My name is Rivers Lamb. Yes, that’s an unusual name. No, my parents weren’t hippies, or at least they won’t admit to it. You can imagine that almost every time I meet someone, I’m asked about it. (answer: I’m named after my grandfather)
One time many years ago, I had a co-worker tell me that s/he thought the only reason I was hired was because someone must’ve seen my resume and my name and assumed that I was Native American. At the time, we had a good laugh over how white I really am.
Later, though, looking back at that event, I realized that I was a little offended by the statement and the resulting implication. You mean I could’ve been hired because of my race and not because I was the most qualified candidate for the job? You mean that I didn’t earn this, that I’ve only been chosen because of the family I was born into? You mean that I was chosen for the color of my skin?
Now, just to be clear, I don’t think that just because one person thinks this could’ve happened means that it really could’ve happened. However, you can certainly ask whether that opinion was indicative of one person’s view or indicative of the culture of an organization. If one person thinks it, does it mean that other people think this way?
I’m a white, male engineer. Intellectually, I understand that I will never see or understand the world the way minorities do, at least not in my current lifetime. But I’m intrigued by this question: Would YOU want to be hired because of your race or gender or other factors that (in my opinion) don’t have anything to do with how well you can do the job? How would YOU feel if you thought that you were selected mostly because you were white/black/brown/male/female and not because you were the best candidate for the position?
PLEASE leave your comments and opinions on this one. Really.
March 13th, 2008 at 11:32 am
I absolutely would not want to be hired because of factors that I have no control over and don’t have anything to do with how well I can do the job. Honestly, if I found out that I was selected mostly on the basis of my race or my sex, I would feel ashamed. I’ve worked too hard and put too much of myself into my chosen career track to not stand on my merit.
March 13th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Hey Rivers,
Great post. I happen to be one of the few black engineers at JSC. While no one likes to assume they were hired because of anything else other than their stellar abilities, the truth of the matter is, race does, unfortunately, play a factor. In today’s world of affirmative action, quotas, and the like, taking into account a person’s race is quickly becoming the norm, rather than a rare and frowned-upon practice. You do have those few managers here at JSC that will look past a person’s race and hire someone based solely on their potential to effect positive change within the organization, but I would guess that, like most other organizations, NASA is prone to hiring people based on race just like every other organization.
As for your question about how I would feel if I knew I was hired because I am minority…well, I’d say I would probably feel pretty upset about it. Firstly, I didn’t attend school for 5 years to have my time and performance in school not count for something. Also, a technical organization like NASA cannot afford to hire people based on anything other than technical competency. I would imagine that enough people within NASA would realize this to avoid race-related hirings; however, I do believe they take place, regardless. Whether or not I am one of them, I don’t know, but I certainly hope not.
March 13th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Whew…deep post, but an interesting topic. I am along the lines of getting a position because I am the most qualified for the position. I work hard and am in the frame of mind that I am only as good as my work from yesterday.
I hate that we have to check boxes to help define who we are: male/female, married/single, african-american/caucasian, veteran/student, etc… There is never a box that allows me to express that I am a fourth generation American whose family came from Germany by way of Russia and that my seventh generation American family came from Ireland during the potato famine and ended up marrying a Native American. I am the whitest-white girl you will meet, but have life experiences that can’t be explained by checking the box Caucasian. Caucasian is the only box on that survey that doesn’t allow us to define if we are European/Australian/Russian, etc.
So to really mess things up, I check the box Asian (Russia afterall is the biggest country in Asia)!
March 13th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Thanks for starting this post! I don’t think anyone wants to think they got where they are because of charity, but I want to bring up the fact that diversity is good both for an organization, for society, and for the final content created. There’s a conference going on right now regarding what gender contributes to the equation: http://www.stanford.edu/group/gender/Events/GISE2.html
I’m not pointing fingers, but must admit I tire when race/ gender conversations devolve into saying ‘it doesn’t matter’, because the reality is that experiences differ depending on those things, and it is important to acknowledge that.
Thanks for the post!
March 14th, 2008 at 12:19 am
I was hired under a program targeted to minorities. I really don’t care how I got hire; all I care is that I could get my foot at the door. If you want to work in a specific company, and you know somebody that works there, wouldn’t you ask for help to get in? Yes you would. Besides, companies always need to hire a certain number of minorities, fresh outs, females, etc…So far I have done great, and I have accomplished a lot in only three years, that’s what matters. Nope, I don’t feel ashamed that I was hired as a minority.
March 14th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Being a girl trying to get my first job in aerospace, I do not want to be hired for the fact that I am female. No way, no how. I want to prove that I am just as good as any other applicant out there. I do not want something like gender to make me better or worse than someone, I want to be better or worse than someone else for the sole fact of who I am.
I was tempted to put ‘Purple People Eater’ on an application once but then I realize I would never be taken as a serious candidate, even though I wanted to be taken seriously for something other than my lack of a y chromosome.
Its a hard line to walk, and I really don’t think anyone can walk it well. The workforce needs diversity, but at what cost?
March 14th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Hi Rivers,
I get pretty pissed off every time someone suggests that I got a position or had an opportunity because I’m a woman. I am offended by what that suggests: that my talents, background, and all of my hard work don’t mean anything because I have ovaries. There are lots of people out there who, even if my work should speak for itself, will see me not as a qualified person but as the “token woman”.
Hiring people based on gender or skin color only gives certain people reason to continue believing that women and minorities don’t deserve the positions they have. Diversity IS very important, but the diversity that NASA needs to be looking for is diversity in thinking, approaching problems, and educational and experiential backgrounds. To get this, NASA needs to hire from the entire pool of educated people and the larger that pool is, the better for NASA. That’s where gender and race and other factors come in: if certain groups of people or excluded or discouraged from the field, NASA loses a significant pool of intelligent and potentially qualified people.
The under-representation and unequal treatment of certain groups in science and engineering is a problem and solving it is tricky. While I hate quotas and race- or gender-based hiring, I think that outreach programs that encourage students of all backgrounds to enter the sciences and work for NASA are wonderful and important. All children should be encouraged to believe that they can grow up to be rocket scientists, not just white boys (and not just black girls either). Likewise, programs that help people of all backgrounds get a start in their education or a foot in the door in the space industry are important for encouraging those students who were promised an equal chance as youths.
March 14th, 2008 at 4:31 am
I’m a black, female, physicist. I absolutely do not want my race to be considered when I’m applying for any position because I’ve worked so hard for all of my achievements. So, I don’t believe in affirmative action, though I do believe there are issues facing minorities that can be handled differently (for example, through summer programs for minorities). Frankly, I believe there are plenty of qualified minorities such that we don’t need special consideration. I really like the existence of special program for minority applicants to increase the number of qualified minorities. These programs find excellent students with great potential. I just don’t think those considerations should be made in general programs nor career environments.
Race was never an issue for me until graduate school, when people from “the majority” continued to bring up my race as a reason why I probably will “never fit in” or why they would “never understand me”. The judgments were made before the judges even met me; they noticed my race when I came to visit after being accepted. My second worse experience in an unreasonable focus on ethnicity was in NASA Academy. I do far better in an environment in which race is NEVER discussed as a handicap.
That being said, I recognize that I grew up in an environment in which I was surrounded by very few other African Americans. There were perhaps 5 in my high school of 1600 students. So, I completely respect the very different opinions of those who grew up differently.
March 14th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Of course I’d like to believe that I am the most talented and accomplished person on the planet, a self-made man sculpted by my own hand. My employer wants to believe that theirs, the most flawless selection process possible, was worth the effort. We do the best we can. Perhaps I wasn’t chosen based upon race - but I’m sure that somewhere along the line I was chosen, among other things, for some quality comparable to race. Maybe it was my ability to juggle, or to make small talk. I work with people of all types who cover skill ranges from competent to useless. The bad ones got themselves chosen somehow. The good ones didn’t necessarily get chosen for better reasons - sometimes we just got lucky that our hunches were right. I think the selection process must be useful, since the ratio is skewed towards the competent, but we may not be as in control as we’d like to think. So I support Lopezac’s idea: just get in, and do your best. Don’t look back. If you do a good job, you deserved to be hired, no matter why you got in.
March 14th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I was a pilot candidate in the USAF at the end of the ‘91 Gulf War. I wanted a career as a soldier. Fly, fight, win. All that stuff.
When the budget cuts hit, I was out the door, because I wouldn’t voluntarily give up my position as a pilot candidate for different “slot” in the USAF. The year before, I had received the “Cadet of the Year” award. I was the poster-boy high speed cadet.
In my class there was another “white” pilot candidate like myself. He managed to hold on to his pilot slot. Why? He was a first generation American; his parents immigrated from Spain. He was of Spanish descent. (You know, the same Spain that is just a hop, skip, and jump from the Czech Republic from where my ancestors emigrated?)
I’m currently working on a space program. There is a academic outreach segment of this program. This segment will spend its resources specifically targeting minorities. Is this truly the kind of final solution we want to the question of white men in America?
Mark
March 14th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Diversity allows a greater perspective to be seen and shared amongst a team. Different cultures have different problem solving skills that can contribute enormously to certain situations. Though I firmly believe in hiring for competency and skill, a little spice can yield surprising results if we just listened.
March 14th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Almost everybody is insulted by the suggestion that their achievements are the result of preferential treatment based on race or sex. (For the moment let’s disregard other factors that may give an unfair, non-merit-based advantage in hiring or admissions, such as being a “legacy” or having a friend on the inside.) Everybody wants to be taken seriously for who they really are, not for the color of their skin or their procreational capabilities.
However, affirmative action is more than the mere quota that so many people seem to think it is. Affirmative action doesn’t mean that a completely unqualified minority or woman is going to be hired or admitted in place of a qualified white male. The purpose of affirmative action is to prevent or offset discrimination that still occurs. Minorities and women still get discriminated against, unfortunately. They are still discouraged from a young age from going into science and engineering. They still get graded more harshly be prejudiced teachers and professors. They still get lower SAT scores RELATIVE TO THEIR ACTUAL SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE as measured by grades. Affirmative action seeks to correct this injustice. Is it a perfect system? No, it’s not. But it’s not just a quota, and it doesn’t put wholly unqualified candidates into positions they can’t handle. Its motive is good, and it’s one that needs to be achieved some way or another as long as discrimination persists.
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Here is another related question: What does diversity bring to a team and how is that quantified? Is it possible that choosing a qualified applicant based on race or different life experiences might benefit a team more than choosing a more highly qualified applicant that is just like everybody else on the team? It might be that those different experiences will have lead the person to approach problems in different ways and play off others ideas different leading to better solutions. That would have a real value, one that might not be seen when comparing two resumes.