Fighting Racism With... More Racism?
Race based hiring and student acceptance practices in universities affect us all.
I was recently gently chided for sharing a news story on social media about the University of Calgary's new “Inclusive Excellence Cluster Hiring Initiative.”
This initiative is basically their plan to hire 45 new professors over the next three years who are all part of “equity deserving groups”. In case you're not aware, Equity Deserving Groups, according to the University of Calgary include (but of course are not limited to) women, Indigenous peoples, visible/racialized minorities, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ2S+. So, basically anyone who is not a white male - unless of course that person also identifies as LGBTQ2S+. Did I leave anyone out?
One of my issues with this initiative is that on the surface, it really looks to be discriminatory, bigoted, and you might even say “racist”. In reality, I'm pretty sure it's not just on the surface.
The initial criticisms of me sharing this article were:
The writer of the article is an “old white guy” (need I say more?)
He's also a member of the Progressive Conservative Association of Albertans (obviously all bigots and racists😲).
He also happens to be a tenured professor and therefore must obviously be worried about losing his job to someone from a minority class.
These comments were concluded with, “Come on Ken. You're better than this.”
My initial thought here was, “Better than what, exactly?” Better than these circuitous insinuations? I would hope that I am, though what merit insinuations like these even have is highly suspect.
The writer of these comments, being a long time friend of mine isn't a person I would just blow off like some anonymous loser on Twitter. He's actually an intelligent and thoughtful individual. Even so, the comment kind of rubbed me the wrong way and I probably was less polite than I could've been.
One question my friend had for me was this:
How, exactly, does this affect you?
This is a valid question and it's usually inspired by a very common assumption, which is that everything that one is concerned about relates specifically to his or her own well-being. Because we're really all just selfish children trying to grab as much candy as we possibly can before the adults in the room notice. Or so we're led to believe.
He’s absolutely right that it doesn't affect me personally right now, but it really isn't about me. I'm already doing what I want and this policy in a school a 15 hour drive from here won't affect that one bit. But what about my kids? What if my son would like to apply for a position like that and more than met all the requirements, save the one that states he must belong to some “equity deserving group”? Is he just to accept that some groups are simply more deserving of equity than other groups? Also, let's face it - U of C is far from the only university with this kind of policy. And these universities will undoubtedly be sending future managers and business owners out into the world to continue this ideological nonsense.
Various human rights groups have fought for decades to eliminate this type of thinking from our society and now it seems like our universities are trying their hardest to bring it back full force.
Another question posed during this discussion was:
Did anyone ask the school why they're looking for these specific human-types for these positions?
This is actually a great question if one assumes that there is even a discussion to be had here. My assumption is that any question like that would very likely be met with a much less polite version of what friend said to me. And yes, I realize this is simply my assumption, but I'm pretty sure that assumption is shared by most people. So it's really not all that surprising that people just don't bother asking these kinds of questions. Unless they're a glutton for punishment like me, I guess.
One thing I noticed about the ads the university is running to fill these positions is the wording they use. The wording is extremely important in these matters because you can never assume it means what you think it means.
Here's the text from one such ad for a professor:
Applicants must self-identify as a woman in their cover letter to be considered for this position.
Ok, so they're not necessarily looking for real women, then?
Here's another one for an assistant professor position:
Applicants must self-identify as Black in their cover letter to be considered for this position.
What the actual fuck does that even mean?
Of course these aren't the only qualifications that are required. There's a good long list of them and they're pretty serious, as they should be. Now, I wonder if I “self-identified” as someone who had all these other credentials on this list as well as self-identified as a black woman, if I would at least be considered for either of these positions. I mean, for the kind of money they're likely paying, I'm pretty sure I could self-identity as anything you want.
Don't worry, I'm not going to do it. I just don't have the time, but I'd love to see someone try it.
I'm getting to the age where I might almost qualify as an “old white guy”. Well, I'm not that old, but I have been around the block at least once.
One must wonder where these policy architects get their ideas. Is it really a no-brainer that in the quest to end racial discrimination, we must feel it's proper to implement actual racial discrimination? I'm going to great pains to quell the urge to make an Orwell comparison here…
Ever since I knew what racism was, I've known it had at least something to do with “treating someone differently based on their race”. I think if you asked any kid that nowadays, you'd get a similar answer.
These days, we've expanded the meaning of racism to include “microaggressions” like:
Asking where someone is from.
Ignoring ethnic differences.
Noticing ethnic differences.
Asking questions about one's culture.
Not showing enough interest in one’s culture.
And dozens more.
And in spite of considering the above “racist” and “aggressive”, these same people don't consider what's going on in our universities to be at all racist.
In my view (and yes, that means it's my opinion again) this is where the real racism is happening right now. It's definitely not the only racism - the old kind that's been with us since we crawled out of the swamp is still happening as well, but the difference is that this new kind of racism is endorsed by our school boards and our government. I wrote about these new racists in a previous post.
Now, you may be reading this and thinking, “Okay, so this guy is criticizing others for seeing racism everywhere and yet he's the one who is somehow seeing racism in this beautiful policy that's just helping to make everyone equal.”
And that's fine, you have every right to think that, because thankfully this is still a relatively free country. Keep in mind though, that what I'm doing is relying on the actual definition of the word which has also been the accepted definition for decades - and I didn't even have to tweak it to make it fit.
Another version of this has been going on for years in the lives of students applying to these “institutes of higher learning” in the US. Specifically the lives of those students who “identify” as white or Asian. These students are routinely passed over in favour of black and indigenous students, despite (at least in the case of Asian students) having much better test scores.
The US Supreme Court is tackling this very issue as I write. We likely won't hear their decision until next June, but I'm very interested in that one because it will undoubtedly have some sort of effect on how we do things here.
So yeah, it affects me. A lot. Because I live in this country and my kids are growing up here. They're supposed to believe that when they go to school and later to university that the teachers there are hired first and foremost because of their qualifications, not because of what they look like or how they “identify”. They need to know that when they go out into the workforce, they will be viewed not simply as a member of a certain group, or someone deserving of “equity”, but as a serious person who has something substantial to offer any place of employment.
Martin Luther King famously said in his “I have a dream” speech:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
I wonder if Dr. King would recognize his dream today. Whether he would or not, I have the exact same dream for my own kids, and I have high hopes that I will realize that dream before I die.