In response to Valerie Bradford’s letter dated March 4 concerning diversity, equity and inclusion, I wanted to respectfully offer a different perspective in this wonderful country I now call “home,” having been born and raised in the U.K.
As an employee for about 15 years for large national and global organizations in Europe and here in the U.S., and having now served over 310 clients across nine countries and 28 states, I can categorically say I have never participated in; had it reported back to me; or overheard anyone ever say, or imply, “How can we keep the best jobs or the best vendor contracts for us straight, white, Christian men?”
Like, never.
What I have observed over the past few years with some of our national and global clients is where they have prioritized gender or sexual orientation over the experience and qualifications of another, for hiring and/or promotion.
That’s discrimination.
From now a vendor’s perspective, what I have seen dozens of times over the past few years is when a government (federal, state, county, city or other quasi-government entity) has stated clearly in the request for proposal (RFP) that preference would be given to vendors who either are members of the LGBTQI community; minorities (defined as non-Caucasian explicitly) or for women-owned businesses.
That’s discrimination.
For every one of these RFPs, we had the past experience to fulfill all obligations but decided not to invest the time to submit a proposal, due to the weighting given on the RFP scorecard for factors we can’t control and that had nothing at all to do with the scope of work.
I’d also like to politely respond to Valerie’s insinuation that the present (Republican) administration wants to “blatantly disregard anyone who doesn’t fit neatly within the intersections of being white, male, Christian, heterosexual and wealthy.”
I’d encourage Valerie to listen to what was actually said. Our president has made it clear, he wants us to return to a “merit-based system” where jobs and vendor contracts are awarded based on someone’s character (who they are) and competence (what they’ve done). I seem to remember Martin Luther King Jr. saying something like that, too.
Yes, countries and hence peoples have made grave errors in the past, but let’s let them be in our past. May we all work together, to suppress the ugliness of hatred deep down within each of the operating systems that would ever cause us to not hire, promote, love, befriend or show common courtesy based on the color of our skin, our gender or sexual orientation.
As someone who was British by Conception) and now an “ABC” (American by Choice), I am confident and inspired by the track we’re getting back onto as one nation, under God, indivisible, and wanting to always have, justice for all.
May we all aspire and recommit to this vision.
Paul Butler
Santa Clarita
