SWA "Scholarships" (CWI earlier post)
First of all here in America we all have a right to say what we think. Expressing an opinion isn’t a bad thing. Fortunately, unpopular opinions were pretty popular with our founding fathers.
Unfortunately, in this age of political correctness, if you disagree with something like affirmative action some people will immediately “label” you as a bigot, a racist, or worse.
Incidentally, when you’re “labeled” by the p.c. crowd, it’s still a stereotype. This way of thinking is fine though because as one society’s liberators for social change it’s accepted. The academics and the media teach us it is okay. Use the same exact mental approach presenting a conservative argument and you should get called names. As long as you agree with the left you can pigeonhole all day long.
There are lots of us looking for work. Some of us get hired. Some of us don’t. Some of us are lucky. Some of us crap out. Some of us have lots of friends and former colleagues at a particular airline and that helps. Some of us don’t know too many pilots at the majors. Some of us are nice and some of us are mean (sometimes these qualities show up in the interview and sometimes they don’t).
What we all want, or at least what all of us should want is for the hiring process to be fair. It’s not perfect. It never will be perfect. We should still want it to be as fair as possible. So the question is does affirmative action make it better or does it make it worse?
Some people say it makes it better because it gives minority and female pilots the chance that they so rightfully deserve and otherwise would not have. That’s their opinion.
Other people (like me) believe it is harmful. The reason it’s bad is because no matter what you call it, at the end of the day it is still discrimination. Granted, it’s well-intended, so it becomes discrimination in a positive way. Maybe if they called it “positive discrimination” it would lessen my revulsion. At least then there would be intrinsic acknowledgement in the name for what it truly is. You can call it affirmative action if you want to, but it is discrimination nonetheless. Is discrimination inherently bad? Yes! This is self-evident. That’s my opinion. This is because we were all created equal (this doesn’t mean we all have equal abilities, but that we should have equal protection before the law).
Why is affirmative action such a bad thing? Because it goes beyond “it’ll never be perfect.” It is designed to be more imperfect. It’s actually premeditated to be extra unfair—through introduction of gender and race “positive” bias. This causes widespread resentment. This is the evil menace that lurks beneath these politically correct programs. It gives one “group” a reason to resent another “group.” The social engineers are trying to erase negative stereotypes. Meanwhile these programs cause jealousy and bad feelings toward the groups they were designed to facilitate. This makes the whole concept of affirmative action a complete mockery.
In the end we all just want our fair shot. No one likes it when someone cuts in front of them in line. This is especially true if you’ve been waiting a very long time and the person who cut the queue has not. OBAP and WIA scholarship winners are undoubtedly lucky, popular, nice, and very capable people and pilots. If I met the winners I would shake their hands and congratulate them for their good fortune. Hooray for them! It’s nothing personal; it’s not their fault that these practices have become institutionalized. It’s not that they don’t deserve to get hired by a major. They should just have to wait in the same line just as long as the rest of us.
First of all here in America we all have a right to say what we think. Expressing an opinion isn’t a bad thing. Fortunately, unpopular opinions were pretty popular with our founding fathers.
Unfortunately, in this age of political correctness, if you disagree with something like affirmative action some people will immediately “label” you as a bigot, a racist, or worse.
Incidentally, when you’re “labeled” by the p.c. crowd, it’s still a stereotype. This way of thinking is fine though because as one society’s liberators for social change it’s accepted. The academics and the media teach us it is okay. Use the same exact mental approach presenting a conservative argument and you should get called names. As long as you agree with the left you can pigeonhole all day long.
There are lots of us looking for work. Some of us get hired. Some of us don’t. Some of us are lucky. Some of us crap out. Some of us have lots of friends and former colleagues at a particular airline and that helps. Some of us don’t know too many pilots at the majors. Some of us are nice and some of us are mean (sometimes these qualities show up in the interview and sometimes they don’t).
What we all want, or at least what all of us should want is for the hiring process to be fair. It’s not perfect. It never will be perfect. We should still want it to be as fair as possible. So the question is does affirmative action make it better or does it make it worse?
Some people say it makes it better because it gives minority and female pilots the chance that they so rightfully deserve and otherwise would not have. That’s their opinion.
Other people (like me) believe it is harmful. The reason it’s bad is because no matter what you call it, at the end of the day it is still discrimination. Granted, it’s well-intended, so it becomes discrimination in a positive way. Maybe if they called it “positive discrimination” it would lessen my revulsion. At least then there would be intrinsic acknowledgement in the name for what it truly is. You can call it affirmative action if you want to, but it is discrimination nonetheless. Is discrimination inherently bad? Yes! This is self-evident. That’s my opinion. This is because we were all created equal (this doesn’t mean we all have equal abilities, but that we should have equal protection before the law).
Why is affirmative action such a bad thing? Because it goes beyond “it’ll never be perfect.” It is designed to be more imperfect. It’s actually premeditated to be extra unfair—through introduction of gender and race “positive” bias. This causes widespread resentment. This is the evil menace that lurks beneath these politically correct programs. It gives one “group” a reason to resent another “group.” The social engineers are trying to erase negative stereotypes. Meanwhile these programs cause jealousy and bad feelings toward the groups they were designed to facilitate. This makes the whole concept of affirmative action a complete mockery.
In the end we all just want our fair shot. No one likes it when someone cuts in front of them in line. This is especially true if you’ve been waiting a very long time and the person who cut the queue has not. OBAP and WIA scholarship winners are undoubtedly lucky, popular, nice, and very capable people and pilots. If I met the winners I would shake their hands and congratulate them for their good fortune. Hooray for them! It’s nothing personal; it’s not their fault that these practices have become institutionalized. It’s not that they don’t deserve to get hired by a major. They should just have to wait in the same line just as long as the rest of us.
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