Posted on 05/12/2021 8:12:25 AM PDT by Heartlander
Sitting around a table with attorneys from across the country, we took turns introducing ourselves after the first day of a D.C.-based convention. When our attention turned to an Asian American attorney I asked him where he came from.
“What do you mean? I’m American. I was born in America.” The conversations stalled for a beat while the disconnect became apparent. “No,” I retorted, “ I mean, what city do you come from. I work in Kansas City. The lady to your left works in Chicago.” He lamely answered Los Angeles.
But I definitely understood his defensiveness. As a child, when I asked my father where our family was “from,” I would get much the same response: “We’re American. That’s all you need to know.” This lawyer likely needed a higher GPA and test scores to gain admission to law school than his non-Asian fellow applicants because universities actively discriminate against his Asian ancestry. That’s not fair.
A person’s race should be irrelevant to virtually all interactions within society. Yet, before I received a COVID-19 vaccine, a health worker required me to fill out a form declaring my race. How is it that it’s both legal and socially acceptable to require a person seeking medical care to first declare a racial status?
What is the purpose of gathering racial statistics at practically every official interface? We’re asked to declare a race when we apply for college, when we seek a bank loan, job applications, and countless other thresholds. Why? Is it to prevent discrimination? To “help” the disadvantaged races? If that were true, then why don’t we require people to declare their sexual orientations, their religions, their disabilities? All of those characteristics are “protected” under the law and each suffered social disadvantage at one time or another. Yet we all seem to agree that any red-blooded American would bristle if a prospective employer demanded to know where you pray or whether you prefer sex with men or women.
The Asian American lawyer resented having to identify his race. My grandfather refused to identify the Eastern European country of his father’s origin. While some may wish to loudly proclaim their racial identity, should everyone be forced to “pick a team?”
For the Left, America is like a zoo full of exhibits. Integration, assimilation, and cultural mixing are forbidden in the way a zookeeper might insist that the Asian tigers not mix with the African lions. Yet, people are not animals to be kept in racially uniform boxes. Nowhere is the zookeeper mentality more prominently demonstrated than in the disgusting reactions flung at black conservatives. In the mind of the leftist, blacks have a defined ideological role to play. Nothing matches the vitriolic racism of the Left reacting to a black conservative.
It’s illegal to ask a job applicant if she’s pregnant. It’s likewise totally unacceptable to ask if somebody is gay, or Muslim, or handicapped. An employer claiming to need to know medical history to prevent discrimination would be laughed out of court. The whole purpose of asking about a person’s private identity is to perpetrate some form of discrimination, even if it’s out of a paternalistic desire to “help” them. It’s illegal to force “help” on a disabled person who hasn’t asked for help. And besides, government help should be based on the individual’s need, not race.
Asking about a person’s race should be illegal. Full stop. You shouldn’t be required to check the “other” box. You should not have to decline to answer. Unless the employer can articulate a legitimate business reason for needing to know an employee’s race, it’s none of his business. The mere act of repeatedly asking Americans their race encourages resentment and racial division. There are plenty of racially ambiguous people out there who are sick and tired of having to explain their family history just to go about their daily lives. Maybe your father is from India and your mother was a Polish immigrant. That’s private information and totally irrelevant to your skills and productivity as an employee.
We keep hearing that, “we need to have a conversation about race.” But how is that different from forcing people to talk about their private medical histories, their sexual preferences, or their religion? Those are private details. Nobody should ever be forced to discuss his race in the workplace, to apply for a loan, or to complete a class. A person with parents of different races should be allowed to keep the circumstances of his parentage private. Americans who immigrated from countries with ethnic prejudice and racial strife should not be forced to carry that baggage into their new lives in America.
Individual Americans, of course, are free to talk about race if they choose. But just as we have freedom of religion, we should protect the right to racial privacy. Asking for people’s race should be illegal. No American should be forced to use a hyphen if he or she does not want to.
Sounds like an excellent way to promote conversations
I always write in “Human” when there is a space for race on any form. I’ve told my kids and grandchildren to do the same thing.
I’ve received calls from the census bureau a few times wanting clarification and I simply told them that question is not relevant. They continue to push the issue and I ended the conversation with “That’s the only answer you are getting” and I hung up.
Wish it were the case but is not going to happen. We also should have never created a “Hispanic” racial category in this country.
I had a job interview a while back and the recruiter asked me the amount of my current salary. I replied, “Uhhhhhhh, you know, MA passed a law on that, right? You can’t ask that question anymore.”
The recruiter said, “Oh, I can ask it. I just can’t force you to tell me.”
I’m not sure that is correct at all. But in any event, the whole thing made me decide not be to be recruited by him.
This was step one of the decline of the USA. When I was a kid and into my teens we were taught that the USA was a melting pot.
My family moved from TX to NH when I was in High School. They taught ‘diversity’ and ‘celebrating differences’ and ‘be proud of your heritage’ and all of a sudden everyone was a hyphenated American.
I spent plenty of time sitting in the hallway or the ‘guidance counselor’ office.
Divide and conquer.
What you cannot defeat from without defeat from within.
Use their laws against them.
Eventually we will get to lock and load.
I applied at a company where I was a contractor for the job I was then doing. The on line application asked about race. I asked the HR manager if that mattered. Her exact words, “I check every day for a minority. If race isn’t stated, I assume white and discard it.”. (Apparently, it didn’t occur to her i would apply for the job I was currently doing.)
I think it might be helpful if the writer mentioned than these questions are mandated by Federal Law.
We need to change the law.
I really do not believe that corporations, or perhaps even universities, would bother to staff HR ‘Diversity’ departments if governmental reporting weren’t required.
In so many cases, these questions come about because companies are placed in a position where they have to essentially prove that they did NOT discriminate in a particular situation.
I’ve been saying for years that forms and applications shouldn’t have those boxes.
However, right now, checking those boxes is optional. You don’t have to check boxes. You can leave that section blank.
Unfortunately, sometimes the people handling the applications will check the boxes, anyway, based on how you look to them.
I’ve been saying this for years. It’s totally unnecessary and divisive.
When I was recruiter in charge of a Naval Reserve Recruiting Station one of my recruiters came to me totally confused. He had an applicant who had completely black physical features, but was white. He was not albino. There is an area nearby that has to be one of the most racially mixed areas of the country. Blacks, whites, and Indians have mixed in this area for decades. The recruiter was afraid he would offend the guy. I told the recruiter, “here’s how you handle this”. Then I yelled in to the other office, “hey man, what’s your race”? He said, “White”. Problem solved.
This issue is becoming more confusing as time goes by. Why is Obama black? Why is Tiger Woods black? What the hell is Kamala?
There was a space for race on the census. I put down Indy 500
Haha
Liberals, 1970: We should be a color-blind society.
Liberals, 2020: You need to check your white privilege, be less white, etc.
“before I received a COVID-19 vaccine, a health worker required me to fill out a form declaring my race”
As a medical query, this can be valid - some races are genetically predisposed toward certain medical issues. Querying one’s race can be valid, either to identify risks or to gather information which may objectively correlate with race.
As a bureaucratic query, no. Just no.
It’s fun to keep them guessing until you show up to the interview. Even then, sometimes they’re not sure. Sometimes your name will give it away, but not always.
Why not write in "Black" - or, at least, "African-American?"
All of our ancestors purportedly left Africa approx. 100,000 years ago (though some late-comers left by slave ship only a few hundred years ago).
Writing in "human" only tells them exactly what they want to know - that you're White.
Regards,
We are Americans ,whether Black, Asian, Redskin ,White Skin, Whatever skin . We believe in this, the Greatest Nation on earth. We should always focus on that. If you are focused on what race someone is you must not be American and you are the racist.
Why, that makes you a Native American. Check the box...
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