On its stationery the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission
proclaims itself an "Equal Opportunity Employer" but a rejected
white male job applicant might be unconvinced.
After being turned down for a job at the agency, he requested
information concerning his evaluation under the Freedom of
Information Act. His request -- after a few evasive responses,
produced documents revealing that the agency is committed to a
discriminatory hiring procedure.
Developed by the Texas Commission on Human Rights and adopted
by TABC, the procedure requires a job applicant to be awarded
points for "objective" criteria including education, experience,
a personal interview and references.
In addition, the applicant receives "diversity points." These
are based on the number of workers already in the job classifi-
cation who are of the same race, sex and ethnicity as the appli-
cant. The more people there are who resemble the applicant in
these respects, the fewer "diversity points" he is worth.
In an example provided by the Commission on Human Rights the
finalists competing for a position include a white male, a black
male, a black female and an Hispanic male.
In the objective portion of the selection process, the white
male received a score of 20 for education, 30 for experience,or
experience, 40 on the interview and four for references giving
him a total of 94. This was higher than the black male who
scored 92,higher than the Hispanic male's 93, and higher than the
black female's 86.
In addition to the objective score, the white male received
seven "diversity points" which, added to the 94 he scored on the
objective criteria brings his total up to 101.
The black male was awarded nine "diversity points" (six for
being black, three for being male) on top of his objective score
of 92 making him tied with the white male at 101.
The black female, who scored 86 on the objective criteria,
rates 12 diversity points -- six for being born emale and six for
being black, bringing her total to 98.
The Hispanic male is given eight diversity points for being
Hispanic and three for being male for a total of 11. Although he
scored 93 on the objective criteria, a point lower than the
white male, his 11 diversity points bring his total to 104 and he
is the one who must be hired.
This outcome is consistent with TABC's explanation that, "Se-
lection is the process of hiring the most suitable candidate for
a vacant position. This does not necessarily mean hiring the
best qualified applicant because that may preclude hiring a
qualified individual from a protected class."
The distinction between the so-called "objective criteria" and
the diversity points is not as great as the terminology suggests.
The Commission on Human Rights states that even the "objective,
job-related criteria utilized during the selection process should
be weighted in such a way as to avoid an adverse impact on
applicants based on protected class membership."
The TABC instructions on hiring urges department personnel to
"remember what this administration expects" in the area of ethics
and values. While this admonition implies that the hiring prac-
tices prescribed by TABC meet the "expectations" of the
administration, it's unclear whether this refers to the
administration of the TABC itself or the administration of Gov.
Bush.
In his recent re-election campaign, Bush received a perfect
rating from Campaign for a Color Blind America which opposes
quotas and preferences based on race, sex or nationality.