Originally Posted by kalyx522

I think it's safe to make this sweeping generalization that most minority pilots (female/black/Mexican/one-armed/etc.) neither want nor expect preferential treatment. They probably just want to be seen as what they are - pilots. If mgmt does give preferential treatment, what are they gonna do... change their names on the resume?
Obviously everyone knows this one black dude who got hired below mins or some female who had less time than all the others in the interviewing group. The problem seems like people then apply this exception they know to the minority group as whole.. i.e., whenever you see some young blonde female pilot, you automatically assume that she got hired below mins and thus stole the job that should've been yours. Maybe she did... but for many more young blonde females who plugged their way through like everyone else, these assumptions undermine the qualifications they worked hard (like everyone else) to achieve.
I think it's also safe to say that most of the preferential hiring is done through connections/internal recs., not minority hiring. I can't count how many times the corporate/fractional pilots I've met in FBOs tell me to make as much connections as I can because that's how they got in with their companies. One guy can have less time or qualifications than another dude, but still get in with the company because he knows the owner, or his dad is best buddies with the chief pilot, etc. etc. Yet, there's no shame in saying one got a job because of connections, and no outcry about that from other pilots. It might be unfair, but it's just a fact of life.
Besides, whoever said that the more hours you have the more qualified you are? Obviously there's a difference between someone with 500 hrs and someone with 3000 hrs. But once you cross a certain mark, it all just comes down to attitude.
that's my story and im stickin to it!