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From: crs@lanl.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Discrimination
Message-ID: <25954@lanl.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 16-May-85 14:51:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: lanl.25954
Posted: Thu May 16 14:51:04 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 17-May-85 05:49:30 EDT
References: <354@iham1.UUCP>
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Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 38

> 
> I'm going to get toasted to a fine turn for this, but it has to be said.
> Why do *I*, as a white adult male of Northern European descent, have to pay
> for what *someone else* did more than 200 years ago?  My ancestors came to this
> country 130 years ago from Germany and started farming in Pennsylvania. Anyone
> who has done it can tell you that farming is NOT the same as picking up stray
> silver dollars from the highway.  I am only one generation removed from that
> farm, am the *first* person of the entire clan to graduate from college, and,
> while life is modestly comfortable, am not what one could call privileged or
> powerful.
> 	So, why do *I* have to pay for something *I* didn't do?  *I* didn't
> hold any slaves, *I* didn't force any Orientals into ghettos in San Francisco,
> *I* didn't lynch any black people in the South, *I* didn't put the phrase
> "No Irish Need Apply" in help wanted ads, *I* didn't block any women from the
> workplace, *I* didn't sweat any illegal aliens in unsafe working conditions,
> *I* didn't do any of the things people cite as the reasons for this reverse
> discrimination. I hadn't even been born when most of these things were
> happening. So why do *I* have to pay? And don't give me any of these
> arguments based on the notion of 'original sin' -- I gave up Catholicism along
> with bubble gum and comic books.
> 	I think that the only legitimate criterion for choosing a person to 
> receive something (job, scholarship, promotion, access to certain schools,
> whatever) is merit.  Legalistic gyrations aside, *ANY*, and I do mean *ANY*,
> such decision made on the basis of any other criteria such as race, color,
> religion, sex, or national origin is discrimination. Period.
> 
> 					Carl Deitrick
> 					iham1!cbd

I couldn't agree more.

> 
> ************
> The opinions expressed herein are entirely my own and in no way
> reflect the opinions of AT&T Bell Laboratories.
> ************

Ditto my employer.