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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   15260 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 6, 2025

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Yep, if anything I’d expect the headline shared to work to increase the number of firefighters not decrease it?

Trying to target new demographics who typically don’t go for those jobs, sounds pretty cool.

This argument is outdated by about a decade. SocJus outreach programs are always originally justified through "we don't want to discriminate, it's just to tap in to new demographics" and they've descended into attacking straight/cis/white/males enough times, that you have at least an equal burden of proof to show that it didn't happen this time.

we don't want to discriminate, it's just to tap in to new demographics"

And then, when the untapped population of gay hijabi prodigies who were clearly being held back by racism don't show up when the barriers are pulled down, the finger has to be put on the scale.

Sometimes, even if they do:

Blind auditions, as they became known, proved transformative. The percentage of women in orchestras, which hovered under 6 percent in 1970, grew. Today, women make up a third of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and they are half the New York Philharmonic. Blind auditions changed the face of American orchestras.

But not enough.

American orchestras remain among the nation’s least racially diverse institutions, especially in regard to Black and Latino artists. In a 2014 study, only 1.8 percent of the players in top ensembles were Black; just 2.5 percent were Latino. At the time of the Philharmonic’s 1969 discrimination case, it had one Black player, the first it ever hired: Sanford Allen, a violinist. Today, in a city that is a quarter Black, just one out of 106 full-time players is Black: Anthony McGill, the principal clarinet.

The status quo is not working. If things are to change, ensembles must be able to take proactive steps to address the appalling racial imbalance that remains in their ranks. Blind auditions are no longer tenable.

I thought that article looked immediately familiar.

Has it worked that way in any other "there are too many white men" cases? At all? From air force pilot recruiting to air traffic control recruiting to electricians to engineering students to orchestra players to academic jobs?

Can’t speak to the rest of those things, but if you are a white male and want to become an electrician there will be no one attempting to stop you.

Oh right, I never finished that post about the new WA electrician apprenticeship program requirements. They all need to be licensed by the state now, and the license renewal is contingent on not training too many white men.

Things are worse than most people know.

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