How to Discriminate Correctly, in One Sentence | Center for Equal Opportunity

The Left’s view is that “systemic racism” and “institutional racism” and “implicit bias” are all bad except that it is all right to discriminate systematically and institutionally and explicitly against whites and Asian Americans, and in favor of African Americans and Latinos, where the latter two are “underrepresented” in, say, Ivy League admissions or in Silicon Valley, but it is not all right to discriminate against Asian Americans, let alone anyone else, and in favor of whites, period, and so it is also all right to have, say, contracting discrimination programs that discriminate against whites and in favor of African Americans, even if such programs end up also discriminating against other minorities, even Latinos, although you do have to be careful because it might make African American activists mad if those programs give preferential treatment to LGBTQ firms, but the good news is that even if all this civil rights and social engineering ends up actually hurting African Americans that really doesn’t matter — and please don’t make me have to explain all this to you again.

Setting Straight the Chronicle of Higher Education – In this regard, it is no surprise that some of the worst offenders are in academia, where achieving “faculty diversity” is the order of the day. After reading article after article on this topic in the Chronicle of Higher Education, I wrote this response, which CHE was kind enough to print:

In themanyarticles that you publish on faculty diversity, there are two recurring problems.

The first is that it is seldom acknowledged that weighing race, ethnicity, and sex in employment selection and promotion is illegal under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Perhaps people assume that, because the Supreme Court has recognized a “diversity” exception to the ban on racial discrimination in student admissions, the same exception must also be available in faculty hiring. But this is not true. A different federal statute is involved, and the Supreme Court has never recognized a “diversity” exception to it (and is unlikely to because, among other things, the statute explicitly provides no “bona fide occupational qualification” with regard to race). I discussed this in greater detail a decade ago in The Chronicle.

This brings us to the second recurring problem: If you begin with the aim of increasing faculty diversity — that is, achieving a predetermined racial/ethnic/gender result — you are already on thin ice, since even if all you do is choose neutral criteria with such a discriminatory aim, you are still discriminating. This is obvious if you put the shoe on the other foot, and consider what the reaction would be if a school decided to select criteria and procedures with the aim of hiring more white males. Legal problems aside, isn’t anyone bothered by the fact that, if you choose people or criteria with any aim other than merit, you are going to have less merit, and so our schools’ research and teaching will be worse? This means, in turn, that the world will be worse off, assuming that research and teaching have something to do with the real world.

General Mills’s New Product: Quota-O’s – And it’s not just academics and government bureaucrats who buy into this nonsense, alas, but big companies, too.

Here’s an example: The Star Tribune reports that General Mills “is pressuring ad agencies to hire more women and people of color by imposing a diversity benchmark,” so that “the creative departments in agencies bidding for its business [will] be staffed at least half by women and 20 percent by people of color.” General Mills executives said, according to the report, that “they want the people who create its advertising to be more reflective of the people who consume their products.” A General Mills spokeswoman was quoted: “We’ll get to stronger creative work that resonates with our consumers by partnering with creative teams who understand firsthand the diverse perspectives of the people we serve.”

Translation: To figure out how best to sell a box of Cheerios to a black woman, you really have to be a black woman. That’s nonsense, and the real motive here is just the pressure to be politically correct.

The resulting discrimination cannot be justified. It’s certainly not moral to treat people differently because of skin color; there’s no empirical or historical evidence that, say, the Phoenicians would have been better traders if only they had had greater ethnic diversity; and it’s not logical to suppose that women cannot imagine what might appeal to men or vice versa. I discuss these problems in the broad context here.

But I’m a civil-rights lawyer so let me also point out the legal problems. Certainly it will violate the law for ad agencies to accede to General Mills’s pressure. As always, it’s helpful to put the shoe on the other foot: Could an employer refuse to hire black sales clerks on the grounds that its customers hated to deal with black people? Of course not, and it wouldn’t matter how stubborn or wealthy the customer was, and of course no judge would care about exploring the reasons for the customer’s desire for discrimination. There’s no “bona fide occupational qualification” for racial preferences under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination.

Is General Mills itself violating the law? Putting aside Title VII for a moment, there certainly seems to be a problem under 42 U.S.C. 1981, which makes it illegal to engage in racial discrimination in entering into contracts. And I don’t know if one can be held liable for conspiring to violate Title VII or pressuring someone to do so, but that’s exactly what General Mills is doing.

Intriguing Suggestion from a Reader: Along these lines, finally, a fellow opponent of racial preferences recently wrote to me and suggested that a letter like this be sent to corporate presidents who loudly “celebrate diversity” at their companies:

Dear Fortune 500 CEO:

As you probably know, we have recently established the Patrick Chavis Affirmative Action Awards. We believe that you qualify for this prestigious honor. The award honors Fortune 500 CEOs whose personal physicians and/or attorneys are affirmative action admits. Given your and your company’s strong support for affirmative action we are confident you and nearly of your counterparts have such physicians and/or attorneys. If either your personal physician or attorney was an affirmative action admit, we will mail you a check for $1,000.00. If both are, we will mail you a check for $2,500.00 (As you can understand, we will be unable to give awards to individuals who serve as their own physician or attorney or those who have chosen a physician or attorney after the date of the announcement of the award.)

We have enclosed the appropriate forms and look forward to receiving your application. We urge you to return the forms promptly because there is, unfortunately, only a limited amount of money for the award, and most of your counterparts will qualify. As a consequence, we will be choosing winners on a first come, first awarded basis.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

P.S. In the utterly unlikely situation that you and your company oppose affirmative action, we will send you a check for $2,500.00. In this case, please contact our office for the appropriate forms.

Not a bad idea!

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