City Recruits Minority Lifeguards Even if They Cant Swim April 03, 2013 | 16 Comments
In a staggering case of affirmative action gone wild, officials in a major U.S. city are actually recruiting minorities to be lifeguards at public pools even if theyre not good swimmers. Its all in the name of diversity.
You cant make this stuff up. Its a real-life story out of Phoenix, the capitol of Arizona and the nations sixth-largest city. It has more than 1.4 million residents and, among its official mottos is value and respect of diversity. This means more than gender and race, according to the citys official website. It also encompasses uniqueness and individuality and embracing differences. We put this belief into action to provide effective services to our diverse community.
Evidently officials are willing to compromise those effective services at 29 public swimming pools spread throughout the city. To diversify the lifeguard force, Phoenix will spend thousands of dollars to recruit minorities even if theyre not strong swimmers, according to an official quoted in a news report. Blacks, Latinos and Asians who may not necessarily qualify can still get hired, says the city official who adds that we will work with you in your swimming abilities.
Theres a good reason the city is hiring lifeguards that cant swim. Public pools are largely used by Latino and African-American kids, but most of the lifeguards are white and this creates a huge problem. The kids in the pool are all either Hispanic or black or whatever, and every lifeguard is white and we dont like that, says a Phoenix official quoted in the story. She added that the kids dont relate; theres language issues.
How did it ever come to this? Competitive swimming is a sport dominated by whites. In fact, studies have found that blacks and Hispanics have lower swimming proficiency compared to whites. In Phoenix public pool lifeguards have traditionally come from more affluent parts of town where schools have swim teams. That means virtually no minorities, so the city launched this special program to recruit some.
Though this is a local effort in one city, its also part of a national trend to boost the minority workforce at whatever cost. Under President Obama we have seen a lot of this at the federal level through a variety of specially-designed government programs that give ethnic minorities special treatment at all federal agencies as well as medical and agricultural fields, among others.
Earlier this year the administration made history by hiring the governments first Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity to mastermind a multi-million-dollar effort that boosts the number of minorities in biomedical research and slashes discrimination in the federal grant process. The effort was initially launched last year after a government-sanctioned study uncovered a disturbing and disheartening lack of racial diversity in the field.
Before that the administration created a new office help build a diverse and inclusive workforce at all federal agencies and Obama appointed a Diversity Czar at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to help advance the goal of greater inclusion and diversity in government programs. Who could forget the race and gender employment quotas required at private financial institutions under Obamas financial reform measure (known as the Dodd-Frank bill) to overhaul Wall Street? Its all in the name of diversity.
Poster Comment:
Just when you think you've seen it all.... LOL...