Tuesday, March 09, 2004
What's discrimination?
Well the 'debate' goes on and on, with much bluster, and the occasional controversy. It's interesting the extent to which a 'race preference' discovery will be made, and attract the headlines for a couple of days, and then disappear when further investigation reveals that all is not as it seems, and the initial reporting was inaccurate. Maybe that will happen with the "Work & Income" scandal too, we'll see. I have been worried for a long time about the degree to which the NZ media - the Dominion Post being a prime culprit - reports National Party press releases as unproblematic truth.
Interestingly, the SST story about Work & Income made me remember something I heard about from numerous inside sources in the early-mid 1990s: a system of preference for Maori and Pacific Islanders at Student Job Search. Instinctively, I think, many people will say that one unemployed student is as deserving as the next, irrespective of ethnicity.
I guess an argument could be made that agencies which seek jobs for the unemployed need to work extra hard to find places for those groups who are discriminated against by employers. I guess Donny Boy Brash pretty much said he would discriminate against Maori employees because they might take prolonged Tangi leave (a claim that made the headlines, and then disappeared when it was found out that Maori really had no more rights to leave than anyone else).
Still, I think many NZers will find it hard to disagree with the point that Dutton makes in the Herald that - with regards to historical disadvantage - what is being complained about is that one side of a person's family treated the other side badly.
I would add that another problem with "the claim to special treatment on the basis of historical disadvantage" is that every nationality/ethnicity/'race' has its own tale of woe. The Irish, for example, have a pretty good claim under the whole "colonial oppression" line of argument. The French have been invaded *twice* in the last century. The Russians have hardly had an easy go of things either, with oppression coming from the inside and the outside.
Just for the sake of argument, is there any real reason a New Zealander of Irish, French, or Russian heritage should be treated differently by state agencies than one of Maori heritage (Treaty rights not withstanding)?
I must say, though, that Khylee Quince made the best defence of affirmative action-style university admission schemes that I've ever read.
On a completely unrelated note, if you're up early on Sunday mornings in Vancouver you can watch a K-Pop show on Channel 20. The nice V-jay speaks English and smiles a lot.
Interestingly, the SST story about Work & Income made me remember something I heard about from numerous inside sources in the early-mid 1990s: a system of preference for Maori and Pacific Islanders at Student Job Search. Instinctively, I think, many people will say that one unemployed student is as deserving as the next, irrespective of ethnicity.
I guess an argument could be made that agencies which seek jobs for the unemployed need to work extra hard to find places for those groups who are discriminated against by employers. I guess Donny Boy Brash pretty much said he would discriminate against Maori employees because they might take prolonged Tangi leave (a claim that made the headlines, and then disappeared when it was found out that Maori really had no more rights to leave than anyone else).
Still, I think many NZers will find it hard to disagree with the point that Dutton makes in the Herald that - with regards to historical disadvantage - what is being complained about is that one side of a person's family treated the other side badly.
I would add that another problem with "the claim to special treatment on the basis of historical disadvantage" is that every nationality/ethnicity/'race' has its own tale of woe. The Irish, for example, have a pretty good claim under the whole "colonial oppression" line of argument. The French have been invaded *twice* in the last century. The Russians have hardly had an easy go of things either, with oppression coming from the inside and the outside.
Just for the sake of argument, is there any real reason a New Zealander of Irish, French, or Russian heritage should be treated differently by state agencies than one of Maori heritage (Treaty rights not withstanding)?
I must say, though, that Khylee Quince made the best defence of affirmative action-style university admission schemes that I've ever read.
On a completely unrelated note, if you're up early on Sunday mornings in Vancouver you can watch a K-Pop show on Channel 20. The nice V-jay speaks English and smiles a lot.
Comments:
Post a Comment