No problem with diversity here, and I don't think that one's flying ability has anuything to do with gender or race. However, I am violently opposed to lowering minimums for minorities...at any modern airline it's just not necessary, you can get by on your merits alone. If there are one or two small operations down in the old confederacy that might actually still discriminate, so what? Do you really want to work for people like that? I sure as h*ll don't and I'm as caucasian as they come.

While I appreciate the struggles of folks in the past (you're absolutely right about the Tuskegee guys) and I respect them for that it's not really that way in most of America today.

If minorities are under-represented in certain fields, the solution IS NOT to simply hire more regardless of qualification...this is fundamentally unfair to all the other qualified applicants competing for the jobs. I understand what happened in the past, but I had no part of it, don't treat people that way, and don't deserve to be punished for things that other people did before I was born (most of my ancestors hadn't arrived here at the time).

I think the solution to under-representation is to improve the educational opportunies very early on...give 'em the fundamental tools and let them succeed on their own.

Regardless of what al sharpton or jesse jackson might tell you, the vast majority of today's americans really have no issue with someone's minority status. Especially folks under the age of 60. Don't let some con-man's agenda lead you to believe you don't belong or fit in.