On occasion, I dig deep into the recesses of a Google search to see what kinds of hits my name drums up. A few years ago, during one of those searches, I found the following letter from an angry applicant I had rejected for employment. Here is the letter in full:
~(begin quote)~
I am up here in the politically correct Northwest. I am a certified phlebotomist. I hold an Oregon pharmacy technician license and have 29 years of customer service background as a licensed Master Barber. The past five years I have been trying to get a job as phlebotomist but due to the fact I am not a one-legged transgender black woman who can speak Spanish, I can’t even land even a fu*king interview. I have applied to Salem Hospital, Salem Clinic, Salud Medical Center, various State, County and City jobs. I never even get interviewed!
Remember, almost all applications up here come with a little attached form called a Federal Questionnaire for “diversity” (my favorite fu*king word) to find out if the employer is hiring the “proper” amount of the “right” kind of people, in other words ANYBODY but me or my kind.
By the way, the new and coming thing up here for state, city, county or almost any other big hiring entity is the switch from “preferring bilingual” to the words”require applicant be bilingual”.
It pisses me off that to get a job with my city, my county, my state, my country’s government, I am required to speak the foreign language of a minority population that mainly got here illegally. If you want to come into my country legally and become a part of my country and still retain principles of your home culture, fine, but don’t come into my country illegally and then proceed to tell me to change my language and culture to conform to the ways of the sh*thole country you came from. Nobody put a gun to your head and forced you to come here. If you like your country’s ways, language and customs keep your ass on your side of the border.
When I apply for those jobs, all I get is a form rejection letter. I don’t even get an interview. I have been collecting them all (21 from Salem Hospital alone!, signed, of course, by Andres Acosta and Jeannie Barnes) just to prove to my politically correct (thanks to the school system here) teenage daughter that her daddy is getting fu*ked big time, all the time. Maybe one day after I’m gone, she will realize what this country has gone through.
Bruce Benkle, Salem, Oregon
~(end quote)~
Reverse Discrimination?
Bruce, an anti-immigration activist here in Oregon, wrote this letter to commentator and blogger Marty Nemko; who then used it as an example of reverse discrimination in his article, “The Silenced Majority“.
Where is Bruce these days?
Bruce Benkle was arrested December of last year on multiple counts of sexually abusing minors.
The Morale of the Story
Recruiters and Employment Specialists are frequently accused of being unfair and the butt of cruel jokes. Recruiters have the thankless tasks of conducting the background checks and giving people the bad news when they’re not hired. It’s not an easy job and yet this crucial role is sometimes the last check-point between our children and a vicious predator.
So to all those recruiters and employment specialists everywhere who carefully screen applicants and keep our most vulnerable populations safe from the incompetent and the ill-intentioned … here’s a heartfelt thank you from one of your own.
3 Comments on “Recruiters, Employment Specialists and Pedophiles”
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Posted on 27. August 2008 at 14:01
This is all well and good, however, Bruce does make a point. You didn’t weed him out because of what he was eventually arrested for, he may have never been arrested if he had held down a permanent job and position. Unless of course you are claiming to be psychic and a good judge of character based on someone’s name… YOU didn’t actually get to the point of checking references and doing background check before rejecting him.
Through all of Bruce’s racist ramblings and inchoherant thoughts, he did make a serious point. He couldn’t even get into the interview process based on these pre-judgements that human resources has in order to qualify other applicants. So quit patting yourself on the back and making up a story to make yourself (and all the HR ‘crats)feel better at night. You owe it to applicants to give them a fair shake and you didn’t.
Posted on 27. August 2008 at 16:28
Bruce got the same “shake” as everyone else. If that’s not the definition of fair, I don’t know what is.
Posted on 1. September 2008 at 18:14
There is no such thing as “reverse discrimination”. Discrimination is discrimination, no matter what it is against. That goes for both legal and illegal discrimination. If a company won’t hire a Hispanic person because they are Hispanic, they are discriminating illegally on the basis of race. If a company won’t hire a Caucasian person because they are Caucasian, they are discriminating illegally on the basis of race.
While Bruce certainly sounds like he has some legitimate problems, being a member of the Portland Metro Area I can attest to the fact that there are plenty of jobs where bilingualism is not required - in every sector. He was angry and decided to vent his anger on the most convenient (to him) population available: the large immigrant population of Salem, OR. It’s just like when a person who has had a bad day & too few coping skills yells at the cashier at Macy’s or Safeway. Bad judgment & actions follow poor coping skills. It can and does happen to people with good coping skills too - just a lot less frequently.
Martin’s comment is way off base. He has no idea how far along the recruiting process you got with Bruce. Anyone who has ever applied for a job with a company subject to Affirmative Action knows that self identifying your race, gender, disability & veteran status is VOLUNTARY. Companies that know what they are doing & following the law separate this information from the materials the hiring manager receives. Of course, people are often able to identify religion, race, etc by someone’s name. However, if someone (or a company) is actively choosing to hire individuals that increase their diversity instead of those most qualified, you DON’T want to work for them. They are short sited and practice bad business.