Posted on 12/05/2012 10:53:12 AM PST by ColoCdn
The clock ticked a little impatiently, waiting for an answer. My answer. The interviewer’s question stuck in my mind, “Have you worked with diverse students before?” Looking past her wide set eyes, I focused on the picture of MLK behind her head. He stared down at me with knowing eyes. Brooding. Silent. Without reserve.
I paused, finding the answer to her question. “Yes. I have worked with diverse students. I mean, I’ve been an English Language Development teacher for the past two years and all of my students have been Hispanic.”
“I wouldn’t call that diverse.” She caught me with smug eyes. I looked down at my white hands, and knew she was right. The word, “diverse,” stuck in the air, stranded between generations, mollified by affirmative action, silently accusing me of a skin color I had no control over.
The air was heaving with Presumptions.
My thoughts sputtered and stuttered, like my Ford’s engine trying to turn over. Revving through my mind, I managed to control their violent whirring with a modest, “You’re right. I guess I have not worked with a very diverse population.” The interviewer studied me coolly. She knew she had won. Beat me at her own game. Presumptions settled comfortably in the office air.
Shakily I grabbed my coffee, almost spilling the tasteless liquid onto my dress pants. Taking a slight sip, I tried to calm my nerves. This was a job I really wanted. I wanted to be a writing teacher. A teacher who inspired other students. Students who may not have a love for writing, but students I could convince to love it. If only, I could have a chance. A chance to—
“ So then, why do you want to work with the students at our school?” The interviewer’s cool composure remained, interrupting my confidence. From his spot on the white wall, MLK gazed at me, a little sorrowful, a little pained.
“Growing up, my family didn’t have very much money. We got by, but we didn’t have a lot, which meant I had to find a way to pay for my own education. My father encouraged me to go to college, no matter what—he was an immigrant himself, you see, from Canada. He used to say, ‘No matter what happens, no one can take your education away.’ And I believed him, with all my heart—and went on to be the first person in my family to graduate not only with a bachelor’s, but with a master’s degree. And now, I want to help others achieve the same goal.”
I took a breath, pleased with my answer, trying to read the interviewer’s poker face.
“Uh-huh.”
Unimpressed, the interviewer scribbled a few words down on a scratch sheet of paper. I couldn’t help but feel a bit slighted. My words were like whispers to the Presumptions. Presumptions that didn’t know about the children of Canadian immigrants. Presumptions that weren’t interested in the white children of blue collar workers. Presumptions that claimed they knew what I was all about; who played Master of the Interview and Master of Diversity.
MLK’s eyes looked down at me still—careworn and concerned. They reminded me for a moment of my father’s eyes. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character…” I looked at my interviewer, the gavel raised in her eyes.
“Well, that’s all I have for you. Do you have any questions for me?”
I thought for a few seconds, concerned that I wasn’t being heard. That my worth was being measured by less than what I was.
“Not right now.” I said, feeling defeated by Presumption. Defeated by premature assessment. Defeated by Prejudice.
“Okay,” she said. “Your next interviewer will be in shortly.”
The gavel banged down, sentencing me to Presumption and Presupposition. I took one more calming sip of my watery coffee and suddenly the words of my father came back to me, “Life isn’t fair.” Only now, I truly understood what he meant.
always ask the interviewer to define terms that you don’t understand. its a common way to trip a candidate up.
Right out of college in the early 1970’s I went into an employment agency looking for job. The first thing out of the interviewer’s mouth was, “This goes no further than this room, but sorry to say if you were a woman or better yet a black woman I could get you interviews with every Fortune 500 company in town. As a white male I’ll do the best I can, but I can’t promise you anything.” Of course now that white women have served their purpose as useful idiots in the AA wars they are being jettisoned. Only people of color need now apply.
” then at least they’ve had to expose their own narrow-minded view of diversity in the process,”
And that is proof to you that you don’t want to work there anyway! ;-)
“They have been engaged in “diversity “ among teachers for the last 10 years ; they are more concerned about diversity rather than teaching ability , and the quality of education has suffered.”
The diversity scam is self perpetuating since no matter how many “diverse” employees there are, they continue to hire them. When a diverse manager gets promoted, they tend to hire others like them. The quality of the organization goes downhill pretty quickly. Look at all the institutions ruined by this; police, fire, school systems, govt organizations. The whole system becomes disfunctional.
I had to go through the motions of interviewing white guys for a job that would go to a black person. I asked HR not to send any white applicants in (waste of their time). They said they could not do that. Management was adamant this employee would be black.
We finally ended up hiring a marginally qualified nice guy who came within an inch of getting fired and left after a few years. I still have the emails and applications somewhere.
I had to go through the motions of interviewing white guys for a job that would go to a black person. I asked HR not to send any white applicants in (waste of their time). They said they could not do that. Management was adamant this employee would be black.
We finally ended up hiring a marginally qualified nice guy who came within an inch of getting fired and left after a few years. I still have the emails and applications somewhere.
“Right out of college in the early 1970’s I went into an employment agency looking for job. The first thing out of the interviewer’s mouth was, “This goes no further than this room, but sorry to say if you were a woman or better yet a black woman I could get you interviews with every Fortune 500 company in town. As a white male I’ll do the best I can, but I can’t promise you anything.” Of course now that white women have served their purpose as useful idiots in the AA wars they are being jettisoned. Only people of color need now apply.”
We believed the BS that these people only wanted a fair shake and an equal opportunity. It sounded reasonable but it was all a scam. They decided that qualifications were just an excuse for racists to discriminate so they lowered or eliminated them. Then they invented the 1 qualification where we could not successfully compete, diversity.
Looking for a job is like dating. If interviewer acts like a jerk, you must take that as a signal about the corporate culture and proceed accordingly. If they were that inconsiderate of you during an interview, what would life be like when they were actually your supervisor? I told my daughter often that people don’t wear signs around their necks divulging what kind of people they really were. If someone is so condescending I would just excuse myself and leave.
You Canadians are stealing all the good jobs from our Mexicans!)
She writes well enough to write for a living as opposed to teaching. “Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach.”
When she publishes successfully the teaching jobs will be falling in her lap. You’ve taught her well.
The consequences of the government schools attempt to dumb down two generations, and the ACLU’s aim m to murder God in cold blood. Today the America we knew and loved is but a poignant memory to those of us over 75.
My response: “No, they were all human beings.”
...lol! It would’ve been 1 second later that she was shown the door but lol!
This was 20-21 years ago. Because we were a military contractor, we had certain ‘guidelines’ we had to adhere to.
One was you had to interview at least three prospective people for every job opening, one of which had to be a minority, and if you did not hire that minority you had to write a formal report as to why.
I had an opening for a Electronic Instrumentation Calibration Technician.
I went to Personnel, HR nowadays, and got TWO stacks of applications from them. Why two stacks?, I asked. One was for white applicants and the other was for minority applicants, I was told. But that’s racist, I protested. No, it’s GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS! The federal government had imposed some law or rule that minority applications HAD TO BE KEPT SEPARATE!
I was politely ‘informed’ that I HAD to interview at least one from the minority stack. I had no problem with this directive.
So I went thru the stacks and found three (2+1) interviewees that looked promising. It was really difficult to find a minority applicant who had any electronics background at all, much less a specialized one.
The First interview was with a young white kid, fresh out of some technical school with no real world experience. I’ll never forget him. He looked just like the comic actor Carrot Top, red hair and all. He was dressed in a suit and tie, really nice looking and all. His main problem at the interview? He would not shut up. He talked and talked and talked. I could hardly get a word in to ask any questions. Scratch him.
Second interview was a 40ish man with a family with a very good background in electronics theory and was familiar with all the technical terms and equipment. Well dressed and well versed in the field. He was the guy I wanted, but i HAD ALREADY BEEN TOLD I HAD TO HIRE A MINORITY so that our ‘numbers looked good’ to the government inspectors. He was the guy I told, in not so many words, that the company was looking for a more diverse employee count. He got the message. You mean, he said, that I really have no chance of getting this job. I just nodded and told him I would hire him in a second if I could and wished him luck.
The third interview was a 40ish black woman who had stated on her resume that she had worked as a QC inspector on a now defunct computer/video game company in South Carolina. I took her around the plant, as I did with all the applicants, and showed her the things we worked on and with. She could not name most of the equipment, and would only remark that she ‘had seen it before’. She was the one I wound up with.
As with all new hires, she had to take a drug test at the local clinic as a condition of her employment. She did not have a car, so I had to drive her to the clinic myself. Three days later I was told by personnel that she did not pass the drug test and was dismissed.
So I was back to square one, and hoped I could call that one guy with some good news, but it was not to be. I still had to hire a minority. Period.
As luck would have it, they had just gotten a new application from a girl just out of the Air Force with Calibration Lab experience! Now I had my ‘minority’ and a veteran to boot! She took to the job like she had always been there. She worked there for about a year and got a better calibration job in another town about 60 miles down the beach.
Our company was going thru some rough times and they had a big layoff, which included me. Even though I had worked there for over ten years, and built the Cal Lab up from nothing, I apparently made too much money and was one of the first to go.
She somehow got wind of my situation from talking to some of her friends at the company and gave me a call. She recommended me to her supervisor for the job opening they had and I was hired!........
Yep!
You were just obeying orders...A phrase that rings down through history...
About 19 years ago I walked into the office at Cal State San Marcos to drop off a resume and fill out an application. The quite nice young lady on the other side of the counter smiled at me and said:
“Too bad your not a minority or a woman!”
Hey, I thanked her for being honest. Then I got a job with a company for whom I still work today.
Ah yes, the idol and icon of racists. That told her all she needed to know about the character of the place. Same character as any street of the same name.
He stared down at me with knowing eyes. Brooding. Silent. Without reserve.
That's the idea. The dumb image knows nothing, but there it was, staring down in judgment, its false witness sitting behind the desk, eager to accuse with the Gotcha! game called "Diversity".
Ding-ding-ding-ding! We have a winnah!
Regards,
Trippy story! Glad it worked out all right for you in the end!
Regards,
Mrs WBill used to work for a gov't agency. She was tasked to hire a person, given a stack of resumes, and directed to "give preference to qualified minorities".
Humor, and wise-a** comments aside, how do you tell what color a person is from their resume? Government policy is endlessly fascinating to me.
Mrs WBill's brilliant idea? She picked the 2 or 3 resumes she liked and called the rest "unqualified". Problem solved.
And, the girl that she wound up hiring, who my wife said was easily the best person to come in the door, was a minority. Go figure.
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