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Positive Discrimination

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flip-flop | 14:26 Fri 14th Jul 2006 | News
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A white graduate has been refused a museum job in Brighton because Brighton council has said the position was only open to those of African, Afro-Caribbean, Asian or Chinese descent.

Isn't this racism by any other name?
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No, its only racism if its against any colour but white, they are perfectly within their rights.

Unfortunately.
I used to be in favour of positive discrimination, but I think now it only serves to aggrevate pre-existing feelings of 'unfairness' in the white community.

Ideally, we wouldn't need PD, but again, ideally, everyone would get a job based purely on merit, and we can safely assume that this isn't currently the case.

Got a link to the story?
Yeah it is discrimination and theres alot of it about, i applied for a trail repair tech in snowdonia, and i know i can do the job after doing it since i was 14 upwards now 33. the reason was due to me not speaking welsh.and this was from the foresty commision .

Why did our grand parents fight for this country.....so that we can be back of the line.

Its disgusting.

Can you provide a link to this story please - in my experience these stories are rarely true. It is actually not legal to positively discriminate in this country.
I think the museum were only allowed to use a quota system because this was a trainee position where it is permissable under UK law to encourage minority groups to apply for such positions.

The problems with the quota system in the USA should have discouraged this practice because it leads to resentment and the denigration of minority applicants who have achieved success through their own efforts.
"Positive Discrimination" is illegal under the Race Relation Act 1976. If the council has refused a white candidate on the basis of his race it has committed an offence.

"Positive Action" is legal and this is again enshrined in the Race Relations Act of 1976.

"Where over the previous twelve months no-one from a particular racial group, or only very few persons from that racial group, have been doing a certain type of work then it is lawful to offer *training only for people from that racial group* or to *encourage people from that racial group to apply*." (my emphasis).
Engineer - isn't that slightly different though?

One of the the pre-reqs of the job was that you could speak Welsh, rather than being Welsh.

I don't know the area you were applying to, but if the majority of the local community only spoke Welsh, then it would be difficult to do the job without having a good grasp on the language.
Just to confirm, I've checked and it is a training job that is in question here and therefore, as it has been since 1976, positive action is legal.

See this link from the Commission for Race Equality, which quite clearly states that positive discrimination is unlawful.
http://www.cre.gov.uk/legal/rra_positive.html

After visiting snowdonia and asking the forest ranger he totaly agreed that they were out of order, to the fact of many people do speak english in wales , i dont know if youve been to wales where some of the road signs with english and welsh on - the lower half in english has usually been sprayed over.,not all tho.

But as for the museum job i think anyone should be given a chance.
My mistake...I used the wrong word. Waldo is correct!
Can we stop using the Phrase "Positive" please, it's discrimination pure and simple, nothing positive about it.
Too true Loosehead.
Wonder if Chris Burchill could have applied....
'Positive Discrimination' blimey, that takes the biscuit doesn't it?

I'm with Loosehead.
Positive discrimination illegal?? Then why have the labour party tried to deter men from standing in some costituencies?
They applied positive discrimination.
Must agree with most comments though. Any job should go to the best suited candidate,be it male/female or any shade of colour.

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