I shake my head ruefully at the thought of those I have left behind that are now likely to face still more hours away from the job learning how to love and respect one another:
John Robinson was appointed the first chief of equal employment opportunity for U.S. intelligence by the Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte last week, according to a statement from Negroponte’s office Monday.
His mission will include working with all 15 U.S. intelligence agencies “on diversity, recruitment and retention.”
U.S. intelligence agencies have been criticized by congressional overseers for the slow pace at which they have moved to recruit from diverse ethnic and national communities in the United States, especially those who have language or cultural skills that could be useful in the war on terror.
You mean the same kind of background that the IC security apparatus precludes from getting a clearance? Good luck, Mr. Robinson.
I remember years ago a very stern LTC telling me that the Army’s promotion policy was not a quota system. I didn’t know what else to call it when they culled the top officers of a certain ethnic background for top-but-less-qualified officers of other ethnic backgrounds in a given ratio, but I was assured it was not a quota. Now here we are making sure that we hire enough left-handed, red-heads.
We would be far better off adopting gender and race neutral applications. If you are basing your hiring decisions solely on someone’s qualifications – without knowing if they are male, female, black, green, from your home town, from your frat, etc. – then there is no argument: they are the best for the job.
I don’t know anyone who wants to work with people because of their position on the diversity scale; they want to work with the best regardless of their race, sex, or any other irrelevant factor.
