I received a very interesting email about the effects of our quota mentality.  You could say it’s a testimonial from the "front line."  Give it a gander.

Anonymous says:

America as their hr director. Of
course I’m not about to mention the company as I don’t want him fired. He once
told me that he sometimes wishes he did something else as he had to turn down
one of the brightest applicants he had seen in a long while. We had only one
spot for the individual selected but the primary applicant had to be black to
make the federal quota that is demanded of all large companies today. The woman
he wound up picking had no real qualification for the job. What she had was
connections and she was an artist as well. Seems the CEO had a wife who was into
painting and had seen her works and was impressed. Forget the woman had to be
trained completely after she was hired. She lasted 6 months and was fired after
it was found she had a conviction for trafficking in heroin. The candidate he
didn’t hire? He was a Yale graduate with a degree in the subject matter the job
called for and was coming from another company with five years experience. This
individual soon thereafter went into business for himself and makes quite a good
living. You would be surprised to know this goes on all the time in this
country. So the next time you are at a store or company where the individual
you’re dealing with does not seem to know what he or she is talking about, guess
what, you’ve run into another hr hire because of who or what this person was.

Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised because I’ve long known that this occurs all the time.   This is yet another reason why we should eliminate the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

I also have an interesting little anecdote relating to this.  Walter Williams, who I’ve cited as my favorite economist, is a black fellow who had an interesting story to tell about our quota mentality.  He said that when he was a young man seeking a professorship (about 40 years ago), he went for an interview at a prestigious Ivy League school, and they wanted to hire him.

He refused.

When explaining why he declined the offer, he said to the interviewer (I’m paraphrasing),

"Since I’m not qualified for this job on paper, it would be obvious that you just hired me because of my color."

Williams subsequently accepted a position at George Mason University, the institution at which he teaches to this day.  Upon accepting that job, he said to the interviewer,

"If I find out that you hired me because o my race, I will quit on that day."

He is truly a man of integrity.