This morning as I was driving across town I had my radio tuned into my local NPR affiliate when a local show called, "St. Louis On The Air" came on. It's a call in talk show and the today's topic was, "Diversity In The Workplace".
It turned out that the guests were all associated with a program called the "St. Louis Business Diversity Initiative" which is a program that was created and funded by a group here in St. Louis called, "Civic Progress" which is a business group made of the CEO's of St. Louis' largest 30 corporations.
As I drove I listened to the guests outline what their program was about. Several times in the first minutes of the program I head the guests talk about being "inclusive". Then I listened to them talk about how their various programs, which included programs that included applicants being able to attend graduate school at Washington University, were designed to help young people succeed in business. They went on to say that these programs were "open to all people of color"
I was like, "Wait!" First you were talking about being inclusive and now you're talking about these programs only being open to people of color? That didn't seem to "inclusive" to me, so I called in.
I pointed out that if somebody had a group that described themselves in exactly the same way except that they said that membership was only open to "white" people that they would get sued and maybe even prosecuted by the equal opportunity commission or something to that effect.
I then hung up to hear their response, which was basically (and I paraphrase here) that it's not discriminatory to discriminate against white people because Missouri had been a slave state or something to that effect.
I had already hung up so I couldn't rebut this on the air, but does this really make any sense? Where does the assumption that ALL white people have a leg up because of things that happened a hundred and forty years ago. My daughter, who just graduated from Ohio State is back in St. Louis looking for a job and would love to participate in a leadership program that would give HER the kind of leg up that this program is intended to give, but she's ineligible because of the color of her skin. Plain and simple.
True, slavery was and discrimination against minorities still is a terrible thing, but the fact of the matter is that my daughter has never owned a slave and is pretty much color blind when it comes to skin color. She's also of Polish and Irish heritage which are two ethnic groups that have also had their fair share of troubles over the years. Also, our families journey to St. Louis came via the Appalachian coal mines! Neither of my parents had a high school diploma and if white people were given special consideration along the way, my family apparently missed out.
I realize that I'm being politically incorrect here, but I think that this is BS! I grew up in a poor, predominately black part of St. Louis (in an area called Laclede Town). When I was a kid, it wasn't uncommon for little Johnny to not be allowed to play with me because I was a honky, so I understand what it feels like to be discriminated against. I also understand that discrimination against minorities is alive and well, but two wrongs don't make a right!
You can't discriminate in favor of one group without discriminating against another. If minorities are under represented in Corporate St. Louis (and I believe this to be true) then make sure that your company isn't discriminating. Plain and simple! If you want to bring kids along, then that's great too. As long as you bring ALL kids along.
The Declaration of Independence is very specific when it states;
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
It's clear. These rights are INDIVIDUAL, not collective. Just because Missouri was a slave state doesn't negate my daughter's INDIVIDUAL rights to not be discriminated against on the basis of her race. While the goal here is admirable, the very existence of programs such as these is a slap in the face to all those who have fought and died to defend our constitution.
R.B. "Bob" Mitchell
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