The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Hire based on ability and there would be no problem

This letter is in reference to the letter "Hiring based on race not fair" on Thursday. I agree hiring based on race is not fair, but my conclusions are apparently different than the conclusions of the author of the letter. The argument that persons of dark skin are not qualified for jobs is simply a myth. Here are three observations about this myth:

1) At a job site, a white person was promoted to a supervisory position, which involved scheduling and other paperwork of which he was not capable. The other supervisors (who were also white) helped him out and covered for him. A black person was passed over for this same promotion.

2) When a motorist is pulled over for speeding, a white person is more likely to get a warning. A black person is more likely to get a ticket plus get hassled for possibly more violations. When a job application is filled out, the black applicant is more likely to have more negatives not because he or she is less qualified but rather because he or she has been hassled more because they were black.

I have been in graduate-level science classes here at SIUC where the students were overwhelming black and Oriental. These classes proved to me that any assumption that white people are smarter than black people was simply false. Otherwise, why weren't these classes overwhelmingly white? I have heard two responses to this question. 1) The white people already have jobs. Well, if this answer is correct, then the white people are getting the jobs even though these black people are equally qualified, aren't they? 2) These classes are too difficult for white people. Then why are the white people getting the jobs if they can't handle the same curriculum as these black people?

I grew up in a segregated town where I was taught that white people are naturally smarter than black people. Since the black people were on the other side of the tracks (literally), I had relatively little direct contact with them and assumed that what I had been taught was correct. As an adult now in a somewhat more integrated community, I realize how incorrect this white supremacy myth really is. The apparent fact that SIUC employees are overwhelmingly white is de facto evidence that SIUC has been hiring based on race ˜ the white race. The solution to this situation is to stop hiring based on skin color and start hiring based on ability. Evidence that this was being done would be a higher proportion of black employees at SIUC.

Chet Langnin,

SIUC alumnus, Carbondale

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