(sorry - should have posted them the other way around)
I’m not trying to marginalise the suffering that people have experienced as a result of the actions of people who look a lot like me. But that’s the crux of my argument. It wasn’t me, so why should I be excluded from employment opportunities based on the fact that I’m the same colour as the perpetrators of past wrongs?
Sounds pretty racist to me!
I’m not suggesting that I have any more of a right to any of these jobs than any other person based on race, gender or whatever. All I want is the equal right to compete for the position.
As a final point, before you respond and call me an ignorant red neck or whatever, do have a look at the job adverts from the link above. In any edition you’ll find positions whose primary selection criterion is “Aboriginality”. You won’t find a singe “White Dudes Only” position, no matter how hard you look.

Affirmative action makes sense on a macro level, but when it comes to individual people going for individual jobs, it merely amounts to discrimination against white guys.
Hear me out on this one…
I have been trying to gain full time employment with the Australian public service for some time now and as you may have guessed, I’m white, male, heterosexual, fully able bodied and indistinguishable in any way from what you probably perceive as “Da Man”
I don’t know what it’s like in the States, but here, I can get a copy of any Government department’s annual report, which includes their EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity for those not up with the lingo) targets and performance. Before I started my last contract, I sent the exact same resume to over a dozen departments applying for positions relevant to my university qualifications. From this lot I received one interview and consequently got the permanent part time position. I wound up working for the only department I applied for that had met all of its EEO targets. The rest, you know, the ones who were short a couple of black chicks or dudes in wheel chairs wouldn’t even give me the time of day. Not even an interview.
I know you’re thinking that I sent out a crappy resume, but honest, I’m quite well educated and experienced and can vouch for the fact the document was good enough for at least an interview. I don’t expect to get an offer for every position I apply for, but 1:12 ratio is lousy. When sending very similar resumes to private sector employers in the past, my interview rate was in the 4:5 range.
If you go to http://www.jobs.nsw.gov.au and follow the links to the public service notices where government positions are advertised, the last section shows the names of all successful candidates for previously advertised positions. Don’t take my word for it, have a look yourself. In the six months since my last contract finished up to 80% of all positions advertised have been awarded to females, or names that are non-Anglo to the point that I am unable to tell their gender.
The point that I’m trying to make is that these people are getting jobs, not because they are more qualified than me, and not because they have personally been marginalised in the labour market before, but because they come from an identifiable group that has. I’m not getting the jobs – or even the opportunity to interview for them – not because I’m underqualified and not because at some point in the past I have received unfair advantages in the labour market, but because I come from an identifiable group that have.
The fact that other white guys have no trouble paying their bills doesn’t help me out any. That’s what I mean by it sucks on the micro level. As one guy, I am neither the cause nor the beneficiary of any form of past discrimination. I worked hard for my qualifications and now have trouble selling them to the primary buyer because of my race, gender or some other attribute that I have no control over.
The decision on who to interview is based on the racial, gender or disability pigeon holes they place us into, based on nothing but a resume.
As a white male, ironically I can only secure short term positions to keep the disadvantaged ladies seats warm while they take maternity leave!
On the bright side, I have found a department with the right racial and gender mix and am having references checked at the moment. It is for the department that hassle people about unpaid debts, so it has nothing to do with my actual qualifications, the money is absolutely lousy and I’ll have people yelling fuck words at me all day, but it’s full time. I can get finance and all that other lovely stuff that I’ve been excluded from as a part time employee.

“He also holds forth on the plight of white men, the least victimized folks ever.”

That depends on their class.

hippie forever, you’re right

bogi666, the concept of “sin” does not exist in Buddhism. While there is “cause and effect” (karma) and also the recognition of suffering, neither is the latter equal to the concept of “sin.”

PURPLE GIRL, thanks keep it up it saves me the work. As for Pat he’s never been meaningful employed and if he had to work for a month he’d die of starvation if he didn’t die of thirst 1st after 3 days. The whining white men use affirmative action as an excuse for their failures while having the advantage of being white, which is just pride of pedigree a hardness of the heart and a sin, according to Buddhism.

The Neo Con White males are terrified, if their Perks and Priviledges are revoked,they fear their members will fail.
I see this as racism, the fact they have so little confidence in the groups natural attributes if tested on a level playing field.Minorities have been competing with each other on the same field, while the ‘Good Ol’ Boys’ have only been competing against themselves on their own private field. White males have been practicing affirmative action by means of discrimination. Granting White males preferential treatment over others. “Membership has it’s Priviledges” and apparently these ‘prviledges’ are necessary to aid in their success.Qualified or Not, you get the job. That’s not a test of abilities, that’s a test of connections. All things being equal,it may not be that someone has taken their job, but they lost it to a more qualified competitor.This terrifies them.
Affirmative Action has been happening for centuries through the method of Unnatural Selective hiring.

FYI Pat & Chris, Irish Catholics are no more biologically engineered to be firefighters or cops, then any other group- so Pedigree should carry no weight in hiring decsions.Legacies are a form of Affirmative Action.