Here’s another blow to affirmative action:
In a recent court settlement, four police officers who were denied promotion five years ago were vindicated on all the points of their complaint, with retroactive effect….
The legal proceedings had been instituted by four forensic scientists and on Monday the case was settled by granting all the requests they asked for back in November 2004: immediate promotion, which was formerly refused due to the colour of their skin, as well as full compensation with retroactive effect, as if they had indeed been promoted at that time.
The police department “had decided to leave key positions vacant rather than appointing white candidates.”
Oh, I forgot to mention that the police department is in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the ruling was based on principle that municipalities in this country would be wise to consider if they contemplate leaving positions unfilled because no suitable minority candidates are available.
A written legal opinion was requested from Advocate John Grogan SC, one of the country’s top labour law practitioners for the case, which stated that affirmative action “must achieve something, preferably something that would protect or help those who were previously disadvantaged”.
“How can it be claimed that any previously disadvantaged candidate is helped or protected by leaving a post vacant?” asked Grogan.
Good question.
Even the left-wing Newsweek has questioned South Africa’s AA policies in “South Africa’s White Flight.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/184783
“But if Pretoria hopes to drive development, it needs to act fast to keep the South African exodus from gaining momentum. For starters, the new president should make fighting crime a priority. South Africa’s affirmative-action program should also be re-examined and tweaked, perhaps to emphasize economic status rather than race. Whites between the ages of 20 and 35—currently the group most susceptible to emigration—should be allowed to compete more forcefully for jobs”
An interesting question is if California’s economic crisis is due in part to a similar flight. There has been an exodus of better educated whites and Asians from a state whose government and educational system is increasingly dominated by Latino special interests. AA highly favors Latinos at the expense of whites and Asians in both the public and private sector, e.g. advertising positions for “bicultural” employees (codeword for Latino.)
Should we have more affirmative action to encourage blacks to eat junk food?
http://digg.com/food_drink/McDonald_s_Has_a_Website_for_Black_People
interesting. they must have thought it less wise to hire blacks than to leave the posts vacant. this says as much about “AA” as does the settlement. and speaking of this “settlemnt”: if south africa has a normal civil law system, then “settlements” don’t signal a legal trend of any sort.
We must stamp out any differences!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-08-25-SAT-scores_N.htm