Great Britain:'I was refused a job because I'm white' (It's legal and it's called Positive Action)

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | July 13, 2006 | Anil Dawar

[Stoat]

'I was refused a job because I'm white'
By Anil Dawar
 

(Filed: 13/07/2006)

 

A history graduate has been rejected for a job in a royal palace because he is white.

Brighton and Hove council told Kieron Keenan he could not apply for the job of trainee museum assistant at The Royal Pavilion because he is not of African, Afro-Caribbean, Asian or Chinese descent.

Mr Keenan, a 23-year-old graduate, said: "It's astonishing. In order to be seen to be less discriminatory towards ethnic groups the council has used a law which is blatantly discriminatory against another ethnic group.

"Apparently it is perfectly legal. I feel very annoyed.

"To get a graduate job in the history field is very hard and I have been automatically barred because of my skin. I am perfectly qualified to do the job.

"I didn't even get the chance to apply because the advert made it clear you could not apply unless you were non-white.

"I couldn't even get as far as filling in the application."

The council applied the Race Relations Act to exclude white people from applying for the £9,000 a year part-time post in order to help fill quotas of ethnic minority employees.

It had set itself a target that 4.5 per cent of its 8,000 workers would be from ethnic minorities by the end of March 2006, but achieved only 3.6 per cent.

A report published last year by the Brighton and Hove Racial Harassment Forum said institutional racism at the council was hindering its work in reducing racist incidents.

Mr Keenan, of Lancing, West Sussex, who recently graduated with a history degree from University College Chichester, said: "I have sent letters of complaint off to the council. This would have been a great job with training and experience.''

Bert Williams, who runs the Brighton and Hove Black History Project, said: "This is an easy way out for the council. It is panicking because it has been accused of being institutionally racist.

"Yes, the council must have a more representative work force but this is not the way it should be doing it because it's another form of discrimination."

A Brighton and Hove council spokesman said the job was a traineeship offered under what employers call "positive action", where there are a shortage of ethnic minority workers. He added: "It is lawful to offer training only for people from a certain racial group or to encourage people from that racial group to apply."

Simon Burgess, the city council leader, said: "This is a way of us giving positive trainee work to someone in a group which is underrepresented at the council, which is different from barring certain types of races applying for a full-time post."

[Dallas59]

and

[Stoat]

LMAO!!

[Srirangan]

Has been happening in India for a long long time. If you are a Hindu then you will be not only denied jobs but also education oppurtunities.

[Stoat]

Has been happening in India for a long long time.

It's been going on in the USA for some time also, but it started running out of steam, or so I thought, in the late 1990's.  The proponents of it essentially lost the argument and laws were enacted that ensured equality in hiring in some areas at least.

I'm sorry to see that it's still happening in Great Britain (and other countries).

[fieldmarshaldj]

Brother Gene will tell you how to get it done !

[Darkwolf377]

A history graduate has been rejected for a job in a royal palace because he is white.

That's like being rejected for a job in a Chinese restaurant because you're Asian.

[Old Seadog]

Hmmm! Maybe that explains Al Jolsen's blackface routine.

[CheyennePress]

Yet another sparkling example of how diversity and over-sensitive people are both garbage.

[Starwolf]

In Canada last summer I saw job ads that required you be visibly minority. I assume this was to get around those of us who are quite legitimately multiracial but don't really look it.

My blonde haired/grey eyed daughter checked multi on her forms all the way though school. We got challenged a few times but my paperwork is in perfect order, as is her spanish. Not sure it got her any advantage, but it stopped her from being classified as white/anglo so she was not hindered either.

[Constantine XI Palaeologus]

"Has been happening in India for a long long time. If you are a Hindu then you will be not only denied jobs but also education oppurtunities."

Did you are NOT a Hindu? I was under the impression that most of India was Hindu. I know that Christians are often denied educational opportunities and decent jobs in the rural parts of the country.

[sourcery]

It's justified by Britain's well-known history of having used Africans as slaves, dontcha know </sarcasm>

[snowman_returns]

Over here in the UK they call it positive discrimination, yes that's right, POSITIVE discrimination.

I read the Telegraph every morning and when I see stories like this it just makes my blood boil, this is no less an apartheid against the indeginous majority.

Is this the kind of country and perverse establishment that my grandparents and many others fought for sixty years ago??

[DustyMoment]

Great Britain:'I was refused a job because I'm white' (It's legal and it's called Positive Action)

(Sigh) And the leftist-inspired insanity marches steadily on unchecked. Institutionalized racism, regardless of intent, is still racism. Are we NEVER going to learn??

[moonman]

"It's been going on in the USA for some time also ..."

Since Johnson's Great Society. I applied to Bell of PA and Phila.Electric in 1968 and was told they were under court order to hire women and minorities only. Of course this, or trade unions, didn't apply if your Dad worked there. Unfortunately, mine didn't.

[Constantine XI Palaeologus]

Whoops, should be a "mean" in there somewhere.

[Srirangan]

Rubbish. Anybody who can prove that he is not a hindu will find the Govt of India going out of the way to provide "quotas" or "reservations". Today in India you will find nearly 50-75% of oppurtunities 'reserved' for 'minorities'.

Apparently merit doesn't matter.