The problem is: once you start saying that white people literally cannot even apply ... you open the door for any white person who would have applied to say that you are discriminating against them.
White people are being actively discriminated against, as provided for in the charter:
- (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. (2) Subsection (1) does not preclude any law, program or activity that has as its object the amelioration of conditions of disadvantaged individuals or groups including those that are disadvantaged because of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.
Given white folks would not meet the "disadvantaged" criteria of 15(2), we can be discriminated against. That is a tough pill for me and many others to swallow, but it comes from a place of allowing (not requiring) organizations/programs to ameliorate the various inequalities that exist in their organization/program.
White people can be discriminated against, for now, IF the organization wants to. It does not have to. I think that's the way it should be, despite being white. I will beg for the protections of this philosophy should I ever be a minority... seems that day is fast approaching.
If we have to consider the wider cultural context we should also consider what our arguments are dealing with or providing cover for.
Agreed. I acknowledge there are folks fighting the good fight here about affirmative action going too far... ideological zealots shaming organizations into hiring for diversity over quality without knowing anything about the circumstances of an organization. That is BS and should be called out.
However, actively hiring for diversity in acknowledgement of your organization's lack of diversity is not something people should have a problem with. Assuming that the university will use it to hire a brainless DiversityBot is not fair to the university. There will be many qualified applicants for this position at the university and they don't want the optics of being a white vanilla organization because the community they serve is racially and culturally diverse. Why bother allowing token white guys to apply for the position if you have no intention of hiring one.
I say let's call a spade a spade: it's absolutely discrimination against white people. It's not racism, though. It's not suggesting a white man can't do the job because he's too lazy/weak/bald/fat/stupid. One can fully acknowledge that white people are capable of something while also acknowledging your organization NEEDS to be more diverse in both fact and appearance. That is why our charter provides for it. Again, white people may beg for these sorts of provisions if the tables turn 100% the other way.