We Don't Like Your Kind.

“What we want to avoid is to have people who don’t look like they belong in a neighborhood,” an office manager said recently for a news story. Yep. He was even quoted by name. And in the story, they specify the races they want their workers to be and everything. Apparently that's ok, though.

They're going to make sure that the people they pick "look" just right. We wouldn't want any scumballs of the wrong race or people with the wrong accent actually WORKING for us, they say. Because we all know that if you don't speak just like the customers in your area, that people aren't going to want to patronize your business. So it's OK to discriminate.

Right?

See... I'm thinking not. Especially since that quote above came from a CENSUS bureau office manager. If anyone should be hiring nicely and without prejudice, it should be the government. Incidentally, that's where I differ with some of my Christian brothers and sisters on this "Don't ask/ don't tell" silliness. Either the governmental agencies are able to hire all kinds of different kinds of people and DEAL WITH IT (yup, that means bunking with a gay guy on the battlefield, maybe. *Eeek.* Siiigh... I'm sure all the professional soldiers catch gay cooties that way. /sarcasm off... maybe...), or they should NOT expect other people to have to go to the same trouble in their own businesses. That's called "hypocrisy" in my book. Just saying.

But here's the deal: The census is given out every ten years. It should be in ENGLISH ONLY. Can't answer it? Find someone who can help you. Not my problem, or it shouldn't be.

Good grief; we have the tax forms out every year and don't worry whether the IRS man (or woman, or whatever) is of the same race and speaking the same dialect as the person he serves. And HELLO, how racist would I be for refusing to answer the census questions *just because* the worker sent to my door were black or Latino or "doesn't look like he belongs in my neighbourhood?" Horrid! Could you imagine how the conversation would go if I called the census bureau and complained?? Yeah, invent that dialogue in your head and see how far it gets you. But I guess it's ok to talk that way as long as the folks we are NOT hiring are white and speak English!

Should I be ABLE to specify that I want a Confederate-flag wavin' drawler with a coupla dogs in the back of his pickup truck (you know, under the gun rack...) so that I can feel all culturally comfortable answering the guy's questions when he comes to my 'hood? This is just stupid. Deal with the census, or don't deal with the census. If you don't, the penalties should be exactly the same for the people from Laos or Cambodia as they should be for me.

This really ticks me off. Especially since they're going to such great lengths to "count" people in predominantly illegal-immigrant communities so they can be "represented."