Black Racists in Congress are Protesting the laying off of "minorities"

[Tony]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/05/28/national2138EDT0778.DTL ...full article


Leading black Democrats in Congress and the national party are protesting the layoffs of 10 minority staffers at the party's headquarters.

The Democratic National Committee notified some committee members and lawmakers Wednesday that they were cutting the positions to save money and streamline operations in preparation for next year's presidential election.

"I'm just outraged," said Donna Brazile, who served as Al Gore's campaign manager in the last presidential election and is also the chairwoman of the DNC's Voting Rights Institute. "They started reading me the names and I said 'Oh, oh -- they're all black. I went through the roof."'

[Dancing David]

So why are they racist?

[c0rbin]

It's a shame the lengths that some politicians go through to maintian power.

[BillyTK]

Originally posted by Dancing David
So why are they racist?
Because they're making the lay-offs into an issue of skin colour.

But are there any white people being laid off?
Well, um, er, no.

Is there any reason to think that skin colour is the reason these people are being laid off?
Of course not! That would be racist!

Is there any other common factor these people share, apart from skin colour, which might explain why they're being laid off?
Well, um, er, we don't know...

But black protests at the laying off of a group of people who are all black is racist?
Of course!

So black people protesting about black issues is racist?
No--it's when they take an issue and make it into a racial one.

But the laying off of a group of people whose only apparent commonality is being black is not a racial issue?
No...

Even if, although there's possibly other contingencies which might explain the fact that these people are all black, this action has clear implications for a party committed to racial equality, and enjoys support from the black populace?
Well...

Do you often talk to yourself like this?
Yeah. But I don't always verbalise it!

[Skeptical Greg]

Is their any information about the people who are not being laid off?

Do they happen to be white?

Has the NAACP laid off any black staffers lately?

[Elektrix]

For what it's worth, I do think they at least have a point in questioning the DNC in apparently laying off only black employees.

It's certainly at least something that the DNC will need to offer an explanation for, and presumably there would be a good one (i.e. it just might happen that the DNC has really gone out of their way to hire minorities, so when it came time to do layoffs, the inevitable result was that minorities would be laid off).

At the same time, it is almost impossible to think that the DNC of all groups would intentionally lay off minorities BECAUSE they were minorities. It's so ridiculous as to practically not be worth thinking about.

I'm sure this will get sorted out. But I'd hardly call the people who are questioning the DNC on this racist, as it does raise a lot of eyebrows, without further information, why the DNC would lay off only black people.

It would seem to be a poor decision any way you slice it (if it was intentional, it was an incredibly poor decision.... if it was unintentional, someone should have at least thought about the ramifications.... in a perfect world everyone would be race-blind, but this isn't a perfect world).

-Elektrix

[GrapeJ713]

Quote from link in story

DNC communications strategist Jim Mulhall said the committee has hired at least nine new minority staffers in the past month. The committee has more than 100 employees but did not have a count of the number of minority staffers Wednesday night.

So either it's a last one hired first one fired scenario. Or they have hired 9 new people that are cheaper than the old 10 people. The 9 new ones are minorities but it didn't say it was just color or gender related minority.

[Supercharts]

What is it that accounts for valuing minorities more than non-minorities?

[DialecticMaterialist]

LOL. The far right will have a field day with this one.

Seriously though of all the people to call racist...the DNC? Really stretching credulity.

[NoZed Avenger]

Originally posted by DialecticMaterialist
LOL. The far right will have a field day with this one.

Seriously though of all the people to call racist...the DNC? Really stretching credulity.


Well, I think the real point is that the DNC would probably use similar numbers to call any other business or organization racist on a prima facie basis. I think the fact that it is a wrong assumption here shows that it may well be a wrong assumption in a lot of the other cases where racism is cried merely on the basis of numbers.

NA