[TerryBadway]

[QUOTE=chirorob;2841413]Not trying to jump in the middle of the conversation, but well, I guess I am.

If you have programs in place to promote minorities, to give them a leg up when there might be a more deserving person, that's good, it helps the minority. But it punishes someone else who deserved a promotion.

On the flip side, someone like yourself who deserved every promotion you get, now people look at you and say "Did he deserve it, or was it handed to him?" Now that diminishes what you have done.

My father in law was in the Chicago FD for years. He did fine, got promoted with no problems. But he saw many of his friends get "passed over" so that a minority could be promoted. Is that fair? Does that then diminish the acomplishment of what other minority candidates earned? Does that help repay the "debt" or does that foster more and future ill will for others?

If a man is passed over because he is white, and goes home and complains in front of his children, is he helping to foster another generation of possible racists? Consequently, if that same man later loses out to a minority because that minority is better for the job, will the man accept it, or think that again he was passed over for being white?[/QUOTE]

Chirorob.....

I've never said that AA is the ultimate solution (i actually haven't even mentioned affirmative action or quotas in this thread). And to be honest with you, I can tell you just as many stories from the other side of the fence.

I won't pretend to have an answer for what policy or strategies need to be put in place to make this work for everyone. And clearly, whatever solutions are put in place wouldn't work for everyone.