Summary of GSA Reverse Discrimination December 2003

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GSA
Intro

The following excerpted article appeared in GSA's internal newsletter "CPO News" for the week of July 14, 2003 under the title:
"Supervisor's Corner -- Hiring Great People (10 Simple Rules)"

"Rule number one is clear and supremely counterintuitive: Don't ever hire somebody just like yourself. Why is that so hard? Because from the beginning of time, executives have been unconsciously cloning themselves, stocking the shelves with vanilla young men from impressive schools." [Emphasis added.] ...

"Push Harder for Diversity: Make certain you're spreading your net wide enough to find those high-potential, but different, fish that generally don't swim in the streams near you. Ask your HR group what contacts and periodicals they're using to interest potential hires. 'We don't know where to find people different from us' is a costly excuse."

This article was provided to GSA's "CPO News" by Cyntoria Carter, Director, GSA Human Capital Strategy and Diversity Division. The original article was actually written by Barbara Reinhold, a professional career counselor, and appeared in Monster.Com at the following link
(Original, OLD link to article):
http://content.msn.monster.com/articles/hiregreatpeople/

Most RECENT known link to original Reinhold article (as of 09-10-05):
http://management.monster.com/articles/hiregreatpeople/

Site
Index:

(A) GSA Introduction

[July 2003 -- Washington, DC] -- In the above article, white male employees are referred to as vanilla young men which sounds an awful lot like a racial slur. Yet this article was distributed in a GSA publication which dispenses advice about career planning. The fact that GSA's Diversity Office -- an office dedicated to minority hiring -- suggested reprinting this article for distribution within GSA certainly gives the appearance of anti-white animus within the agency.

Did GSA's Diversity Office intend to promote a derogatory and demeaning stereotype about white males?

Or are they so caught up in the mission of hiring minorities (read: non-whites) that the thought never occurred to them that they might be creating a hostile work environment for a non-favored group of employees, namely white males?

GSA Reverse Discrimination Index
(A)	GSA Introduction
(B)	Table 1: Under/Over Hiring of Minorities (down)
(C)	Table 2: Minority vs. White GSA Employment (down)
(D)	OPM Definitions (down)
(E)	Submit YOUR Evidence of Reverse Discrimination at GSA (New Page)

Either way, with articles such as the above being circulated by GSA's Diversity Office, it is small wonder that GSA has been accused of routinely denying employment, promotion and training opportunities to non-minority employees in favor of preferred races and skin colors, according to several GSA employees with whom Adversity.Net has spoken.

At least one "reverse discrimination" lawsuit is currently pending against GSA for their employment and promotion practices.

The General Services Administration describes itself as "the central manager of workspace for the US federal government." It has approximately 14,239 employees.

Discriminatory Practices

In FY 2001 (Oct. 1, 2000 to Sept. 30, 2001) GSA hired 294.4% more black employees than the proportion of blacks in the civilian labor force. [Table 1, below.] There is apparently no upper limit on the number of protected minorities GSA can hire.

In FY 2000 (Oct. 1999 to Sept. 2000) only 62.3% of GSA employees were white men and women [Table 2, below] but 75.1% of the U.S. population is white [according to the 2000 Census].

On the record, GSA has practiced the following written and unwritten promotion policies:

(1)	In some GSA offices, if no employee meets promotion criteria for a certain job then GSA supervisors have been allowed -- and apparently were encouraged -- to promote non-white "disadvantaged minorities" instead of fairly assessing all candidates regardless of race or gender. No similar "promotion short cut" has traditionally been allowed for white GSA employees.
(2)	Training and education are required for promotion to many positions within GSA. However, black employees have been allowed to take advantage of training opportunities and government-paid college education at a much higher rate than white employees. In fact, it appears that white employees have often been denied training opportunities -- apparently due solely to skin color -- while black employees were routinely approved for such training opportunities.
(3)	The apparent discrimination against white employees at GSA is similar in many ways to a reverse discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy for very similar discriminatory promotion practices against white employees. [See DOE Lawsuit, separate page.]

Historically, GSA supervisors have been able to assume that they are safe from reverse discrimination lawsuits since federal diversity guidelines actually encourage most, but not all, of GSA's racially favoritist, discriminatory practices.

The government's own "diversity numbers", below, present a strong prima facie case that GSA does, in fact, discriminate against white employees.

If YOU have evidence of reverse discrimination at GSA please send it to Adversity.Net!

(B) Table 1
Over / Under Representation of Minorities at GSA
Oct. 1, 2000 to Sept. 30, 2001 (FY 2001)

(A)
% in Relevant Civilian Labor Force (RCLF)
(affirmative action target)

(B)
% in Federal Workforce (FW)
(actual % employed by GSA)

(D)
Rate of over (under) hiring selected minority groups by GSA

Blacks

7.2%

28.4%

+21.2%

+294.4.0%
GSA hired 294.4% more blacks than their proportion in the civilian labor force

Hispanics

5.7%

5.0%

-0.7%

-12.3%

Asian Pacific Islanders

2.8%

3.8%

+1.0%

+35.7%
GSA hired 35.7% more Asian Pacific Islanders than their proportion in the civilian labor force

Native American

0.5%

1.1%

+0.6%

+120.0%
GSA hired 120.0% more Native Americans than their proportion in the civilian labor force

Women

45.4%

44.5%

-0.9%

-2.0%

Note 1

Note 2

Note 3

Note 1 -- Source: OPM "Annual Report to Congress; Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program October 1, 2000 - September 30, 2001 [FY 2000]. Current link to full OPM report: http://adversity.net/fed_stats/OPM2003/opmreport_2000-2001.pdf

Note 2 -- Computation: Col (B) - Col (A) = Col (C)

Note 3 -- Computation: [Col (C) / Col (A)] X 100 = Col (D)

(D) OPM Definitions

According to the Office of Personnel Management, the following definitions are applicable:

"The Civilian Labor Force (CLF) data are derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics September 2000 Current Population Survey (CPS) and the 1990 Decennial Census. The CPS is a sample of 50,000 households across the nation and the sample changes from year-to-year. Because of the changing sample, there can be wide fluctuations in a group, like Hispanics, depending on which households are selected. Due to small sampling size, the CPS does not have separate counts for Asian/Pacific Islanders or Native Americans. Each group's percentage representation in the CPS was extrapolated using the 1990 census to calculate their proportional representation from the CPS "Black and Other" category. The CLF data cover every non-institutionalized individual 16 years of age and older, employed and unemployed U.S. citizens and non-citizens, while the CPDF data are predominantly Federally-employed U.S. citizens." [Return to Introduction]

GSA Reverse Discrimination Index
(A)	GSA Introduction (up)
(B)	Table 1: Under/Over Hiring of Minorities (up)
(C)	Table 2: Minority vs. White GSA Employment (up)
(D)	OPM Definitions
(E)	Submit YOUR Evidence of Reverse Discrimination at GSA (down)

"The Relevant Civilian Labor Force (RCLF) is the Civilian Labor Force (CLF) data that are directly comparable (or relevant) to the population being considered in the FW (Federal Workforce). For example, if we were analyzing representation of black engineers employed in the Federal workforce, we would compare them with black engineers reported in the CLF. The black engineers in the CLF represent the RCLF in this example. In the FEORP report, FW comparisons to the RCLF are the basis for occupational analysis." [Return to Introduction]

"Underrepresentation, as defined in 5 CFR, Section 720.202, means a situation in which the number of women or members of a minority group within a category of civil service employment constitutes a lower percentage of the total number of employees within the employment category than the percentage that women or the minority group constitutes within the civilian labor force of the United States." [Return to Introduction]

Commentary: OPM pointedly does not define overrepresentation of a given minority group, therefore there is apparently no upper limit on the numbers of minorities that can be given racially preferential treatment by government employers. Notice also that OPM's definition of underrepresentation specifically excludes white males and other non-minorities. Thus, under OPM's definitions, it is not possible for white males to be underrepresented in government employment. [Return to Introduction]