wild@SUN.COM (07/29/86)
Return-Path: <wild@SUN.COM>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 86 13:47:10 PDT
From: wild@SUN.COM (Will Doherty)
Message-Id: <8607162047.AA11902@oscar.sun.uucp>
Subject: We need the laundry list
From: Hoffman.es@Xerox.COM
Enumeration of minorities is a never-ending, impossible, and
unnecessary task. Instead of prohibiting discrimination of
the basis of every conceivable irrelevant personal attribute,
I'd like to see employers adopt a policy stating something
like, "Only job-related characteristics shall be considered in
hiring, firing, and promotion decisions." A small handful of
universities have such statements in place of the usual
laundry-list of prohibited discriminations.
I don't think we need a "gay rights amendment" to the
Constitution. We need a PRIVACY RIGHTS amendment! The right
to privacy which the Supreme Court has been struggling to
define (and to which they've now stated an abhorrent limit) is
nowhere explicit in the Constitution.
I'm afraid I have to disagree with you here, Rodney. As long
as our culture continues to enumerate these groups of people
with "irrelevant personal attribute[s]," such as blacks, women,
and lesbians and gays (among the many), so as to relegate them
to a status other than human being status, then the people in
these groups need to struggle for human being status.
As these characteristics become unimportant (at least as far as
hiring, firing, etc.), then we can forget about pushing for
protective laws. But we aren't there yet.
The problem with the policy that you propose is that someone
decides what "job-related characteristics" are, and if we leave
that open to the interpretation of many people in corporate
management, then we won't see any change in the composition of
the people in the workplace. And if we don't force the change
in composition of the workplace, then the people working there
won't get exposed to attitudes which may produce a resulting
attitude change in themselves, and in society at large.
Will Doherty
UUCP: ...sun!oscar!wild
ARPA: "oscar!wild"@sun.com
-------