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From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics
Subject: Re: Discrimination and AA
Message-ID: <364@mhuxr.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Jun-85 18:25:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: mhuxr.364
Posted: Thu Jun 27 18:25:33 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Jun-85 00:57:06 EDT
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> The other level is for victims to sue the people who discriminated
> against them.  This isn't as popular as it might be, since you have
> to have to be able to actually PROVE discrimination.  It's so much easier
> to hang the innocent along with the guilty.
>  
WHatever that statement wishes to imply, it also points out the usefulness
of an AA system under which the employer strives toward certain goals
and must report on failure to meet them. Note that no employer can be
blamed for failure to meet goals if it can show that good faith efforts to
identify qualified candidates for hiring and promotion failed.

> I suggest the government do NOTHING about it, since its competence,
> sincerity, and immunity to the influence of the people it "regulates"
> are all suspect.
> 
Under your system, women would not have the right to vote, and we would
still be under segragated public transportation, schools, etc.

> I suggest that individuals can have a strong effect without invoking
> the government -- refuse to work for bigots.  Refuse to buy from
> bigots.  Don't associate with them.
> 

If bigots are favored by the system, and government should do nothing about
the system, you are giving bigots quite an advantage in the competition for
jobs, advancement and power. Suggesting that those who are discriminated
against or those who disapprove of discrimination should go away
and leave the field to bigots strikes me as curious.

> If you can't seem to find any non-bigots, you're probably living in
> the wrong place.  Pull up stakes and move to a more enlightened
> neigborhood.

WHat if the "neighborhood" is the entire country? WHere should we move to?
And why should people be forced to leave the location they choose to live
in just because some bigot also decides to live there?

> Every time a talented individual refuses to work for a bigoted
> employer, the employer's business suffers.  Ditto for when customers
> stop buying from him.  Most industries are competitive enought that
> it doesn't take a whole lot to tip the bozos into oblivion.
> 
If that were true, how come discrimination is so ingrained in our
society? If discrimination is present in EVERY competitor in a
given market, where do you suggest individuals go?

> Don't wait for the government to come up with a magic wand to make
> everything better.  They'll never find one.  All they have is
> bureaucracy and taxpayers' money.  People have to live their own
> lives as best they can, in a world that will always be screwed up,
> one way or another.
> 		-- Robert Plamondon

If I understand you correctly, the world is discriminatory, and the bigots
are in power, and the rest of us should suffer in silence, because
"that's the way it is" I will not comment on it, because I fear I would lapse
into incoherent anger. If I misunderstood you, please clarify.

Marcel Simon