Statistics And Discrimination

Adherents of “disparate impact” and other quaint theories of discrimination typically believe that statistics can provide virtual proof of discrimination. Indeed, they often believe statistics can provide sufficient actual proof (see my long discussion of EEOC v. Sears, Roebuck and Co. beginning about a third of the way down in this post).

With that in mind, why do we never hear complaints from them in situations like this, a complaint against the Cleveland Plain Dealer brought to my attention by a reader and discussed in this thread. The complainer wrote at one point:

I very much appreciate the support I received from so many of you on this website through all the turmoil I experienced. As for those who criticized me, they have that right. I just don’t think they knew enough about me to question my character. And there was one interesting omission…none of them ever said the PD didn’t discriminate. When you hire more than 10 consecutive females or African-American males as full-time sportswriters from outside the paper, it’s a stretch to claim otherwise.

I very much hope nobody out there felt only a racist or sexist could file such a lawsuit because anyone who knows me is well-aware that I have always been a believer in affirmative action to right past wrongs and that I’ve always been very left of center politically. The possibility that anyone assumed otherwise hurt more than anything else.

You have to respect this guy, even though he does seem to be saying: “Impugn my character all you want, but don’t you dare suggest that I’m not a left of center believer in affirmative action….”

Say What? (3)

  1. David Nieporent December 13, 2006 at 5:11 pm | | Reply

    Note that one of the comments in that thread on the message board said, “The mix of the department/paper would ideally reflect the makeup of the area or at least the readership (not the athletes you cover or the makeup of the applicants).” (Emphasis added.)

    What’s alternately amusing and disturbing to me about that piece of illogic is that nobody even questions it. People can make statements like that, and those statements are treated as reasonable.

  2. odd December 14, 2006 at 4:47 pm | | Reply

    Why is someone who is a self-described “believer in affirmative action to right past wrongs” filing a lawsuit when it happens to him?

  3. Twill00 December 16, 2006 at 5:16 pm | | Reply

    When it happens to you, it can’t be to right past wrongs, you see. Because it’s affecting *you*.

Say What?