We should be colour-blind not racist

I HAVE read many silly letters in various newspapers over the years, but seldom one as silly as “Why is a black manager replaced by a white one?” from Laurel Angoma of Kelvin.

And as a matter of interest, why haven’t the usual rabid mob not shot out of the starting blocks shouting “racist” at this writer?

Is it because the person she’s complaining about is white?

If so, why is it only racist when you criticise blacks but not racist when you criticise whites? Just asking.

There is a word used to describe dyes in textiles – colour-fast.

Laurel Angoma is a colour-fast person, unwilling to let go of the past concepts of skin colour instead of doing what we should all be doing in our rainbow nation – becoming colour-blind.

How sad that this person, having pointed out that Thabo Dloti of Liberty Life performed dismally where headline earnings were concerned, went on to complain that he or she had been replaced by a white person.

Why not say that an incompetent person had been replaced by someone competent? Why harp on skin colour?

How silly is that? Did it not occur to her that perhaps that white person was the right person for the job, never mind his or her skin colour?

I’d like to remind Laurel Angoma that back in the days of apartheid, sticking to one skin colour (ie white) where jobs were concerned was called “job reservation”. Today, post-1994, that very same system is called either “affirmative action” or “transformation” (ie black).

Inevitably in a country where the majority of the citizens are black, eventually they will hold down the majority of the jobs available.

However, I think it’s more than time to let go of all this “colour-fast” nonsense and start using merit as the standard for employing people rather than the colour of their skin.

And while on this subject, I know of two chemical engineers (both white) who left South Africa because they were told that although they were the best qualified people for the jobs they were applying for, the person doing the hiring had been told that he had to hire someone black, even though their qualifications did not match up to the two whites.

Sadly, South Africa’s loss is Australia’s gain… all because someone was too “colour-fast” to believe in merit rather than skin colour when it came to jobs.

Believe in merit rather than skin colour when it comes to jobs

Parkview