I agree that receiving the form BEFORE you're hired is suspicious. I also agree that hiring should be colorblind. Unfortunately, too many people have racism and sexism so deeply ingrained that they're unaware that their actions are influced by them. I seem to recall a psychological study where a set of 4 resumes were shown to groups of prospective employers. The control group received no information about the applicants race or gender, and each of the other groups received different information about the race/gender of each applicant. It was found that generally "male" applicants were favored over "female" applicants, regardless of race, and "white" applicants were favored over "minority" applicants if the genders of the applicants were the same. The interesting thing is that none of the experimental subjects reported being aware of their biases. This isn't the same thing as actually being unaware, but I still find it interesting and vaguely depressing.
So yes, AA is intended to provide parity, but the way it's currently structured is incorrect. Unfortunately, there are too many people too invested in the current program for it to be easily changed.
I still think that colorblind hiring is the best way to go.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2004-08-07 08:26 pm (UTC)The indirect quota... oh how you annoy me...
I agree that receiving the form BEFORE you're hired is suspicious. I also agree that hiring should be colorblind. Unfortunately, too many people have racism and sexism so deeply ingrained that they're unaware that their actions are influced by them. I seem to recall a psychological study where a set of 4 resumes were shown to groups of prospective employers. The control group received no information about the applicants race or gender, and each of the other groups received different information about the race/gender of each applicant. It was found that generally "male" applicants were favored over "female" applicants, regardless of race, and "white" applicants were favored over "minority" applicants if the genders of the applicants were the same. The interesting thing is that none of the experimental subjects reported being aware of their biases. This isn't the same thing as actually being unaware, but I still find it interesting and vaguely depressing.
So yes, AA is intended to provide parity, but the way it's currently structured is incorrect. Unfortunately, there are too many people too invested in the current program for it to be easily changed.
I still think that colorblind hiring is the best way to go.