In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. famously declared “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
I can’t help but contrast that with an editorial appearing today at ArgusLeader.com
The Argus Leader is announcing today that it’s creating new newsroom positions, and announcing that hiring for those positions will be based on the color of people’s skin
To start, after a slew of promotions and beat changes, we are hiring for two reporter positions. That’s an immediate opportunity to diversify our ranks by adding journalists of color. It is also in line with the goal of our parent company, Gannett, to reach parity in staffing between each of its newsrooms and the communities they serve by 2025.
During the period of time I was growing up, equality has always been a noble goal and aspiration. At least it had until recent years, and we now seem to be abandoning the goal of people just being treated equally – looking past race, gender or other factors. We’re setting up such things as safe zones based on a classification, where people are actually being excluded in the name of equality.
That just doesn’t seem very equal.
Maybe it’s generational, and some of us just don’t get the new way of doing things. But, it seems that the Argus is announcing that it’s exactly about a person’s color. And they intend to treat people unequally, and it’s built into their intended hiring practices.
I can’t help but ask that as a nation, are we just giving up on Dr. King’s dream of equality, and a person being judged on the content of their character?
And now we’re just supposed to simply check boxes?
This is straight up racism and discrimination.
It also happens to be in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
We were working towards equality until around early 2017 when suddenly white supremacy was back en vogue. Alas, two steps forward, six steps back.
Ah, a mindless post.
wth! your antifa alinskyite blather is notes.
noted
Anyone still subscribing to this racist newspaper would be well advised to drop their subscription.
Apparently this isn’t limited to the argus. A bank chain is doing the same thing…hiring on the basis of color and not the best for the job . This is not right. And it is not what the civil rights leaders fought for.
Aberdeen American News looking for workers, Whities need not apply.
Been going on a long time in corporate America, sad to say. Back in the day Knight Ridder told editors to focus on color and sex, not newsworthiness, and it would make everything magically better. Wrong then. Wrong now.
For all the left-wing barking about President Trump being a racist they seem to forget that the Dems fought segregation, founded the KKK, had Robert Byrd (a well known racist and mentor to Joe Biden) in their ranks, and spent trillions of dollars to supposedly fix poverty in black communities without doing so. They also don’t seem to care that Joe Biden presumes to tell all black folks how to vote or they are not truly black. The hypocrisy of the Democrats is astounding but not surprising given their track record.
This attempt to virtue signal will hasten the end of this paper. Myer could have revitalized his paper and broaden its appeal if he would have instead changed course and expanded its voices with a diversity of voices/opinions…Instead, he admits what many of us have known for years, the Argus Leader is a liberal paper that will continue to grasp every new leftist idea and promote it as news.
“expanded its voices with a diversity of voices/opinions” – That’s literally what they’re trying to do with these hires. Did you read the article? I’m also guessing that you would consider anything to the left of infowars a liberal rag. Seeing the G.O.P. transition away from the Dole’s and McCain’s of the past to the QAnon pushers and outright racists in the present is truly disheartening. If you’re not slavishly devoted to Trump you’re branded a RINO. Can’t wait for the chickens to come home to roost on the current idiocy in our party. When it does, we promise to be as nice to you as y’all were to us.
Was that President Dole? President McCain? No. They lost by incredible margins. The political machine and media chewed up and spit out a couple very weak and milquetoast candidates who could have made the same speech Biden did at the DNC snorefest. Trump is not perfect, but he’s bold enough to win and not politely lay down and die as a political martyr.
I have read the article, but this liberal orthodoxy is misguided. Just because someone comes from a specific race, you assume they will have a certain viewpoint…most likely liberal. If they don’t, you question their motives. The Argus misses several stories because it doesn’t fit the liberal narrative. Unfortunately, the left only wants to hear their perspective. It’s in our local and national media, big corporations, Hollywood and their reaffirming social media newsfeed
I will add that their use of the word, “privileged” illustrates that they have embraced the white privilege viewpoint. I will repeat, the Argus has hastened it’s ultimate demise. Continuing to lecture it’s readers, telling them how to think, what to believe is highly offensive…..
One more post, your assumptions on infowars and qnon show how approach political disagreements. If I’m a conservative, you assume that I must be a conspiracy theorists and subscribe to these groups. I have not been on info wars and just this week leaned what qnon, or whatever their called, this week. Your assumptions are incorrect and show how you take a cookie cutter approach to politics. I’m sure you also assume an African American or someone of hispanic decent will also fit perfectly into a singular viewpoint.
Imagine how it feels to get this job, knowing that the selection criteria was no deeper than the color of your skin.
Do minorities even want this kind of thing?
“…will one day live in a nation” requires a plan. Affirmative action is that plan. The Argus is merely applying affirmative action principles.
If you don’t like affirmative action, then maybe you should complain about South Dakota having as many US Senators as California. This constitutional reality is not about race, but it is about empowering people and assuring a minority voice at the table, which is what affirmative action is all about.
“Affirmative action” such as displayed here is only legal if a very narrow set of circumstances, which do not appear to apply here.
So, your legal opinion is, that “one day” will never happen? #HowSad
You do realize that we have a Republic not a direct Democracy right? This is why we have 2 chambers and the Senate has the same number for each state and the House is population specific. We have an electoral college for a reason so the WHOLE nation would not be governed by 10 population centers in the US.
Affirmative action is Left-wing dribble used to cater to minorities to give them jobs they MAY not be qualified for. This is Anti America at its core by hiring based on skin color vs best person for the job. Funny how the folks hurt most by Affirmative action are Asian folks, especially in college entrance. This group of folks is penalized by being too smart and good at what they do in favor of Latino and Black students. So now we are favoring/stack ranking our minority population and its just lame. The reason Affirmative action is crap is it TRIES to install equality of outcome instead of equality of opportunity.
face facts – we’re in a selective prosecution era. democrats and cronies get a pass – – republicans and cronies are dragged into court just before an election on any and every specious charge that can be brought. NOBODY who is keeping a form of affirmative action alive will be prosecuted. ANYONE who won’t cravenly desert republicans risks being prosecuted.
I look forward to ignoring the tokens hired to make the Argus feel less guilty for their racism.
If I “claimed” to be part American Indian, would I be able to get a job at the Argus?
Ask Elizabeth Warren I am sure she would be able to advise on that
I did, she told me to go for it, since it worked for her.