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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
An 80% Africian-American population with an all white police force is inherently unjust.
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If they were all hired based solely on merit, how so?
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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
First, you have to wonder how this happened. Was racism involved? Even if it wasn't, obviously not enough was being done to make this work environment more diverse.
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If no racism was involved in the hiring, it seems pretty racist to rig the results to get diversity anyway.
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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
The Police force should "look like" the community; in this case, the force should have only a 20% white population. When you're at work today...look around. How many minorities have executive positions; is this what your community (the rest of the company) "looks like"?
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Should professional sports teams fire black athletes and replace them with players of other races? What about other businesses? What happens if the area's demographics change? Should businesses start firing workers and replacing them with new employees based on race?
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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
If you are white, do you have any close friends that would be considered minorities? If not, why not?
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Are you going to ask non-whites about the racial identities about their friends? If not, why not?
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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
Even if your against racism, have you made enough of an effort to get to know other people...or do you feel more comfortable hanging around similar people to yourself?
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If you're against racism, wouldn't it be kind of racist to specifically seek out friends of certain races?
I'm willing to be friends with anyone who is nice and has similar interests/hobbies. While I don't believe that interests/hobbies are exclusive to certain races, it's pretty obvious that some interests/hobbies are far more popular with some races that with others. I mean, take a look at my hobbies. Most of the stuff I like to do - hunting, motorsports (F1, rally, motocross, superbike, NASCAR), surfing, snowboarding, sci-fi books and movies - seem to be much more popular with white people - and white males, in particular - than with non-white people. At least this is the case in the area I live in. As a result, pretty much all of the people I hang around with are white, and most of them are men.
What do you think I should do? Should I take up activities I have absolutely no interest in, in the hopes of attractive friends of another race? Should I post an personal ad on the internet or in some newspaper, begging some people of other races to be friends with me?
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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
Second, what kind of message does this send to the community and the rest of the world?
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If all the police were hired based on merit, it sends the message that excellence is the key to success.
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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
If you are a young, African-American person growing up in this community and aspire to be on the police force, you have no role models to look up to.
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Do you think everyone is incapable of being inspired by people of another race, or just blacks?
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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
In fact, you may start to think that you could never be a police officer, because you're the wrong color.
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Would you apply this reasoning to people of all races in all career fields? If not, why not?
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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
This is where affirmative action comes in.
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Exactly! If somebody is too closed-minded to be inspired by someone of another race, the obvious solution is to start discriminating against white guys.
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Originally Posted by MoJoPokeyBlue
In this particular case, let's assume that you're the Chief of Police and have a few openings. You have in front of you several qualified applicants...some better than others...but they're all "qualified". For the good of the community and the personal growth of the youth, do you seek out the African-American applicant and place them ahead of possibly other, better qualified candidants?
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The obvious question: Would you be okay with a business in a predominantly white area hiring lesser-qualified white applicants just because they looked like most of the other people in the community?
Anyway; to answer your question...
I'd hire the most qualified applicant. The job of a police department is to enforce the laws, not to look like the people in the neighborhoods. If I need to call the police about something, I couldn't care less about the race or gender of the officers that show up. I just want them to do their job.