Ending Affirmative Action in Idaho

Your wife is in labor.  You need a hospital and pronto!  You come to a fork in the road.  A billboard looms on the left.  “Liberal Hospital, 5 miles away.  We practice affirmative action”.  You wonder how quotas benefit your wife just as her water breaks.

On the right is a competing billboard.  “Liberty Hospital is just 5 miles away.  We hire the best available medical professionals,” the sign states.

Which hospital do you choose?  When I worked in TV, I remember a friend at another station complaining because she didn’t get a morning anchor slot.  A woman had been in the role and had announced she was leaving.  The departing anchor was of Asian ancestry.

My friend said she knew she wouldn’t be considered because it was the Asian position.  A month later someone with Asia genes got the morning job.  My friend was frustrated, because not only did she have a masters in journalism, she had experience as well in the financial industry.  From my vantage as a former TV news director, reporters who understand finance are great newsroom assets.

I hired people on merit because I believed they produced the best product.  I got pressure from corporate because I wasn’t placing “diversity” first.  At a meeting I was told I would need to start filling out forms breaking down the number of minorities in my department.  But I couldn’t ask people if they were minorities and, well, sometimes you can’t tell.  A woman in the meeting told me to look across the newsroom and fill out the form.  “You want me to guess?” I asked.  She rolled her eyes and wouldn’t answer.  In other words, guess, but she can’t tell me to guess and I can’t ask and…

State Representative Heather Scott wants to scrap affirmative action in Idaho.  You can read more by clicking here.  Expect this Sunday to see the state’s newspaper editors calling her a bigot and white nationalist.  They won’t call her rational, because they don’t know the meaning of the word.