[kickabuck]

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Hi Kick,

I've been around the world and I've seen plenty of people of all colors. I'm not the type to make a blanket statement like "whites are better than blacks" in an overall sense and quite frankly I don't even believe this, despite having been called a white supremacist bigot on numerous occasions.

However, I see nothing wrong with people of any color wanting to hang out with people of the same color. And if there's a company with a homogenous group of employees who think this way and need to work together on various projects, then it could very well be the case that keeping this homogeneity is a plus for the overall business vs. introducing diversity.

So my point is that there may be factors in a hiring decision that go beyond an individual's qualifications. The expected chemistry with other employees is also a factor in some situations. If those other employees feel more secure working with people of a similar ancestry to themselves, then that will impact the bottom line whether anyone wants to talk about it or not. A prudent businessman will take this, along with the other factors, into consideration IMO.

Note that my views are symmetrical on this matter. If a Silicon Valley company was developing some new computer product and felt it would be advantageous to hire only Chinese people, I wouldn't be outraged, nor would I think anyone else should be. After all, we are free to start up a competing company and try to put them out of business by simply being superior. And if we can't be superior, then hats off to them for producing a world class product. I'll be right there in line when they put it up for sale.

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Well one can legitimately hold this view, although I don't feel it is one that is applicable in most work environments. However this view can easily be abused by an employer who wants to actively discriminate, he can say 'well I was just looking out for my work environment and doing what I felt would maximize productivity, that's why I never hire any non-Caucasians'. Who could argue? Too easy to abuse.