Minority sports reporters

Thanks boots for the well wishes.

 

sorry, i'm late to the party on this one.

tom, i don't believe FDP is saying to narrow your hiring pool. that's the exact opposite of diversity. but one thing he/she's getting at is that any manager's own selfish needs shouldn't be the lone criteria for making a hire.

yes, it's a real world stance to say, "i want the person who will give me the least extra work." and nobody is saying to hire incompetent people — only that you use criteria in addition to those you've stated.

what you said: "i have too much to do at work already without doing someone else's job and excusing them for that fact just because they are the same skin tone and gender as i."

this is fine if you're in the business of being a garbage man. or a janitor. but you chose to be in the media. you're responsibility isn't only to reduce your own work week. you have a responsibility to be fair to your readers.

i know nobody wants to hear this, but it's a fact i've witnessed personally. sometimes, people of one race don't have the ability to be fair to the sensibilities of other races. there are cultural differences that just don't translate. that's why diversity in the media is important. because we choose the news. we alter how it is perceived. we decide how big or little a story is portrayed.

when the stories are about a diverse community, then the diverse community should be represented among the decision-makers. if not, it can lead to bad and costly decisions. and the only way to get minorities into decision-making positions is to first get them into entry-level positions.

yes, the color-blind attitude will work well for you out in the real world. you won't cross the street when you see a person of another race. you'll get along socially with diverse groups. you'll feel comfortable in many more situations. good for you.

but to be irresponsibly colorblind in your hiring process to the point where you are too white, or too black or too any one thing and not enough of everything — it's detrimental to your section and the media industry.

again, no one says hire someone who can't do the job you ask. but we're not performing brain surgery here. we're writing at a middle school level for the mass population. yes, i oversimplify, but there are plenty of minorities who can write at just as good an 8th-grade level as any white person.

it's the people who are doing the hiring's job to find them.

 

don't fucking lecture me ye who's hired nobody.

hiring the most qualified person is doing the readers the most service.

 

i'm not lecturing you. just giving my opinion in a strong voice like everyone else.

take it or leave it if you want. if you appreciated diversity at all, you'd at least read it and consider it. you wouldn't narrow your mind and dismiss my ideas on whether you think i hire anybody or not.

if you only listened to people who did all the hiring, you'd only hear old white dudes. nothing changes.

quote chris rock in jay and silent bob strike back: "no, you're the man. and that's the problem."

 

and you have no fucking idea of my hiring background, either. you immediately dismiss my method because it's different than yours but, again, you have no fucking idea of my background or the amount of minority folks i've hired.

and that's bullshit if my opinion didn't shine through above.