DrJones
04-14-2008, 12:25 PM
So, the DNC has a website for the convention here. Lakewood was asking local companies to sign up as vendors for the website.
The idea is, that if you have a company that does something like painting, and someone needs something painted for the convention, they can search on that site, find a local painter, and then hire the services.
So, our company signed up (even though we are 99.9% sure no one at the convention will need our services).
The problem I have is with the search page, which is found via a link "Vendor Directory" at the top of every page of the convention site (http://www.denverconvention2008.com) which is found here (http://www.denverconvention2008.com/index.cfm?page=vendordir).
If you scroll down to the search fields, you see what you would expect to let you find a business (Such as searching for a keyword or selecting a business area). However, you also see a series of check boxes with this:
-*Minority Owned (MBE)
-*Woman Owned (WBE)
-*Persons with Disabilities Owned
-Veteran Owned
-Union Shop
-LGBT Owned
-Green Company
-No Certifications
The * means it's checked by default.
Now, I have a big problem with that, and here's why.
First, I understand their logic. They think that business who are owned by straight, non-disabled, white men get more business than those owned by woman, minorities, etc.
I don't disagree with that, and there are probably some stats to back that up. However, I don't think this "helps" the problem at all.
First of all, I think most people would agree that it shouldn't matter who is the owner the company in terms of sex/race/etc. There are many many other factors that most people would use when choosing between companies. Such as price, customer satisfaction, years in business, how large the company is, etc.
However, for the DNC site, rather than letting people choose to narrow their search on one of those (important) factors, they choose to have it on the irrelevant factor of the sexual orientation of the owner.
We know they are doing this to add some "balance" to the picture, so that they can offset some of the business that companies do get, because they are owned by normal white males.
However, I disagree that this is the proper approach. Mainly, if you don't know information about who owns a business, you can't use that information in making your decision. By collecting that information, and propagating using it as a factor in determining which business you should go with, they are only supporting the problem, not fixing it. Besides, why should the owner make any difference? Is that really that important of an issue? What if there are 99 gay black women working for a company and one, white, male, straight owner.
This search criteria is so absurd it makes me angry.
The problem is that people use that kind of information in justifying which business they go with. Instead of really trying to address that issue, and working towards the proper solution (Of making it so people don't factor in those meaningless details when choosing a company, and instead focus on important issues) they just contribute to it. Rather than reducing the number of people who choose a business because it's run by a white male (by, say.. I don't know... not highlighting that information on your search page?) they try and "balance" the issue by propagating that negative behavior to the other side to artificially create equality.
Of course, by saying I don't think this information should be on that page, I'm a sexist/racist/homophobe/bigot right? Because thinking that's a bad idea (and just makes the problem worse, instead of really addressing it) I'm just saying how much I don't want to help the minority owned businesses.
Democrats don't try and fix problems, they just come up with artificial ways of patching them while really just making it worse.
The idea is, that if you have a company that does something like painting, and someone needs something painted for the convention, they can search on that site, find a local painter, and then hire the services.
So, our company signed up (even though we are 99.9% sure no one at the convention will need our services).
The problem I have is with the search page, which is found via a link "Vendor Directory" at the top of every page of the convention site (http://www.denverconvention2008.com) which is found here (http://www.denverconvention2008.com/index.cfm?page=vendordir).
If you scroll down to the search fields, you see what you would expect to let you find a business (Such as searching for a keyword or selecting a business area). However, you also see a series of check boxes with this:
-*Minority Owned (MBE)
-*Woman Owned (WBE)
-*Persons with Disabilities Owned
-Veteran Owned
-Union Shop
-LGBT Owned
-Green Company
-No Certifications
The * means it's checked by default.
Now, I have a big problem with that, and here's why.
First, I understand their logic. They think that business who are owned by straight, non-disabled, white men get more business than those owned by woman, minorities, etc.
I don't disagree with that, and there are probably some stats to back that up. However, I don't think this "helps" the problem at all.
First of all, I think most people would agree that it shouldn't matter who is the owner the company in terms of sex/race/etc. There are many many other factors that most people would use when choosing between companies. Such as price, customer satisfaction, years in business, how large the company is, etc.
However, for the DNC site, rather than letting people choose to narrow their search on one of those (important) factors, they choose to have it on the irrelevant factor of the sexual orientation of the owner.
We know they are doing this to add some "balance" to the picture, so that they can offset some of the business that companies do get, because they are owned by normal white males.
However, I disagree that this is the proper approach. Mainly, if you don't know information about who owns a business, you can't use that information in making your decision. By collecting that information, and propagating using it as a factor in determining which business you should go with, they are only supporting the problem, not fixing it. Besides, why should the owner make any difference? Is that really that important of an issue? What if there are 99 gay black women working for a company and one, white, male, straight owner.
This search criteria is so absurd it makes me angry.
The problem is that people use that kind of information in justifying which business they go with. Instead of really trying to address that issue, and working towards the proper solution (Of making it so people don't factor in those meaningless details when choosing a company, and instead focus on important issues) they just contribute to it. Rather than reducing the number of people who choose a business because it's run by a white male (by, say.. I don't know... not highlighting that information on your search page?) they try and "balance" the issue by propagating that negative behavior to the other side to artificially create equality.
Of course, by saying I don't think this information should be on that page, I'm a sexist/racist/homophobe/bigot right? Because thinking that's a bad idea (and just makes the problem worse, instead of really addressing it) I'm just saying how much I don't want to help the minority owned businesses.
Democrats don't try and fix problems, they just come up with artificial ways of patching them while really just making it worse.