Originally posted by: Red Dawn
when he is really just striving (albeit a bit extreme) for a goal that isn't all that bad (equal playing field).
It is an equal playing field. A white person can end up in a low paying job with no chance for a better life just as easy as any other race.
Yes but a minority doesn't have get the same chance that a non-minority has in landing a high paying job. If you are a minority and are a CEO of a company, that tells a much bigger story of hardwork, dedication, sacrifice, and intellect than if you are a non-minority in a similar position. Take Indians as an example. They had to network, and form an organization called TIE, The Indus Entrepreneurs because of lack of support they received from other, mostly Anglo-Americans. 8-10 years ago, the Indians were still there, chugging away at their computers writing code. They had the same ideas.. yet very few of them were millionaires. Today, many are, because they decided that for them, the standard American model of success didn't apply (being a hard worker, saving money, being intelligent, being at the top of their field wasn't good enough). If the discriminaton was based on color, religion, social skills, or due to accents, I can't say, but there was and is definite discrimination against minorities in the workplace. I think certain ethnic groups handle it better than others though. Certain ethnic groups whine and complain while others work around the system to their benefit. If that means tying resources together where you have a group of people from every rung of the ladder in a certain industry, like TIE has done, then thats what they have to do to suceed. For example, in TIE, there is everyone from top networking companies like Juniper, Sycamore, and CISCO networks (first 2 founded by Indians, of the 2 founders of CISCO, primary one was Indian -probably didn't know that tho because its better to have a 'white face' in the front ), to Venture Capitalists, to dot comers to software development companies, etc. etc.) I think it is actually similar to the Jewish model of business actually. Lets put it this way, if you are a minority, and you are as equally qualified as a non-minority, when it comes time for a lay off, you'll be sure to gone, without question. If you are a CEO of a company that wasn't founded by a non-minority, you are 10 times more capable than the next best candidate for CEO at that company. To become a minority CEO is a great thing because you are constantly in the lime light and companies would rather even show an African-American at the top than an Indian who would probably be brilliant but is not 'presentable' because of accent, customs, etc. The fact is you have more Indians who have become highly successful running their own companies (U.S. billionaires such as sanjiv Sidhu of I2 networks, and Deshpande are two examples) than the amount of Indians who have become CEO's of even smaller companies. Why? Is it because they don't like working for others, or don't like being CEO's of companies they didn't start? No, its because they weren't offered those positions no matter how intelligent, hard working, loyal, or capable they were. Discrimination is still VERY alive in the workplace. The higher you move up the ladder, the fewer and fewer spots there will be for minorities. Yeah, you have plenty of brilliant Indian programmers making 150k a year after 10 years. Thats decent money. But if they weren't Indian, they would have been managers or a board of director by now, pulling a mil. or more. And to those uneducated on Affirmative Action, keep in mind that not ALL minorities benefit from it. there are a lot of ethnic groups in the gray that don't get AA special treatement but still go thru similar discrimination that those on AA do. Some of you may disagree that discrimination in the workplace exists but thats only because of denial or lack of experience/knowledge. i know we are all ethnocentric whether we admit it or not, but when it comes to business, imo, the rules should be different than outside of business. the bottom line is the dollar in business, and i think it shouldn't matter if you are red, yellow, white, or brown. discrimination should not be in the workplace at all IMO, personally, i think it hinders productivity. ideally, it shouldn't be anywhere, but i don't think that will ever change.
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