Quote:
Originally Posted by AFC-911
Every aspect of life is easier for a white male.
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I suppose it is an advantage not to be shot immediately on sight by the cops.
When I was applying for an airline pilot job in the mid-'90s a squadron buddy, a black guy, was applying too. Great guy, hard worker in the squadron. He knew he'd have an advantage because he was black but he wasn't an a-hole about it. He and I both interviewed at a big airline based in Denver. Because there are 100 well-qualified white guys for every airline job and maybe a dozen "other" people the process is often tilted to favor the "other" applicants. Quotas, etc. Call it what you want. I did well in my interview but my college grades held me back. My stellar military flying record was not mentioned by the interviewers, a captain and an HR woman. My squadron buddy, the black guy, had similar grades and flight record but could not pass the airline's simulator test. He just kept lousing it up. The airline rejected me in the standard letter but brought my black pilot buddy for three simulator tests in total and he finally passed the third time and has been at that airline ever since. He is a terrific guy and in my mind deserves the job as much as anyone but his skin color gave him an advantage that I did not have. I had to earn my job on merit while he knew full well that he had an advantage because of his race/ethnicity. You could argue that because I was white that I had one strike against me.
It worked out in the end and we are both still buddies and love our respective companies.