Angua's First Blog

One more vaguely-Wilkie-related thought

"Robert Goldstein" channeling Mikey Rivero makes a very good point: "I support the professor. It's his class and if he wants to ban every race that you mentioned above then so be it. Like he said, lot's of choices out there."

Ha-ha! Actually, "Robert" makes a bloody shitty point, but 'cause it's either this or context-sensitive help for a Java-based application, I shall try my best to reply in small words and short sentences. See if you can follow along. This also serves to better define my libertarian ideas.

First of all, discrimination happens. People are people, and they will discriminate. As an immigrant female Jewish Canadian, I have experienced some discrimination. Guess where?

I can only speak for my own experience, but, as a woman, I've had no problems getting As in computer science class, or doing presentations to groups of male engineers, etc. I have never experienced even a hint of prejudice against women in this male-dominated field.

For all my paranoia and obsession, I have never been personally confronted with real anti-Semitism to my personal or professional detriment in this country. (Drunk Quebecois and ranting International Socialists don't count.)

As an immigrant with an accent, I do sometimes encounter idiots who think that that fact that my Vs may sound like Ws also means that my IQ dropped 20 points. But these people really are idiots who never get to a position of authority. Their existence just means that I need to speak slower to customer service clerks on occasion -- always good practice, in any case. The fact that I have an accent, or that English isn't my native language, has not stopped kind, generous, and good-looking people from paying me good bucks for writing and editing English prose. (It has stopped me from getting a few interesting jobs overseas, where they seem more tied to the idea that native English = good English, teaching ability, and/or writing skills. It really, really isn't. For example, I know where an apostrophe belongs in the word "lots." Nowhere.)

What's left? The fact that I am chubby, usually dress in jeans and T-shirts, stick my hair in a pony-tail, and rarely wear make-up. And if you think that someone like me making a presentation against some tall blonde in a dress is always judged strictly on merits, I'd like to move to whatever planet you inhabit. This is not sexism. This is an subconscious assumption, by both men and women, that someone who seems well-put-together and attractive is more likely to be a better employee. This is human nature at work.

People will always discriminate. They will always make assumptions, those things we don't know we are making, based on appearance, origins, and other factors. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

I just hate Lower Slobovians. Coming here, taking our jobs, cooking funny-smelling food... The bastards!

What should I be able to do about that?

As a person, I think I should be able to hate those bloody Lower Slobovians to my heart's content. As an employer, I should be able to not hire them. As a landlord, I should be able to refuse to rent to them. I should also be able to write and publish "Why everyone hates Lower Slobovians, part 17." (I think a reasonable exception to free speech is incitement to violence. Everything else, no matter how objectionable, should be allowed.)

Short side-trip. I worked for a couple of years for a huge international computer-related company with three initials to its name. You know the one. It was a very diverse work environment. It's one of those employment places with homosexual pride awareness day, and special blind-person elevators, and a diversity coordinator. We really had one of everyone in that building, and everyone was also extremely brilliant and talented. I'd decided I wasn't made for huge burocracies, but, as far as co-workers went, it was a great place to work.

I currently work for a private company with about 200 employees. Private companies, at least in Canada, do not need to follow any equal opportunity legislation, as far as I know. The owner of the company has a hand in the hiring decisions, and he (and his subordinates) look for the best. And guess what? Without a diversity coordinator or gay pride day, without even an HR person for half the year, drawing on the Toronto and area talent pool, we also have one of everyone in that building. We got Jews, we got Arabs, we got immigrants and Canadians, we got Africans from Africa and African-Canadians, we got every Asian country and most European ones represented at company pot-lucks. We have folks with various disabilities, we have retirement-age employees that like to keep on working, and keener teenagers. By looking for a great workforce, they managed to find a diverse one as well.

Back to my Lower Slobovia obsession (hate the blood-sucking buggers!). What I do on my own time with my own money should be up to me. But...

The Anti-Lower-Slobovia Discrimination League should have the equal right to hate me. They have the right to boycott my products. They have a right to find my views objectionable and ask the printer not to publish volume 18 of my opus. They have the right to let my mortgage-holder bank know that they will transfer to a bank with non-discriminating landlords as customers. They have the right to publish "Why I hate Angua, volume 32" and distribute it on every street corner. They have the right to ask my landlord to kick me out, or kick me out themselves if they happen to be my landlord. They have the right not to hire me, or campaign for my employer to fire me. They have the right to, within the confines of the law, make my life as hellish as I've made theirs.

There are a couple of exceptions to the above. One that applies to "professor" Wilkie is that, sometimes, the decision is not yours to make. Wilkie does not own Oxford. Oxford employs Wilkie, which means that Wilkie needs to abide by Oxford's rules, not the other way around. And an employer (such as Oxford) has the right to fire the sorry ass of an employee (such as Wilkie) who is not abiding by the rules of the place (such as a university-wide nondiscrimination policy).

The second and most important difference has to do with the government and its money. The government, at any level, has no right to discriminate against any of its citizens. Any government job must be open to any qualified employee. Every government service should be accessible to every potential user. Public housing must allow every qualified tenant a place. This also applies to government funding of non-government entities. A university in Canada (and the UK) gets most of its funding from the government, rather than foundations or student tuition. When a university discriminates, it does so on the government's shilling. Ditto a company that gets government contracts. Or a corporation that receives government tax credits or incentives. And, no matter how much I may personally hate Lower Slobovians, I believe that discrimination by government, unlike discrimination by individuals, should not be allowed in a civilized country.

PS -- Wow, this looks positively den-Bestian in length. I really must hate that context-sensitive help, what?