, social, financial, moral, etc. aspects because everyone sees the world in a different way, not one single unilateral way.

Fair enough, but that doesn't exactly apply to this topic. The award seems to presume all black kids are disadvantaged. It doesn't exactly portray equality, does it?