Exactly. If a minority group are not getting into certain universities, first check whether it's because those universities are bigots or because that minority tend to have lower academic grades. If the latter, fix that problem, don't just impose a quota so they go to a university where they can't cope with the work. There are several minorities who do tend to have lower grades in public exams, and the problem runs right through the school system, not just at the top level. The root cause needs fixing; don't just paper over the symptoms.
If minorities are missing out on promotions, check if it's because their managers are prejudiced, or if they're missing out on the work experience or training that would help them do their job better so they got higher performance ratings and could get the promotions. Obviously, sometimes it is the former, and that needs challenging and fixing, but sometimes it's the latter. And sometimes, people don't want to admit it's the latter because it's a lot harder to deal with long-term, complex, endemic problems than just blaming the manager for being a bigot.
(As a girl, I was the only person at my school doing the STEP maths exam. At the equivalent boys' school, there were several. I was the first pupil in several years to try for it. They had people most years. They had more formal classes to prepare for it, teachers with more experience of training people for it, and classmates to work with. They all got higher grades than me. Were the exam markers prejudiced against girls? I don't think so. Should they have had a quota of girls to get a certain grade? Definitely not.)
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Date: 2009-06-30 04:14 pm (UTC)If minorities are missing out on promotions, check if it's because their managers are prejudiced, or if they're missing out on the work experience or training that would help them do their job better so they got higher performance ratings and could get the promotions. Obviously, sometimes it is the former, and that needs challenging and fixing, but sometimes it's the latter. And sometimes, people don't want to admit it's the latter because it's a lot harder to deal with long-term, complex, endemic problems than just blaming the manager for being a bigot.
(As a girl, I was the only person at my school doing the STEP maths exam. At the equivalent boys' school, there were several. I was the first pupil in several years to try for it. They had people most years. They had more formal classes to prepare for it, teachers with more experience of training people for it, and classmates to work with. They all got higher grades than me. Were the exam markers prejudiced against girls? I don't think so. Should they have had a quota of girls to get a certain grade? Definitely not.)