May 24, 1995
Let's review the legislative debate surrounding the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In shepherding the act through Congress, Senator Hubert Humphrey said that, “contrary to the allegations of some opponents of this title, there is nothing in it that will give any power to the commission or to the court to require hiring, firing, or promotion of employees, in order to meet a racial quota or to achieve a certain racial balance,” adding later, “in fact, the title would prohibit preferential treatment for any particular group.”
Representative Emanuel Celler pronounced, “Even…the court could not order that any preference be given to any particular race, religion, color or other group.” Senators Clark and Case decreed that “any deliberate attempt to maintain a racial balance, whatever such a balance may be, would involve a violation of Title VII.”
With assurances like these, coupled with support of the nation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. People who saw the Civil Rights Act as a “bait-and-switch” tactic for quotas later on were portrayed as either racists or obstructionists.
The gross betrayal of both the spirit and the letter of the Civil Rights Act is now obvious to the nation. Nonetheless, affirmative action defenders protest they're not for quotas but for “level playing fields.” They lie through their teeth and when they're confronted with something indefensible they say, “That was just an aberration.”
Let's look at another one of their “aberrations.” In 1976, a consent decree was reached between the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and United Airlines. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois ordered: “United will be considered to be in compliance with the interim incumbency goals for management positions if on an annual basis 50 percent of the initial entrants into management positions are minorities and/or females.”
That's the management quota. Turning to pilots the Court ordered, “For the first 1,200 pilots hired by United, when pilot hiring resumes, United will maintain a goal of hiring minority and female pilots at a rate of two times the percentage of minority and female pilot applicants, respectively, who meet the basic qualifications.”
Let's look at qualifications. According to a USA Today article (9/26/89), the Federal Aviation Administration required 250 hours of flight time to get a commercial pilot's license and 1,500 hours to be a captain. Major airlines usually require much more experience. In 1989, new hires for major airlines had flying time that ranged from 650 hours to 17,500 with an average of 3,910 hours. USA Today reported that a woman with only 500 hours flying was hired and was training to be second officer on a Boeing 747. The woman said, “Even though I might not have as much experience as people in my class, I have confidence I'll be just as good.”
There's no way for us to know whether female pilots are hired and assigned on merits or hired and assigned as a result of EEOC decrees. To doubt the credentials of an authentic female pilot is unfair to that pilot, but given our quota agenda, how do we know? If airlines are caving in to EEOC pressure, fairness to passengers might require a departure announcement such as, “Affirmative action flight 99 to Los Angeles; all optimists aboard.” That way passengers can decide whether they are for or against affirmative action.
The nondiscriminatory vision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is what America is all about. The system of racial and sexual quotas is offensive. Calling them goals and timetables doesn't make them less offensive. Quotas have heard their death knell. That's good for America and the alleged beneficiaries.