Woman for UN – Secretary-General

Okay, so this week I have been really bad at posting, thus far I have missed 2 out of the 3 days. Unfortunately I couldn’t do much of anything about the project or being sick. Speaking of which I’m feeling slightly better, today I can actually think straight, so here goes another crazy venture into my mind.

An idea has been proposed by several Women’s Advocacy, Feminist, Women’s Rights, etc. groups, the idea is to push for the next UN – Secretary-General to be a female. Now, let me unequivocally state that I have no issues with a woman being the Secretary General or being the next President or being really in any position of leadership. Yes, there are people who feel that women can not and should hold certain positions of leadership, I however am not one of those people. I do know people who have stated in very certain terms that if a woman was to run for President of the USA they would not vote for her, simply because she is a woman. A completely sexist and in my personal opinion stupid and ignorant remark. However, I also take issue with these feminist groups pushing for a woman to be elected the next Secretary-General. Well, why one might ask why, if I don’t have a problem with women being in positions of leadership?

The reason is simple, I do not feel that it is necessary to support one social group over another. Sex, race, color, creed, and religion should be put aside to elect the best PERSON for the position. Note that I said person, not man, not woman, not African-American, not Anglo-Saxon, not Hispanic, not gay man, or gay woman, the best person. Groups that wish to advocate equality for different social groups should not advocate the promotion of one social group over another simply because they are working for the rights of that social group. For example, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), should not request that a African-American be elected to some position, simply because there has never been an African-American in said position.

This changes the dynamics of what it means to have free elections and choosing the best person for the job, rather than choosing the best PERSON for a position, it becomes what social group hasn’t been included that has enough powerful organizations pushing for said social group to be included. The UN, the US, recruiters, all of these people/organizations need to search for the best person for a position, not the best woman, African-American, or Hispanic. This in effect becomes reverse discrimination, a term that crops up in conservative circles, but should be something that liberals need to recognize. Reverse discrimination is the idea where white males, generally though not always, are in effect discriminated because they are white males. Jobs are lost because a company needs to have so many minorities for a diverse company is the easiest example to use. This also affects companies in their sexual harassment policies, where females are allowed to say things to a male that if a male was to say towards a female, they would be fired for. There is a point where trying to level the playing field goes to far and the playing field tilts the other direction.

I have nothing against leveling the playing field, I have nothing intrinsically against any females or minorities that I have met. I have nothing against them if/when I do not receive a job offer that I wanted but they receive the job offer instead. As long as the person is qualified for the position, as long as I was evaluated on the same basis that everyone else was evaluated on. I wish there were no stereotypes and discrimination in the world as I wrote about on Monday morning. However stereotypes and discrimination does exist, and it does become necessary to level the playing field, but I feel that the playing field is very quickly being tilted the other way.

While yes, it is true that white males do still currently tend to (though not always) earn more money than minorities, be promoted faster, receive more job offers, there are numerous cases that I have personally experienced and my white male friends have experienced where a less qualified person was put into a position, received a scholarship, promoted or elected to a position even though it was universally acknowledged that the said person was less qualified or even unqualified for what they received. Personal Example: there was a friend that my brother had, who spent one entire semester of college teaching an African-American female the basics of grammar (subject, verb and noun) and she still did not understand them by the end of the semester. This lady did not qualify for even attending the college, her SAT scores were below the schools standards, yet she received immediate acceptance to several colleges and the one that she chose, gave her a full ride to the school. All because she was #1 – Female, #2 – African-American, #3 – The first to attend college in her family.

Now I am not saying that this lady did not deserve a chance to attend college, and I am not saying kudos to the college for paying for her education when her family could not afford it. However she was not qualified to attend college academically, why then was she accepted and even more so, given a full ride? The question is raised that if someone else was in that exact same position would they receive the same thing that this lady received? I would willingly state no, especially if that person was a white male. My first thought for colleges and job hunters is to not ask the race or sex of someone on a job application, possibly also hiding the person’s name (owing to the fact that names can and do give away sex and ethnicity many times). Do not even consider it in your initial round eliminations. The first elimination round is completely neutral, decisions to stop considering someone are based entirely on their individual qualifications. Obviously at some point or another you will have to see the actual person and at that point discrimination can come into play, but at least give people a chance rather than basing decisions on their sex or ethnicity.

Please do not take this post as I hate women and minorities, I do not. I wish for ALL social groups to be treated fairly and equally. Towards this end I can not support the advocacy of someone into any position on any basis other than their qualifications. I do support many feminist and minority advocacy groups because I feel their cause is a noble and good cause. But I do not and can not support such groups supporting one social groups status to be raised over another, this is not fair and equal treatment.