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March 31, 2004
Affirmative Action Lameness
Many government agencies require prospective suppliers to go through a ridiculous registration process before they can do any business with you. Some require their suppliers to have affirmative action in place. One such organization is the City of Cleveland. I have been told that it is the armpit of America. Others say that it rocks.
As part of their supplier application, they ask about the racial and sexual makeup of the prospective supplier. You fall into one of four categories as a minority:
- Black;
- Asian American;
- American Indian;
- Hispanic
There's nothing else.
Some co-workers were trying to fill out this application and realized that it wasn't clear to them which category someone from India would fall in. Clearly Asian-American doesn't just mean anyone from the continent of Asia. But does this mean that they count as black? Naturally they asked the expert, meaning me. And I had little to tell them other than, "This is fucking stupid."
I can understand them wanting to do business with companies with good hiring practices, but it's not like we keep records of who is black, French or gay. Two, if they are going to try to class people as one or the other thing, they should have some diversity to their choices. Or at least an "other" category. How do you calssify the Iraqi Jew? (We have one.) What about the guy from India? If he is dark skinned, he's black, and if light skinned, then Asian?
How would you classify Suj? He's from the middle of India, so he's sort of half/half. Or would you rather discuss why this is a good way of approaching affirmative action?
Posted by JonasParker at March 31, 2004 7:00 PM
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