Time: Tue Nov 12 22:49:10 1996 To: barbara beier <barbb@Capital.Net> From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: Re: piml] Racial quotas again Cc: Bcc: >Quoted from the following article: "Only 13% of Levi-Strauss's >employees are >white males....." >If you are as curious as I am as to how this racial inequity >occurred in an >age when quota is king, >Levi-Strauss can be contacted at the following address: > > Levi-Strauss > Levi Plaza > 1155 Battery Street > San Francisco <---- here's your answer >============================== > >The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition >Editorial Page >November 11, 1996 > >" Race Still Matters To California Companies" >By HEATHER MAC DONALD > > When voters passed the California Civil Rights Initiative, >which bans >racial and gender >preferences in state and local government, they sent a clear >message: Let's >get back on track >toward a color-blind society. It's a message most corporations >haven't yet >heard. "Proposition 209 >will not affect our commitment to affirmative action in any way," >says >Charles Manor, a >spokesman for Lockheed-Martin. Mr. Manor expresses a virtually >universal >sentiment among >large California businesses, which employ a bevy of "diversity" >executives >and consultants. >Despite growing public disgust with quotas, most of the state's >major >private employers have no >intention of moving away from group-conscious policies. > Indeed, during the campaign, Big Business could barely contain >its >disdain for the initiative. >Pro-CCRI strategist Arnie Steinberg recalls his struggles with the >business >community: "We were >constantly running just to stand still. The best we could do was to >keep >them neutral." Only a >concerted lobbying effort by Gov. Pete Wilson prevented a stampede >of >corporations from joining >Pacific Gas & Electric, which went public with its opposition >to the >measure. > A coalition of Northern California companies polled voters >about their >views of affirmative >action, and found that a majority wanted to end it -- in the >private sector >as well as the public. >Presumably so embarrassed were the sponsors that ultimately only >two -- >Hewlett-Packard and >Kaiser Permanente, the giant Oakland-based health maintenance >organization >-- were willing to >acknowledge having supported the survey. > Meanwhile, the CEOs of such firms as Chevron, Hughes Aircraft >and >Atlantic Richfield issued >ringing endorsements of affirmative action, clearly targeted at the >CCRI >debate. And many big >companies, including Pacific Bell and Southern California Edison, >conducted >internal "education" >campaigns explaining the need for diversity policies. Kaiser >Permanente sent >a letter to all its >member physicians and employees warning of the initiative's >dangers. > Now that CCRI has passed, corporate explanations for its >success range >from voter ignorance >to xenophobia. "A lot of fear was played on regarding the diversity >of the >California population," >claims Deborah Yarborough, a diversity initiatives manager at >Silicon >Graphics. Corporate >opponents of the initiative, which is based on the language of the >1964 >Civil Rights Act, never >acknowledge the possibility that voters approved it out of a simple >belief >in equality. > In light of the alleged petty-mindedness behind CCRI's >approval, many >corporations now view >their own affirmative action efforts as all the more crucial. >"Corporate >diversity initiatives are >enlightened resources to communities regarding the realities of the >population," Ms. Yarborough >asserts. > Thus California corporations will continue to hire and promote >based on >race and sex. San >Francisco-based Levi-Strauss, for example, hires employees based on >their >ability to fill a specific >demographic gap in its work force. The company's drive for >proportional >representation has one >exception: Only 13% of Levi-Strauss's employees are white males, >but the >company has yet to >undertake a campaign to redress this demographic imbalance. > Hughes Aircraft and Lockheed-Martin, among many others, pay >their >managers based in part >on their record of promoting minorities and women. Corporations >universally >claim a business >rationale for such policies. But while it's plausible to suppose, >for >example, that Hispanics tend to >know best how to market to Hispanic consumers, the diversity >mandate often >leads to a >preposterous essentialism. When asked how the racial composition of >an >engineering team could >affect the team's performance, Dave Barclay, Hughes's vice >president for >diversity, explains that a >racially diverse team would bring "diverse approaches to >problem-solving." >Do the laws of >physics discriminate? > The diversity ideology consists of an odd blend of power >politics and >therapeutic aspirations: >We have to unseat white males from their alleged positions of >power, the >argument goes, but also >make them empathize with "oppressed" groups. "It is important that >white >males in the power >structure understand the problems we [women and members of ethnic >minorities] are faced with," >says Mr. Barclay. > "Understanding the other" was once a question for philosophers >and >psychologists; the >diversity-training industry has imported it into the workplace, >replete with >pop-psychological >trappings. "Diversity training draws people out to share those >experiences >that heighten >sensitivity," says Laurie MacDonald, a spokeswoman for Nestle Foods >USA. At >Nestle's >mandated diversity sessions, employees divide into four groups, >representing >the body and the >three parts of the "triune brain," in order to experience how >"stereotypes >are hidden deep within >the primitive part of ourselves," explains Maria Reifler, Nestle's >diversity >consultant. (Ms. >Reifler has brought her theories of the triune brain and "buried >prejudices" >to Walt Disney, >Chrysler and Chevron as well.) Kaiser Permanente is redoubling its >diversity >efforts in light of >CCRI. The company will initiate "comprehensive" diversity training >around >the theme of >"culturally sensitive health care" early next year, says its vice >president >for diversity, Ron Knox. > Corporate diversity trainers have no patience with quaint >notions of >equality. "Most people >operate with the mind-set: 'I don't pay attention to differences," >" scoffs >Kathleen Terry, a >California diversity consultant who works with Hughes Aircraft, >Mattel, >Mitsubishi and Northrop. >Ms. Terry fights that "mind-set" by instilling a weird solipsism. >"You have >to look at the self >first," she maintains. "Before I can teach you to become aware of >others' >differences, you have to >get in touch with how those factors have affected your own life." >It is >difficult to understand how >encouraging such self-absorption could improve business >competitiveness. > The irony of the diversity effort is that it is superfluous. >Precisely >because the population is >becoming more ethnically diverse -- the mantra of the diversity >industry -- >businesses that practice >race-neutral hiring are bound to have a diverse work force. Cypress >Semiconductors, a Silicon >Valley manufacturer, is a rarity: It has never considered >instituting >affirmative action. CEO T.J. >Rodgers says that if he discriminated against immigrants and >minorities, >he'd lose 30% to 40% of >his company's talent. > With the passage of CCRI, Californians can expect to be >treated as >equals, regardless of race >or sex -- but only by the government. Those who work for big >companies will >continue to be >regarded as representatives of groups, bearing either a >responsibility or a >claim for reparation. >Corporate America lags far behind the public's commitment to equal >opportunity. > >Ms. Mac Donald is a contributing editor of the Manhattan >Institute's City >Journal. > >Copyright; 1996 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. > > > > > >___________________________________________________________________________ >There is so much frustration in the world because we have relied on gods >rather than God. We have genuflected before the god of science only to >find that it has given us the atomic bomb, producing fears and anxieties >that science can never mitigate. We have worshiped the god of pleasure >only to discover that thrills play out and sensations are short-lived. We >have bowed before the god of money only to learn that there are such >things as love and friendship that money cannot buy and that in a world of >possible depressions, stock market crashes, and bad business investments, >money is a rather uncertain deity. These transitory gods are not able to >save or bring happiness to the human heart. Only God is able. It is >faith in Him that we must rediscover -- Martin Luther King, Jr. >___________________________________________________________________________ > >
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