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Dumped because of gender and race

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by top of the world ma!, Aug 23, 2007.

  1. CarlSpackler

    CarlSpackler Active Member

    Compensating for our forebears is not fixing the system. Do I get a free pass because mine were Irish and need not apply to any non-shitty jobs when they got here? No matter what the gender, color, orientation, etc., the most qualified person should be hired. Creating more diversity in the workplace should be a product of creating an educational system that doesn't fail inner-city minorities and gives them a legitimate means to be the most qualified candidate. Not by fulfilling some silly quota that corporate dictates.
     
  2. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    My ancestors were Irish too. I myself have, at least twice, been bypassed for hiring/promotion in favor of dramatically-less-qualified "affirmative action" candidates. That's fine. Not their fault, what were they supposed to do, turn down the jobs? Who knows how many women or minorities got shoved aside for my father, or for me, 15 or 20 years ago? Tough shit for me if I don't like it.
     
  3. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Good attitude, Starman. Though seeing as you're Irish, the employers likely didn't want to put a drunken brawler on the payroll.
     
  4. HeinekenMan

    HeinekenMan Active Member

    Nice work.

    And let's have a show of hands on who thinks this is a fictitious scenario? I'm beginning to have my doubts. If it's a real case, why not just come out and tell us who and where? After all, we should be warned.
     
  5. sportschick

    sportschick Active Member

    Raises hand
     
  6. boots

    boots New Member

    WHITE POWER!
     
  7. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    I'll write something funny to accompany this later. Right now it's enough just to have it.
     
  8. pallister

    pallister Guest

    You're a middle-class idiot.
     
  9. Tom Petty

    Tom Petty Guest

    why are so many people getting so fired up because of a fictitious post?
     
  10. You're wrong, HeinekenMan. Why wouldn't I come out and tell you "who and where?" Let's see:

    1. Immediately, there would be those who think I'm just whining after having decades or centuries of advantages on my side. Of course that's wrong, I'm just living one life, one career, but I'm expected to take a hit for 400 years of oppression of other races, gender, whatever, by a lot of dead people.

    2. Others would think I'm racist for even being disappointed by the situation. Despite years of solid work and a need for the money that I earned from the gig. A few more would think I'm racist at least for opening the reality of it up to discussion.

    3. In anonymity, others could have fun with a serious situation in my career, while I would have "outed" myself to accomplish . . . what? People on this board don't seem to have a problem when someone seeks career advice in other areas, from staying in the business/leaving for a $60K sales job, to reprimanding a lazy co-worker, etc. Why haven't there been demands that they identify themselves? Why haven't those threads been accused of being fictitious? Is Marty Gitlin better off since losing his lawsuit against the Cleveland paper? Or has that mostly been good for SportsJournalists.com users to have a laugh at his expense?

    4. If you're that uncomfortable with a real -- but simply not specified -- situation that is the product of several competing values in our industry, then just move on. Go post about the former porn star or the Oakland A's of the 1970s.

    5. The purpose of me creating a phony thread would be what, exactly? To inspire a bunch of crappy, race-based posts? Again, my situation is real and I was looking to inspire some thoughtful suggestions. If no one has any, we can just lock up this thread now.

    Then good luck to any of you who might find yourself in a similar situation some day. It's one thing to gripe about a job you couldn't get because it was tagged for someone who wasn't your color or your gender. It's another thing to lose a job that you've held -- and I've been very clear, this was freelance, but a well-established, ongoing gig -- because someone new decides you aren't the right color or gender. So consider yourself "warned" whether you know every last detail or not.

    To those of you who have tried to think this through and posted, thanks.
    To those of you who are so uncomfortable with the topic, or have no worthwhile thoughts, thanks for nothing.
     
  11. jgmacg

    jgmacg Guest

    Not to prolong the agony here, but after three pages of discussion, not one of your posts describes your situation in sufficient detail to give it any credence. Your original description was so generic as to read like a hypothetical from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Profile. "I lost my job to someone of another race/gender. Is it wrong to be upset?" T/F?

    Nor does a single post of yours contain any of the telling language that would aunthenticate it was written by someone actually in newspapers or magazines - and not by a sociology major conducting some sort of batshit online survey for a badly conceived summer project. What size is the paper? Daily? Weekly? What region? What do you cover? Casually describing even a single one of those attributes would have gone a long way toward bolstering your position here.

    In short, you're getting the answers you deserve because you've failed to conjure enough reality on your own behalf to make your situation sound like anything more than a gratuitously provocative hypothetical.
     
  12. joe king

    joe king Active Member

    No offense, jg, but that's insane. He posted enough details to get across his dilemma. What difference does the size of the paper or where it's located make? Why are any of those details necessary to pose a legitimate question on an anonymous message board (the key word being anonymous)?

    I can surely understand why he would take great pains not to out himself because of this issue. It's obviously a sensitive subject that can stir all sorts of backlash. And this sort of stuff happens. As stated earlier, I've faced analogous situations (though not this particular situation) myself on several occasions. This is not some wacky, way-out fantasy like some we've seen discussed on this board. If you don't believe this kind of thing occurs, you need to wake up, because it is neither unheard of nor uncommon.

    I have seen nothing in any of top's posts to indicate this is fiction. I just hope he can find a way to make up the lost income.
     
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