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From: watson@Mitel.Software.COM (Steve Watson)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: AA Urban Legends?
Summary: Yummy! Crow for dinner! :-)
Message-ID: <5475@watson>
Date: 26 Nov 90 18:04:41 GMT
References: <9011201819.AA23507@mks.mks.com>
Sender: nadel@aerospace.aero.org
Reply-To: uunet!mitel!Mitel.Software.COM!watson@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Steve Watson)
Organization: Mitel. Kanata (Ontario). Canada.
Lines: 42
Approved: nadel@aerospace.aero.org
Status: R



In article <9011201819.AA23507@mks.mks.com> mks!linda@watmath.waterloo.EDU (Linda Carson) writes:
>The recent vague and ill-informed postings about the Ontario College
>of Art's new hiring policies should make everyone question the
>accuracy of any affirmative action urban legends they hear.
[...]
>Perhaps on the basis of reading the headlines rather than the
>newspaper articles, Steve Watson (watson@spock.UUCP) said:
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I don't read the Toronto papers.  My source was an episode of
_The_5th_Estate_ (CBC news-mag TV program), which probably contains
more info than a headline, but possibly less than a real article.
So, your honour, I plead guilty with an explanation: I believed the CBC
(bad move, I know). Mea Culpa.

>  The target is 38% female
>  representation.

I wrote:
>> ....(I may have some details wrong, corrections welcome)

So: thank you, Ms. Carson for the corrections!
(which I have deleted to save bandwidth)  My reaction to them:
the policy has reasonable justification and sounds reasonably
implemented.
EXCEPT, if any of the points you mentioned were shown on the _5th_Estate_,
I missed it.  Am I deaf & blind?  Or did they just do a lousy job on the story?

>....This is as clear a case in favour of an affirmative action policy as I
>can imagine....
I agree.

So, in future, if I have any thing like this to say, I'll try and phrase
it a little more like: "I have heard X from source Y. Could anyone near the
scene of the action confirm/deny/clarify it?"  THEN we can discuss it...



-- 
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Steve Watson		Blame me, not the Company I keep...
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