Quote:
Originally Posted by Smalls
No to all of these, and I have worked for multiple agencies and in the private sector. The funny thing about MOST private sector people I've dealt with is that they want the best person for the job, regardless of where they went or what they believe. The funny thing about the government is you have more of a chance to be discriminated* against because you are a white male than you do anything else.
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This is my experience also. Private sector folks want the best person for the job.
In government hiring, white males have the highest chance of being discriminated against.
But in academia, I see discrimination based on political correctness growing, including not only discrimination against white males, but against conservatives and conservative Christians, even more so against fundamentalists.
For example some things recently called to my attention:
A cash award promised to schools denied a fundamentalist school by Science for Society and the Public (SSP). All the other schools meeting the criteria received the award, and the fundamentalist school was promised the award in writing until SSP reneged.
A national recognition promised to all teachers meeting a certain criteria denied to a fundamentalist Christian at the last minute (after the teacher had been notified in writing). All the other teachers (representing various public and private schools) received the award. Only the fundamentalist was excluded.
A well-known scientist backing out of a written agreement to collaborate on a project with another scientist, after learning the other scientist is a fundamentalist Christian.
Students making negative reports in their end of course student evaluations about fundamentalist university science teachers, even though they only learned the teacher was a fundamentalist through outside means and nothing the teacher had said or done in the classroom or on campus. Administrators insisting that these student evaluations be included in faculty tenure and promotion applications.
Of course, anecdotal things like this are suggestive, but not positive proof that such discrimination is on the rise. When one publishes an article like mine, it has the effect of casting a wide net that will tend to turn up corroborating accounts. But it does seem like a lot of corroboration given the relatively small readership of the article.
Still, my overall impression (and personal experience) is that teachers are more likely to experience negative employment outcomes for refusing to gift grades than for any other factor (religion, race, etc.) Teachers have a better chance to sleep with students and remain employed than to refuse to gift grades.