I used to date this guy who once foolishly tried to argue equal opportunity laws with me. He was one of the many people who are under the completely mistaken impression that the government is trying to make you hire or promote under-qualified people simply because they aren't white men. There are two things wrong with this argument; 1- discrimination is discrimination, even if you're a white man; and 2- if you hire the most qualified candidate your employee base will, by default, resemble your community. However, the sad fact of the matter is that there are an alarming number of people who still allow color of skin and/or the presence of a Y chromosome dictate their hiring decisions, which is why we still need these laws in place.
One night we're chillin' at his place, chit chatting about this and that, and it comes out that he's totally prejudiced against blacks. He tells me that he doesn't see how they've contributed to the cultural make-up of this country. (And he claimed to be a musician!!) My eye started twitching, I think I might have blacked out for a minute, I was in complete and utter shock. Stuttering through my anger, but persevering nonetheless, I stammered out a few hundred ways how non-whites in general and blacks in particular had contributed to American culture. Finally he conceded enough ground to not only calm me down for the moment, but to make me believe he was open to at least enough change to keep me in the relationship for a little longer.
But on the other hand he held a very firm belief that everyone deserves a second (or third, or even fourth) chance. He owned a small business and was active on the "Felony Friendly" list. This was something else that made my eye twitch. Not that I'm anti-rehabilitation (the differences between rehabilitation and prison may be explored later, but it's too much to go into here). I do think your personal history of decision making needs to factor into any hiring manager's decision. If you were fired from your last four jobs as a waiter because you refuse to charge your friends for their meals, why should I believe you would start now? Either way, that's not quiet the heart of the matter. After calming down I had to ask him to explain to me how it is that he was comfortable discriminating against people based on an accident of birth, but was still open to hiring people with a proven history of disobeying the laws we all live by.
That was the beginning of the end.
