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From: mccolm@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Discrimination
Message-ID: <5872@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 5-Jun-85 22:28:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.5872
Posted: Wed Jun  5 22:28:17 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Jun-85 02:38:39 EDT
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 27

I said it before, and I'll say it again.  The Affirmative Action Quota
System was implemented by the EEOC when it was found that previous methods
were not working.  This meant that there was ACTIVE RESISTANCE among the
business community to hiring ethnic minorities solely on their merit.

Put yourself in the position of the EEOC, an appointed body, and imagine
trying to fulfill a Congressional Mandate that industry simply refuses to
follow.  What would you do?  To prosecute, you have to PROVE discrimination.

There is a lot to say against quotas.  The reason quotas came into being
was that they were TESTABLE.  The numbers of minorities determined the
case.  The linking to the local population was based on the assumption
of a blue-collar industry, where employees are generally hired from around
the area.  But let us not forget that the quotas were an extreme solution,
implemented in a moment of desperation by an angry board that was trying
to combat a recalcitrant and perhaps belligerent industry.

So what now?  Change the method, obviously, but to what?  Remember, it is
not acceptable to propose a solution for the next generation.  That leaves
no hope for those currently alive.
--fini--

Eric McColm
UCLA (oo' - kluh) Funny Farm for the Criminally Harmless
UUCP:  ...!{ihnp4,trwspp,cepu,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!mccolm
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"Brevity is Wit; Politics is Obscenity; Relativity is Maddening."