America’s air traffic control towers suffer from a stunning lack of diversitywrites Benny Huang
—that’s the official position of the Obama Administration’s FAA, which quietly moved to abolish merit-based testing for air traffic controllers two years ago in an attempt to boost the number of women and minorities in the career field. Blacks and Hispanics apparently don’t score as high on the Air Traffic Selection and Training (AT-SAT) exam, the test the FAA once used to judge an applicant’s job knowledge. That’s not really a shocker, considering the fact that blacks and Hispanics score lower on every standardized test known to man, including the bar exam, English proficiency tests, the SAT, the ACT and the IQ test. All of the aforementioned tests are racist, you see, because if they weren’t racist all races would achieve identical average scores.Correct! Myself, Benny, and all other airline passengers — white, black, 'n' yellow, male and female alike — will all feel safer, now that the people manning (if you will forgive the sexist verb) America's control towers include more blacks, more Hispanics, and more females.
I must say, this new decision makes me feel a lot better about flying. My plane might crash but at least the guys and gals deconflicting airspace will hail from diverse backgrounds. As an occasional airline passenger, I have to say that diversity in the tower is really, really important to me. I mean, really. I lose sleep over it.
… what the FAA [is] looking for [these days is] compelling life stories.If you don't care anymore, Benny, then the leftists win. Because they don't take being fed up as criticism or even a slap; au contraire: that is exactly the outcome they are looking for.
One recent applicant, Ryan Meryhew, who earned his air traffic controller’s degree and scored a 99.5 on his AT-SAT, would have been a shoo-in under the old system but under the new system he was just another applicant. “It didn’t ask me anything about my college experience, my grades, my scores, (and) my ability for the actual job. It asked me what sports I played in high school. What was my least favorite subject in high school. Nothing related to aviation,” said Meryhew.
For once I want someone to really explain to me what the point of diversity is. Not that I haven’t heard the sales pitch a thousand times—diversity brings different perspectives, diversity makes us well-rounded—but that just isn’t cutting it anymore. I want answers not bromides.
One argument usually made in support of diversity is that it’s a quantity we desperately need in our air traffic control towers—and in our military, police forces, fire departments, boards of directors, etc.—so that they can serve a diverse public. That one might actually have some truth to it though only because certain demographic groups resent white people and don’t want them policing their streets, teaching in their classrooms, etc. Those people are known as black racists, or sometimes brown or yellow racists …
… But let’s not be afraid to look deeper into the argument that we need a diverse workforce to serve a diverse population. In this formulation, diversity is both the problem and the solution. We need more diversity because diversity. If we weren’t so fabulously diverse, race wouldn’t matter—but because we are, it does.
… Even the military worries that it doesn’t have enough diversity, especially in the most glamorous jobs. Contrary to Hollywood myth, elite military units aren’t filled with tough black dudes from the streets but rather with ordinary-looking white guys like Rob O’Neill and Marcus Luttrell who happen to be mentally tough.
In 2012 journalist Mark Thompson tackled the “problem” of too many white Navy SEALS in Time Magazine … But really, who cares what color they are? Thompson attempted to answer that question, trying his best to find a deficiency that only more minority SEALs could meet. “U.S. special operators have long acknowledged they face challenges mixing in with foreign populations because they look so American,” wrote Thompson. This is truly a novel argument for diversity—the SEALs need to get some more color for the sake of camouflage!
… So there’s your mission, SEALs—look like America but try not to look too American.
The Air Force has similar diversity concerns, especially among its pilots, according to Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James. She has proposed “diversity and inclusion requirements” that sound suspiciously like illegal race and gender quotas.
… Diversity isn’t really a compelling need in most sectors of society. Liberals just tell us that because they hate merit-based hiring. And they’re compulsive liars. Simply hiring the best man (or woman) for the job is anathema to who they are and how they think. It’s time we stopped taking their silly justifications at face value. We need to start asking “why?” What’s the tangible benefit here? It will take courage of course, because to even question diversity hints at bigotry. I, for one, just don’t care anymore.
Related: Perhaps the most terrifying trend in today’s military is the diminution of the warrior spirit