I have mentioned a number of times that one of the many incoherences of racial and ethnic preference is the offensive underlying assumption that Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, etc., are all fungible, that a Hispanic quota goal could be filled completely by Mexican-Americans, or Mexican nationals for that matter, or Cubans. If you’ve got one Hispanic, you’ve got them all.
Now, from reader Fred Ray, comes word that in at least one place this incoherence is being addressed, at least as it regards the various tribes of … whites.
English girl barred from Government job…because she is wrong kind of white
A teenage science student has been banned from applying for a training programme with the Environment Agency because she is white and English.
The recruitment agency handling the scheme told Abigail Howarth, 18, that there was no point in her submitting an application because of her ethnic background.
But bizarrely she could have applied if she had been white and Welsh, Scottish or Irish.
Abigail, who wanted to join the Agency’s flood management programme, saw an advert in a local newspaper offering positions in the Anglia region where she lives, complete with a £13,000-a-year tax-free grant.
It made no mention of the ban on white English applicants, merely noting that candidates from ethnic minorities, such as “Asian, Indian” and “White Other, e.g. Irish, Welsh, Scottish,” were encouraged to put themselves forward.
….
Abigail, who is awaiting the results of A-Levels in environmental science, geography and geology, emailed PATH National Ltd, the company handling applications.
She asked: “Am I correct in assuming that as I am English (White) I need not apply as the preference is for the minorities you have listed, or can I apply anyway?’
Three days later, PATH recruitment officer, Bola Odusi, replied: “Thank you for your enquiry unfortunately the traineeship opportunity in [sic] targeted towards the ethnic minority group to address their under representations in the professions under the Race Relations Act amended 2000.”
But does it really make sense to regard, say, Irish Catholics as of the same tribe with Irish Protestants? (Not to mention the very interesting family of black Irish who were members of our recent tour of Yosemite. I’m not using the term “Black Irish” as it is frequently used in the United States, to refer to someone from Ireland with black hair. I mean really black, but born and raised in Dublin. If the kids, now about 7 and 9, were to apply to an American college later on, however, you can be sure they’d be classified as “African-American.”)
