He Earned It

Jackie Robinson Earned Every Honor He Received

A recent attempt to paint the Trump administration as being racist is the result of a defense department page honoring Jackie Robinson becoming inaccessible. The breach occurred because the new administration is removing the previous administration’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) emphasis. What happens shows a significant problem with DEI.

For years, the Defense Department had sites honoring famous people who had served in the armed forces as a recruiting aid.

If you will pardon an explanation of the obvious, websites have an address known as a URL. Phones have phone numbers that can be reassigned to different phones. New phones can’t be called until they are assigned a number. If a number is taken away from a phone, that phone can no longer be reached. Call forwarding means some phones have multiple numbers.

URL web addresses and websites work the same way. Before DEI, the site honoring Robinson had a URL: https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/2490361/sports-heroes-who-served-baseball-great-jackie-robinson-was-wwii-soldier/. That URL has been reassigned, and you can again access the site by using it.

But when DEI became the rage, the URL was changed with a minor difference in the middle: https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/2490361/deisports-heroes-who-served-baseball-great-jackie-robinson-was-wwii-soldier/

Article/2490361/sports
Article/2490361/ dei sports

The letters “dei” caused the problem when the new administration came in. They used an automated technique to disconnect any URL containing “DEI.” They didn’t touch the site; they just disconnected the “phone number.” After the uproar, both URLs point to the site.

But who is responsible for claiming that Jackie Robinson’s honors are in any way related to DEI? Critics of DEI attach a different meaning to the three letters. They call it Didn’t Earn It! Given the times and what he had to put up with, Robinson earned every tiny bit of the rewards and honors he got. Also, baseball is a game of harsh statistics. If it is in the books, you earned it.

In an ideal world, everyone is given a clear shot at the training they need to fully utilize their skills and reach the top of their field. There are several issues contained in that statement. Different people have different skills, interests, and desires. Some people are willing to commit virtually unlimited time to work, while others want family or hobby time. Some cultural groups or people who grew up in different climates or environments have different interests.

We have confused equality of opportunity with equality of results. There are very few 5’ 6” NBA basketball players. Most hockey players come from cold countries and northern states where lakes freeze in the winter. Women outperform men in academia, and more women than men are becoming doctors.

Power-assisted equipment has made more jobs available to those not particularly muscular. Power steering and electronic aircraft controls are examples. However, some jobs, such as firefighting, still require physical lifting.

The “Disparate Impact” notion says that if the ratio of people in a particular group doesn’t match the ratio of assumed candidates, we can assume bigotry. It has been used to cause chaos in employment litigation and justifies DEI. If a specific mix is needed, people are hired at that mix, even if those from certain groups are less qualified than people from the currently “overrepresented” groups.

I need to be clear here. I am opposed to any hiring that isn’t merit-based. Professional sports hires are close to that. I want the best players on the teams I root for. I live in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Many people I rely on for all kinds of services up to and including medical care are Black. I only care that they do a good job.

There was a time in the South when only Whites were hired, even if Blacks were better. Alabama head football coach “Bear” Bryant” arranged to have his all-White team embarrassed by a team with Black players to convince his fans to let him use Black players.

DEI is a lazy way to head toward the numbers you want, and it discredits the people who get the slots. DEI is a quota world. Anyone from a favored category is assumed to have gotten their position solely because of it. It takes a little more time to trust a “DEI hire” even if the person is the best person for the job.

One example is the headline: United Airlines Targets Women, People Of Color In New Pilot Recruitment Campaign. The worth of Black pilots has been well-known since the Tuskegee Airmen, and I have no doubts about women pilots. The question is simple. Is the pilot flying my plane the best pilot they could have put on that plane, or is this a DEI hire?

DEI takes attention away from what’s needed. The real problem is the notion that we can’t teach some people enough for them to be competitive. Worse, there is the absurd notion that much of the standard curriculum is somehow part of the white patriarchy.

That a Math professor claims equation 2+2=4 ‘reeks of white supremacist patriarchy’ is ridiculous. Those who look for excuses to fail to teach Black students to excel are a significant problem in terms of equal results. Students need to learn society’s conventions in elementary schools. Green means Go. Red means Stop. We drive and walk on the right. This is how we read. Here are the math tables.

Any child who leaves those years without learning those conventions is a social cripple who will need more help than DEI can provide.