> It seems to me that people who want racial equality often try to push for racial quotas. However, rather than being able to look at people as just "people", quotas force you to look at a person as a member of a race. You're forced to think of someone as Puerto Rican. Basically, this adds yet another division between races and makes it harder to attain racial equality.
>
> Your thoughts?

Of course it does. Depending on my mood at the time, if I had been that cartoonist I might have answered the question with, "Are you?" It's pretty obvious which one of us would be seeing people as classified members of racial groups instead of as individuals.

When it comes to selecting people for jobs, the practice even further aggravates race relations. Even in New Hampshire, where "equal opportunity" laws are not very extreme in comparison with the rest of the nation -- the federal law, still has to fly in American Indians from New Mexico to interview for state jobs. Why? Because New Hampshire doesn't *have* the numbers of minority residents to satisfy the equal opportunity laws. They don't want to move to New Hampshire and take jobs, but the paid vacation and free board makes a good trip. Hey, I'd go to New Mexico on the government's dime.

So besides this being a colossal waste of money, what happens when racial quotas have the effect of denying a more qualified person for a job because the race didn't match? A lot of racial resentment.

However except for returning the basic fundamental human right for people to hire whomever they wish to hire (private corporations, at least -- public or government institutions are another debate), I don't think there's a lot that can be done to undo the damage except with time and a shift in cultural mindset.

Because so many people have been made obsessively conscientious about this kind of thing, it's hard NOT to count races. Anytime you see an ad or promotional thing in a McDonald's -- the employee recruitment one-sheets, or the tray liner papers with four or five kids playing or something -- is it ever inconspicuous that the four or five people shown represent both genders and four or five races? And if it ever STOPPED being that way, who wouldn't notice THAT, too? And then McDonald's would be getting the same kinds of questions your cartoonist got.

Unfortunately it's ok to have discussions like this, but it's not ok to do anything about it, or you're a traitor to the cause. The thing is, the reasons people have for advocating racial quotas are pretty much all right. Where people go wrong is trying to legislate equality, trying to legislate equality by sacrificing freedom, and by not realizing that, as you say, race quotas do more harm than good anyway.

S "married a white woman, will only ever have white children; must be a racist" am