The New Lounge
- Thread starter hpnole
- Start date
I found it to be insensitive to turn the tragedy into that discussion in the manner in which the president did. But it is the unfortunate truth about what DEI brings. When the FAA prioritized diversity over filling positions, it left the door open for this kind of speculation. It always will. Thousands of well trained people have been denied jobs throughout the FAA and many other crucial agencies because they didn't check a box. It's time for that to be corrected.
I appreciate that you acknowledge the insensitivity.
The people who are being hired aren’t unqualified. The training to be a pilot or an air traffic controller is very rigorous. They’re not lowering standards at all.
It opens the door for suspicions, yes, from people who are already suspicious about DEI. It’s a civil rights issue. It makes sure people who have historically been left out aren’t any more.
If a white male supervisor hires 10 people and all 10 are also white males while the 20 candidates who weren’t hired included lots of women and BIPOC, it isn’t necessarily due to prejudice, but it warrants looking into. It seems like people who are suspicious of DEI are suspicious of everyone who gets through who isn’t a white male, but aren’t suspicious about ending up with all white males. In 2025.
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FAA provides aviation careers to people with disabilities. Check the date.
Wouldn't expanding recruitment result in more qualified candidates?
I understand that the training and the standards are the same to qualify for the jobs. But we're talking about people who have experience in other places across the country who move and don't get hired because they don't check a box. We're talking about positions not being filled because they're waiting for someone who checks a box. DEI mayor have had honest intentions, I doubt it. I think it is just another form of pandering. But it itself is a racist ideology. When they say that people who are against DEI because they only want the white man to fly their planes, what they're really saying is that DEI is the only way a black person would ever be a pilot. Which we know isn’t true.
I don't consider measures addressing and rectifying racism racist themselves. They can certainly be misguided. And however sound I might find a philosophy, there is absolutely cringy, self-sabotaging political rhetoric around it.
Taking a step back and thinking about it logically, no reasonable, decent conservative would believe that there shouldn't be any women or BIPOC pilots, but in the moment, too many of those same people are cynical about every example. It was the same with the LAFD: That photo passed around by conservatives of the 3 butchy looking women judged them on their appearance, never mind that they were all very experienced and qualified, and that there were lots of other people in leadership, too. They just took a pic together. And a lot of decent, otherwise reasonable conservatives fell for right-wing rhetoric and did not step back to consider it logically and to vet their media sources.
Without DEI, you get on a plane and see a female or black pilot, you think nothing of it. With DEI (especially female, sorry) you have that thought in the back of your mind. Granted, you still respect that they have been through the training and know what they are doing. But when something goes south, there will be that question.
I don't know about the picture you are talking about. But I am sure one of those ladies was the one who responded to a hypothetical by saying that if your husband is in a position to where he needs me to carry him out of a burning building, then he got himself in a bad situation. That is disqualifying. She also made comments about how when you call 911 for help, you want someone who looks like you to respond. You don't find this DEI nonsense the least bit concerning in these situations?
