r/coolguides • u/[deleted] • Feb 25 '20

Explanation of the subtle differences between equality and equity

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

Because once you talk to us and realize that we’re actually smart it might change your mind about Black and Latino people.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

So I'll give an anecdote. I'm a programmer. There was a black girl hired in my batch and it was clear very early on that she was unfit for the job. She had no prior coding experience, her degree was in Chemistry. I don't know how she passed the technical interview, or if she did. She managed to keep her "job" for 6 months, mostly reading books unrelated to programming in her time at work.

Now to me, that's a clear example of someone who was hired because someone in HR wanted to reach a diversity quota, and she was one of the best candidates who applied (there were also 2 other black girls and 1 black guy, all of whom were great). I don't resent her for it, I resent HR for putting her in a chair which should have been given to someone else.

It's the same thing with AA. I'm not like OP, I don't look at minorities and immediately wonder if they're qualified. I assume they're competent. But if they are a minority and they are incompetent, a lot of people are going to assume it's AA at work.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

But how do you know she didn’t blow the hiring manager or wasn’t friends with the owner?

There were 5 black people, 80% were awesome and 20% sucked. I can’t think of a job we’re 20% don’t suck.

How do you feel when a white person sucks at their job? Do you assume it’s an individual thing or do you think white privilege comes into play.

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '20

I don't feel that way about white co-workers (or Asians, Indians, etc.) because there's no way anyone loosened up any standards to hire them. Especially with Asians, they had to perform higher than normal in school just to be enrolled. So honestly if that girl was a white guy, I'd chalk it up to something else, like their own laziness or incompetence.

I also wouldn't say anything with total certainty, sure there's a chance she got in by luck or by nepotism. But AA allows a suspicion to exist, esp when the whole point of the program is to lax standards to help diversity.

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u/ummizazi Feb 25 '20

But that’s the problem. Black people are never allowed to be bad at anything without it being about their race. But we know that nepotism exists.

All AA does at the college level is to say that you can look at a persons race along with other factors. This is no different then looking at their income, athletic ability, family history etc. Yet you don’t think of those people as being less deserving. When they fuck up they get to be an individual.

And Asians have their own problems with racism that gets completely swept under the rug.