President Bush has made history for putting diverse people in high places within his administration, most of all for tapping first Colin Powell and then Condoleezza Rice to be secretary of state. But the diversity doesn’t go as deep in this White House as it did in Bill Clinton’s, as this Washington Post story notes. Last year, Bush’s political appointees were 37 percent women and 13 percent racial minorities, compared with 47 percent and 24 percent in the same categories during Clinton’s fifth year. It’s a good reminder for all CEOs who want their companies to look like their communities — diversity should be more than a veneer just for show.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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23 Comments
Interesting Rhonda,
I can’t help but to look on the side of this page and see all whites. Last time I checked, wichita had a pretty large population of hispanics and blacks.
double standards are tough when you are wagging your finger at all of us – which is what this editorial page does – actually – what all editorial pages do.
baaaaad american people, you should be more like us….the educated elite….don’t you understand minorities?
Diversification VS Qualification.
In this day and age most companies are in a position where they fell compelled or forced to diversify their work force or face the scrutiny of discrimination. If a position comes open then qualification not diversification, should always be the main focus on filling that position. That is not always the case. I know that there are people in their respective positions who are there simply because of their gender or race. I know that there are companies who are forced to diversify their work place simply because of scrutiny. The fact that Bush has fewer minority political appontees than Clinton is only important if he has or had the same amount of qualified people for that position. If Bush decides to put a minority in place to fill a position just simply to keep his stats up or to try to compete with the Jonses (or in this case, the Clintons) then, WE, the people have a problem. If his numbers are lower because he chooses to overlook a qualified minority and put someone in who is not qualified, then not only do WE have a problem but so does HE.
Welcome Mountain Man! Thanks for joining us and entering the fray!
(To all that attended the 5/13/06 meet-up Mountain Man was the most excellent BBQer)
ok, so I’m a little biased here:)
I’m all for diversity, but diversity of OPINION coupled with the brainpower to support the opinion. It is important that a leader hear from the diversity of opinions in his organization and that the diversity of opinions reflect the diversity of opinions of the community at large (or the corporation, for example). If those opinions happen to be correlated with skin color, gender, national origin, religion, or any other attribute, then one might be able to use those as helpful guides to finding diverse opinions.
In my experience, however, opinions have a lot more to do with one’s personal experiences growing up than they do with the “externals” of a person’s appearance. Watching your father lose his job over and over again because of downsizing, corporate restructuring, attempts to destroy unions; seeing the family having to go to the local church or second hand store because of this…having a brother beat up for being an Orthodox Jew…or perhaps growing up in the lap of luxury as the son or daughter of a local billionaire.THOSE types of things play a far larger role in the attitudes one develops than do the ‘externals’ of one’s gender or color.
Diversity is less a problem with the bUsH gpovernment appointments than cronyism and pandering.
Someone can post an extended list of some of bush’s “qualified appointees” I’ll start with Michae Brown.
Funny thing…..I bet that list of “bush’s blunderers, buddies, and big donors” who performed not so well is mostly white guys.
Hi Julie, and welcome Mountain Man. He was indeed a most excellent grill chef, and a funny guy too.
Geojane and I talked yesterday about how the WE bloggers also seem to be mostly white and male. Not that that’s a bad thing, :) but we both wondered why more self identified minority, women and gay people aren’t blogging here.
Maybe they are, and they just dont attach the adjectives, which in some ways is highly evolved, but in other ways, well, it would be nice to see sometimes.
Blogging is supposed to be kind of a “power to the people” thing, but it is interesting that on the surface, we seem to be a pretty middle or upper middle class homogeneous bunch.
Religion and politics aside of course….
Diversity on race is not a problem with the Bush admin; diversity of brain power does: they’re all stupid.
Julie, you may be biased, but who in their right mind is going to argue? Welcome MM!
BTW, geojane was HIGHLY amused at the picnic and she had so much fun it may have been a tipping point for her to leave the bright lights and big city and be on the farm full time.
Thanks y’all! ;)
Walker, YOU ROCK man. You guys took me all the way back to austin with that rendition of Crossroads. CF and Rage, that goes for you all too. Renaissance Men all!
Nows, hows I sees it, we gots purty much a bunch o people here whos ain’t da same as one nuther. We gots usuns a rabbit, an wese got usuns a purple chicken, an wese gots usans eben a chicken hawk, sho nuff. Sose eben ifans we dun hab nose racens, we sho nuff gots a bunch o sumpin, an dats okays, too.
geojane huh?
cool nic!
Cool news.
Never understimate the power of meet ups, cut ups, and tater salad.
KFG,Glad GeoJane made it. Anything we can do to help a grrl in need ;)
Mountain Man–
What you say is true in theory, but let’s look at practice.
When people look at Bush nominees, about the last thing that comes to mind is “competence.”
Remember Michael “Heckuva Job” Brownie overseeing FEMA during Hurricane Katrina? How about the revolving merry-go-round of “viceroys” and American installed prime ministers in Iraq? Or John Snow who stepped in as Treasury Sec’ry when the qualified guy, O’Neill had had enough? Or how about Porter Goss who was recently fired by Bush after two disasterous years at the CIA in which many, many qualified and experienced agents bailed because of his incompetence?
They were all white males, BTW.
According to the right-wing, hiring with a view toward race or gender is bad, but hiring based on CRONYISM and political plums is just fine.
Actually Brown did warn the President that the levees could fail before the Hurricane hit. It was Bush who said that no one could have imagined that the levees would break, even though he himself was warned.
kfg,”BTW, geojane was HIGHLY amused at the picnic and she had so much fun it may have been a tipping point for her to leave the bright lights and big city and be on the farm full time.”
Now THAT is awesome news! You go, girl.
BTW, There is a Terry Reid cd in the book:-)
It has really been a while since Rhonda has put forth a diversity for the sake of diversity post. I was under the impression that she had learned that the kind of diversity she promotes is just veneer.
Thanks Walker, I have the book right here and do indeed have the CD.
I havent had much time the last two days for reading or music… heheh.
The clincher was I got to say “look honey, it’s only a three hour drive to civilization”.
GMC’s Montana sounds a lot like where I am from. I always thought I could make a living cooking for the Posse if they just didnt hate queers and athiests so much :)
I thought you were a pastafarian not an athiest!(You still have to keep that noodley appendage to yourself) ;)
Hee hee, well ya know Julie, we always say pastafarianism isnt really a religion.
I just like HOLIDAY and having Fridays off….
But none the less, a happy RAMEN to you and yours.
Lefthook–
The last thing in the world that I am trying to do is justify anything the Bush has done. Granted there have been several disappointments in his selection of appointees as well as other acts that have been commited during his presidency. My point is that I don’t think that a person should be hired for a position or a company should appoint someone to a position simply to satisfy or justify anyones need for diversification. I get tired of hearing people yell discrimination where there is none. I do believe that discrimination is alive and well in this country. However, when someone is passed up for a position because they are not qualified for that job, that does not give them the right to yell “discrimination”. If that were the case then the person who is qualified and gets passed over because the screaming minority feels that they need to have their presence known in that particular workplace, should have the right to yell “reverse discrimination”.When diversification over-rules qualification, then deterioration in the workplace takes hold. How can a person who is unquaified for a position trains those under him/her to do what needs to be done. I doubt that there is anyone in todays workforce that has not been in a situation where their superior was instead inferior making their job a pain in the posterior. I don’t know about you, but if I have to train the boss, then I need to be the boss, not the other way around.
Mountain Man, I missed saying howdy to you. It’s always nice to meet a reading man. (Big grin here)