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You are both right, this was inappropriate. Anyone who starts a new business is laudable in my estimation as I have gone that particular road myself. My gall is really for the title of this screed in the first place. 48 posted on 9/25/02 2:08 PM Pacific by wattsmag2

What, this title?

"Blacks 50 percent more likely to start company than whites, study says"

Frankly, this does not surprise me at all. I'd like to read a criticism of their data-gathering (always be suspicious of "statistics"), but if true, it does not shock me at all.

"Studies" have shown that Blacks are more likely to take Government Jobs.
"Studies" may also show that Blacks are more likely to start their Own Businesses.

I suspect that there is a "root cause" for BOTH phenomena: Affirmative Action "Quota Law" (as opposed to good old Equal Justice and Equal Opportunity under Law).

Think about it: the Private Sector, as with the Population in general, is majority White. "Affirmative Action" laws create a perverse dis-incentive to hiring Blacks:

SEE, if a White Guy is unproductive, you can fire him. Simple, and effective.
BUT if a Black Guy is unproductive, and you try to fire him, you may have a Discrimination Lawsuit on your hands.

So, what's a White Majority human resources department to do?

Answer: You hire enough Blacks to meet your Affirmative Action "Quota", and then you stop hiring Blacks.

It doesn't matter how "qualified" they are, the fact is that a Black Hire can be a legal liability in the case of termination, whereas a White Hire generally is not. The Black Guy may be better qualified, but the White Guy won't have Federal Discrimination Law on his side if he files a wrongful-termination lawsuit. So, once your "Federal Negro Quota" is filled, you stop hiring Black people. You've filled your "Federal Negro Quota", and who wants the additional Legal Risk of taking on additional Black Employees who may be a legal liability if you are forced to Terminate Employment?

Trouble is, for new Black Workers entering the Marketplace, the "Negro Quota" is already filled; current Black Employees enjoy a sort of "tenure" as the Token Negroes on the Company payrolls, and the Company has no interest whatsoever in hiring additional Black Employees (they're a legal Discrimination risk in case of Termination).

Note -- You can believe or disbelieve the above scenario; that's your call. I can only say that it corresponds with the demographic-economic studies of Affirmative Action which I have read... as well as my own anecdotal experience working for a major Money-Center Banking institution.

So, what's a young Black Worker to do, facing a situation where the Affirmative Action Laws have made the hiring of additional Black employees a legal risk to Private Sector companies once their "Federal Negro Quota" is already filled?

Well, you do one of two things.

Either you pursue a Government Job...
...Or you start your Own Business.

And that's, "the rest of the story". As always, JMHO.

So, what's a White Majority human resources department to do?

Answer: You hire enough Blacks to meet your Affirmative Action "Quota", and then you stop hiring Blacks.

Man, OP! You just took me back to grad-school.

Seriously!

We had this circle-jerk 1-hour class called "Technology and Ethics" that we had to complete, and you could only take it in the last semester of the grad program. Anyhoo, Affirmative Action came up and we discussed it for a bit.

I told the professor that I thought that AA was the perfect system for a racist to use. When the prof questioned me, I told him basically the same thing that you are saying here; if the litmus test for "discrimination" is "proportional representation," then an employer could stop at 12% of blacks in the company and be free from any discrimination charges.

He said, "Yeah, so?"

I then suggested a similar scenario, namely, what if there were far more qualified blacks that could work for said employer. What is the employers incentive to hire them? Then I told him that I had read about the "proportional representation" nonsense in a book from Dr. Thomas Sowell entitled Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality.

Needless to say, I was nearly laughed out of class. But lo and behold! Three years later and the same thing pops up here.

See? I knew I wasn't crazy! I just look like it...

;-)