No need to fire away, your comments are sensible, reasonable and a quiet admission of the things said when these minority groups aren't within earshot.

Unfortunately a misunderstanding of what affirmative action is, and what it isn't, is a common issue with these discussions.

1) Legal Affirmative Action doesn't require the hiring of less qualified individuals to meet required quotas. What it does say is that a company must demonstrate that it has taken "affirmative action" to reach out to, and hire qualified individuals from groups that have been historically underrepresented due to racist/sexist/ethnocentric policies. Any hiring of a person just because they are of a certain racial group is pseudo affirmative action.

2) Legal Affirmative Action requires that the individual must meet the qualifications of the job. Of course some qualifications are more subjective than others. In pilot hiring once you meet the minimum requirements, and pass a sim ride everything else is subjective. That's why its so funny when some of us on this forum cry "I was more qualified" everyone that meets the minimum requirements is qualified, if the requirements are 1000/100 and you have 5000/500 your as qualified as the person with 1000/100. In fact, the guy in my training class that flunked out was one of the higher time pilots.

3) Realize that pseudo Affirmative Action has been around for a very long time, and has raised the wealth, stature, and economic vitality of many of the people and their decendents helped by it. Is anyone here familar with Marlon Green, an ex-military Air force pilot that was denied a job with a major airline because of psuedo of Affirmative Action. Do a wikipedia search for his name. You may learn something!


Onfinal