tokenism

[zipididodad]

I'm looking for legal assistance in tackling what I believe is the
widespread and common, albeit not-too-often talked about discriminatory practice of using
foreign-born individuals to satisfy necessary
hiring requirements for "diversity". Everyone knows
tokenism exists but no one has ever addressed it's obvious
insidious nature. I work at a Federal organization that
has little representation of "American-born" color but a
large group of foreign-borns. Most of the latter have
rudimentary communication skills (writing,speaking), and do
most of the "non-managerial" functions. Any resemblance of “managerial” responsibility are in “no power” positions, i.e., figureheads. At the same time, the “power” structure at my company is principally Anglo male with a few Anglo females. There is obviously
a plethora of legal concerns raised by such a symbiotic
relationship, the least of which being the impact of negating the need for companies to hire
or recognize qualified (i.e., as in equally educated BUT with
better communication skills)"American-born" professional minorities.

My major belief that this constitutes discrimination is that at my company, I'd estimate that 95% of the professional “minorities” are foreign-born while at the same time 95% of the professional “anglos” are American-born. American-born Anglos can advance using the common techniques of networking and mutual support. At the same time, foreign-born minorities are allowed to do the same, though at a much smaller and more arduous scope. American-born professional minorities, on the other hand are not even allowed the necessary “critical mass” to even be counted.

In a landmark way, I believe this constitutes discrimination against American-born minorities based upon their origin of birth, i.e., being born in America. I believe this abuse will continue unless the distinction is made as to whether a minority, as defined by the law, is foreign-born, or American-born.

There are many obvious demonstrations of this today. A simple demographic analysis of the “minority” populations in professional academia would suffice. This would probably hold true for the scientific and technical research fields also.

The abuse is not going to stop unless the distinction of birth is made. Anglos benefit because they get "minorities" who according to Eurepides, are "slaves" because "they cannot speak their minds". Foreigners on the other hand get all the benefits of tokenism. American-born minorities get excluded as always.

 

[FemaleDetective]

This was one of the problems that I encountered in my workplace. Except that I being American-born Anglo descent found myself surrounded by a bunch of never-had-a-right-in-their-life foreign nationals. (Management loved their reluctance to speak up.) It created a real problem in that they were all from the same small country and related in some fashion - blood or marriage. Daily, I would find myself completely shut off as everyone else spoke the same language and of course, I could not understand anything being said, even when they spoke English. Also, when one got mad at me, they all got mad. It was truly ridiculous that such a large corporation would indulge in this kind of ridiculous hiring practice. It was one of my complaints to management that instigated their retaliating against me. Since that time, the company has for the first time in years stopped hiring their brother/sister/mother and began hiring American-Nationals - you guess it, of anglo descent. And, on the day they fired me, they also fired one of the foreigners - probably because they had to cover themselves for firing me. Since the practice has temporarily been halted, I conclude speaking out against such injustices does seem to change things but it might just be at your own expense. And, no, no one ever thanked me for bringing it to their attention. The ironic thing was that the same kind of thing they did to me when they got mad, they did to management when upset: politely, collectively slowed the pace of work, etc. I think local management knew they had a problem but didn't want to admit to it as it was completely out of control. When I took it to regional, they had no choice but to alter their new hire profile. And, drag my name through the mud.

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[ALawyer]

You got some good practical advice, but two more thoughts.

Many diversity programs measure diversity it terms of not on;y M/F Caucasian/Minority, but in terms of race, national origin, etc. Thus hiring 5 persons from Asia or India does not help in the Black category or Hispanic category.

Second, is this coporate policy (do you suppose) of which TOP management is aware, or just local programs by poor management?

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This is intended as general information only and NOT LEGAL ADVICE. You are not my client, and I have no obligation of any kind to you. To retain a lawyer, go to http://AttorneyPages.com

 

[zipididodad]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
Second, is this coporate policy (do you suppose) of which TOP management is aware, or just local programs by poor management?

[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I believe TOP management is probably unaware, and Middle Management is clueless. Our management, almost entirely Anglo males, looks at our mix of foreign nationals and thinks "we've got diversity" and "they seem so happy". It's only been recently that I've begun to "educate" them on the obvious lack of that "diversity" to include those of us from this country cognizant of civil rights. (I like to use reverse logic,..consider what it would be like if white males were excluded from employment because non-white "hiring" managers hired non-english speaking "anglos" from Russia because they were "so smart", "worked so hard", and "did all of this while being happily content with doing all the grunt work".