'Reverse discrimination' at the University of Nebraska

NAS web page ^ | 1/30/2004 | Nebraska Association of Scholars

[maica]

An amusing story, unfortunately not from current times - a young teacher applied for a PHD fellowship at Harvard, fillled in all the forms, and was invited to Cambridge for an interview. He saw that the interviewer was unsettled and it came out in conversation that this young Yale Grad was being considered for the "Black Scholarship." That did not explain the Harvard rep's concern to the contestant, because his mind went to an idea of a benefactor named Conrad Black, for example.

In reality, at the time Massachusetts had an anti-discrimination law that forbad asking for a photograph in applications. So the facts that this applicant was teaching in a predominently black school, living in a largely black neighborhood, and working on Masters credits at a historically black university, caused all the folks at Harvard to think they had a 'black' candidate!

This fellow happened to be Jewish, had grown up on Long Island, and had a generic American first and last name - no code words - that would have had the entrance board categorize his as Jewish. So all the truly anti-discrimination supporters had one little victory when this person got his PhD at Harvard.

[IronJack]

LOL. No problem. It's confusing to the best.

[IronJack]

By the way, I am in Omaha, and I would gladly lend my meager talents to this project in whatever way I can.

[Right Wing Professor]

By the way, I am in Omaha, and I would gladly lend my meager talents to this project in whatever way I can.

At some point we're likely to testify before the legislature on these searches, and it might get written up in the Wierd-Herald (unfortunately, the OWH has been getting more and more liberal lately). At that stage, if you could write in a letter expressing outrage or whatever, it would be very helpful.

[Criminal Number 18F]

"National Association of Scholars?" Never heard of it!

Er, not a scholar, are you?

National Association of Scholars

NAS Board of Advisors.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

The city of Lincoln is also notorious for hiring woman and minorities over more qualified white applicants...

Welcome to the world of virtually any government organization and/or university. I can say for a fact that NASA does the exact same thing. This is why NASA projects are failing (blowing up...) more often. NASA hires the person with the most diversity points who meets only **minimum** requirements. More often than not, if the best is a white guy, he's not even considered.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

The ad will say something "woman and minorities encouraged to apply".

Yeah... I hear this almost daily on the Sean Hannity show during my commute home (WMAL AM 630, Washington D.C. area). The ads are from the Transportation Security Agency. Also from Fannie Mae. No doubt others. They really piss me off, knowing that I am not welcome (encouraged) to apply for their jobs.

[Sloth]

I HATE HATE HATE the expression "reverse discrimination." There is no such thing.

[Right Wing Professor]

I HATE HATE HATE the expression "reverse discrimination." There is no such thing.

Intellectually, I agree with you. Pragmatically, evyone knows what the phrase means, and I'm trying to find people.

[Sloth]

Fair enough... Bump to the top.

[af_vet_1981]

Over a seven year period, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln has been conducting an illegal program of hiring based on race/ethnicity and sex, which they call 'opportunity hiring'. Briefly, they identify a female or minority candidate whio is minimally qualified for an academic position, and then hire the candidate without advertizing the job to others or running a competitive search. The purpose of this procedure is to avoid identifying white/asian/ and/or male candidates who might be better qualified for the position, and would therefore have to be hired instead.

They are racists. They are concerned about the color of someone's skin rather than their character or talent.

[George W. Bush]

Excellent. I'll pass this along through the state 'network'.

[Meldrim]

Good luck professor. When you are done in Nebraska, why don't you turn your sites on the promotion and selection policies within the military.