Then you should make note that in your experience that is what you think from personal observation.

Here's what I wrote:

I should have left the white comment off, it was stupid. I guess it was sterotyping, but I don't know how else you could word that to be complimentary.

I think all people are the same, and mostly they all get on my nerves.

I like to watch midgets wrestle. It's fun to watch them bounce around like 2-year-old babies bouncing on a mattress with their fat little thighs and arms.

That's not at all what I said to my way of thinking.

I didn't mention why they had good humor. Actually, they don't have any better humor than anybody else, and I shouldn't have said anything, but I thought it is always nice to say something nice. Unfortunately that is old thinking, and it's better to just not say anything at all.

Affirmative Action had it's time and place. It was useful back in the '60's when America was still learning that all Americans are just that, americans. We should be hired, and paid based on our ability to perform the job to which we've applied. If a man s less qualified, then he should have less consideration, or start at a lower pay rate, until he's up to par, no matter his skin color, or ethnic background. The same should apply to women.

I supervise truck drivers. I don't care whether the driver I'm interviewing is of Dutch descent, or African, or if he came from Mexico either, as long as he's an american citizen, or a legal alien, and can do the job that I need filled. My drivers operate vacuum tankers in the oil fields. If a driver applies, and has years of experience driving, but no vacuum tanker experience, he gets paid a dollar less per hour, no exceptions. If he hasn't got a years driving experience, he gets a dollar less than that. If he has no experience, or less than 6 months, he can apply elswhere.

I also have women drivers, the same rule applies to them. A woman can drive a truck, open a valve, and pull 4" hoses as well as a man can. The female driver gets exactly the same consideration as the male driver. For exactly the same pay-scale, I might add.

I know people who discriminate against "people of color," "people of Hispanic descent," or women. They have a harder time keeping drivers on, a harder time filling vacancies, and lowered employee loyalty. It doesn't make good business sense.

Because discrimination doesn't make good business sense, the employers who disregard ethnic backgrounds, or gender, will be more competitive, and have a larger share of the market over time. This without government interference. As long as we have the government interfering in a free-market economy, no growth is possible.

It's past time for the government to step out of the marketplace, retire their social policies program, and let these issues resolve themselves. Americans are americans, regardless of their race, creed, or gender. Let's go by that standard instead.

Removing this issue, by the way, would also remove a major manufactured hot-button for the likes of the Rev. Jackson, and the esteemed Mr. Sharpton. These men, and others like them have made millions of dollars, whipping a horse which is not only dead, but is non-existant. It's imaginary, and as long as we keep it as an issue, they'll keep making moey off it.

I agree with you on all your points.

I am against racism in hiring. Skills and character must be paramount.

Thank you for your response FrednTexas. I also agree with you on all your points.

Cool avatar by the way.

When hiring people you can get someone with a fabulous record on paper, and they turn out to be a total dud.

AA just helped some of the better educated blacks get their foots in the door. At the time it was a necessary evil, but I think the time has past for such action. It also helped them get into places they wouldn't have been hired when jobs were scarce. Companies are now more aware that all people need jobs, so for the most part color isn't the only consideration. There is still discrimination I have no doubt, but it's more evenly distributed amongst all citizens.

I could go on and on about experiences with affirmative action as prerequisites. I did not know what a written affirmative action policy was back in the years I was bidding and servicing contracts for state government.
I had in my employee pool of forty people, nine men, thirty-one women, five Hispanics, three Indians any blacks could have been hired had any applied for the jobs. I hired my employees based on their ability to perform the work and their eagerness to have the job I was letting out.

On a contract I bid in another state it required the affirmative action policy in the bidding package submitted. After reading through the state fliers I had to laugh. Any businessperson wants the best employee they can get for a job regardless of their national origin background.

What is needed is tougher standards for companies and agencies that allow discriminatory practices to proceed and continue in the work environment when it happens. Discrimination is alive and well in certain areas. Tax the ones who wish to keep it that away with tougher civil rights agencies, give civil rights some teeth. Leave the others to operate their business effectively.

Personally I have been subject to a lot of discrimination in my day. It is not every where but in those little backwoods places where it continues, give the victims more punch power to help get it stopped and addressed. In the states that refuse to address discrimination start chopping their federal funds. You will get their attention.

If it is in bigger businesses, corporations and organizations fine them for hiring people who violate civil rights to run the joints. Small businesses with 20 or fewer employees should be able to hire only family members if they want.

Adding federal funds to encourage small disadvantage businesses is a waste. Larger companies come along and request the small DBE's to file for the big boys can get their extra cut. Many of those DBE companies are effectively ran by the larger corporate’s. The loss is to the true small business enterprise spirit. Put all those funds from put into these current programs into an actual working program for the little guys. Not an extra 15% to 25% to the large corporation for hiring someone or subbing to someone so they can effectively pull their purse strings whenever they want something. The federal funds are not getting to the actual small disadvantage business enterprises.