BMEP100

All this looks maybe like Oscar’s version of “reparations “. The problem is that there is no free lunch, anywhere.

So imagine on June 1, 1940, two, people are born that day who eventually desire to be airline pilots. We’ll call them A and B. Both get through college, learn to fly at the local airport and have identical skills, scores and aptitudes. Getting through school and learning to fly was easier for A because.......A and B have different physiological attributes.

1967 comes and airlines are hiring anyone who can fog a mirror and wants to fly, almost. Because of those different attributes, pilot A gets hired by the major air carrier. Pilot B gets passed over....again because of physiological attributes. Favoring pilot A and all other A’s is not fair to pilot B, and everyone else like pilot B. Pilot A is not to blame. A is just 27 years old and maybe voted once, never ran any business or any political office. A just is the beneficiary of a societal bias.

Fast forward to June 1, 1990.
Again two people are born that day who grow to desire to be airline pilots. We’ll call the X and Z. Both have identical skills, grades and aptitudes. Both get through college and learn to fly. Pilot Z has an easier time getting accepted and getting money for college, and pilot training. Once again, it’s because pilot X and Z have different physiological attributes.

It’s 2017. The major airlines are once again hiring pilots en mass. Pilot Z gets hired at a major while pilot X gets passed over. Once again it comes down to different physiological attributes. All pilots like Z are being offered a leg up over X’s. Of course there are many fewer Z candidates as a percentage of the total. The pendulum has swung the other way.

Is it the fault of pilot X, that the Z’s are getting preferential treatment, or that Z’s were historically disfavored? No, of course not. It’s just the environment X and Z found themselves in.

It’s the fault of the politicians, lawyers and captains of industry who are trying to “make up”, for past sins. Unfortunately, they are doing just what those who preceded them did, but in the name of “fairness, or inclusion, or reparations, or....choose your value.

In the end, it still comes down to favoring one group over another because of the way they look, (or now maybe even their personal values). It’s still wrong. It’s still human error.
For people like Oscar, it probably makes him feel good and maybe assuages any little feeling of privilege guilt he may be having.

detpilot

Way to oversimplify the problem. First, females and minorities do not get hired faster at majors. There is no affirmative action in major airline hiring, so unless you have proof other than "I know a guy who was black and got hired with no pic time!" then stop saying that.

Secondly, as a group, which pilot (X or Z or whatever) has a better chance of being introduced to aviation at a young age, thanks to his or her parents benefiting from that 1960s hiring situation?

Which group still has to contend with the possibility that behind closed doors, there are people involved with hiring saying "I don't think ____ should be in the cockpit" and trying to keep them out. Here's a hint, it's not the average white guy. Or you're going to tell me those people don't exist...?

The industry looks a certain way. Hiring departments look a certain way. With any group, it's easy to fall into the trap of preferring people who look like you... That's human nature. Whatever programs are in place to work against that (again, NOT preferential hiring) should be embraced.

Maybe you should do some volunteering with kids and see things a little differently. I put on my uniform, and go talk to elementary schools. In nice areas, like where I live.. and in worse areas, like where I grew up. When I ask 3rd and 4th graders if they've been in an airplane before, guess which kids look at me with a blank stare. And guess which schools have, without fail, a majority excited to tell me about trips to Disney they've done, trips in Dad's bonanza, etc. There is a reason that these organizations exist, and it's not to "take 'er jobs!!!"

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OOfff

Anecdotally, I’m a completely average white guy who got hired with times that some people describe as a “shocking example” of bias...but nobody ever questions if I “belong” in my seat or “earned it.”

I wonder why I don’t get questioned the way women and minorities with similar resumes do.

pilotgolfer

Maybe they assume you are gay and dont want to get in trouble with HR for bringing it up?

ChecklistMonkey

Wow. And so many people have claimed there is no bias at the airlines. It's these kinds of responses that someone will say, "oh come on man, I joking!" Racist, sexist, homophobic jokes like they aren't funny. You say them with a smile because deep down, you resent the fact you have to share a workplace with them..

Floyd

Nine pages on this topic. I'm proud. Everyone must be ecstatic with reassignments and possible loss of LV down to PTC. Hope they code it right.

Sure am glad the internet wasn't around in the late 80's for mother U.

Bestglide

There’s bias indeed but not where you think it is .....now go crawl in your safe spaces my lib coworkers

pilotgolfer

I’m just glad I don’t share a workplace with you.

OOfff

Where is the bias?

ChecklistMonkey

You'd be surprised how many LGBT people you share a cockpit with and never know it. I bet you've even told some pretty offensive jokes about LGBT to them.