Is There Really Such a Thing As "Positive Discrimination?"

Apparently, the Equalities Minister, a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/16/race.gender”Harriet Harman in the UK thinks so/a (Hat tip: Mecurior):br /br /blockquoteWhite men could be legally blocked from jobs or promotions under controversial government plans to help women and black employees achieve equality.br /br /Employers would be allowed to give jobs to qualified minority candidates in preference to other candidates under a change in discrimination law being drawn up by the Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman. The ‘positive action’ tactic, already used in the United States, has been a legal minefield in the UK and Harman’s plans are likely to upset MPs who believe that merit alone should determine who is hired.br /br /However, she believes radical changes are needed to help talented black and female candidates break through barriers in business and public life. The span style=”font-weight:bold;”positive discrimination plan/span [my emphasis] would apply only in cases where two equally qualified candidates were after the same post, allowing the employer to tip the balance in favour of the minority candidate on grounds of race or gender./blockquotebr /br /And I love this:br /br /blockquoteEmployers can currently specify that they welcome applications from minority candidates, and promote themselves to specific groups. However, Avon Fire Service, whose firefighters are 97 per cent white and male, triggered a storm of protest this year when it barred white applicants from an open day./blockquotebr /br /White applicants were barred? Is there really such a thing as “positive discrimination?” I say absolutely not. What goes around comes around. When I get thoroughly disgusted and think there is no justice in the world, I try to remember what Thomas Jefferson (or someone since a href=”http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson”Wikipedia says/a this quote was misattributed to Jefferson) said many years ago that still rings true:br /br /blockquoteGovernment big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have … The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases./blockquotebr /br /At some point, the very laws that are supposed to promote “equality” by discriminating against certain people are usually the very ones that end up harming those they intended to help in the end–it’s just a matter of time. I will not be so eloquent here as the above quote is regarding government “intervention,” but I hope that laws like the above will come back to bite the very people who make them in the ass.