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[billp(--nospam--at)neosoft.com (Bill Polhemus)]

In article <199512292257.OAA01924(--nospam--at)mail.mcn.org>, you wrote:
>I would like to propose a new thread of discussion on the topic of
>Affirmative Action (did I spell it right?).  I am curious to know how it has
>affected others.

You did spell it right.

Affirmative Action is the most blatant attempt by government to impose 
restrictions on people based on their race since the Jim Crow laws of the 
old South were eradicated.

One of our major clients is the City of Houston, Texas, in all it's many 
forms.  Houston requires that at least 24% OF EVERY CONTRACT it lets goes 
to MWBEs.  This means that, no matter how "disadvantaged" you personally 
may or may not be, your skin color or sex determines whether you are in 
line or not.

It has resulted in at least one major scandal in the last year, involving 
a number of well-placed (and high-income) black lawyers who decided to get
together and get a big contract for collection of parking ticket 
collections.  Since they were "disadvantaged" businesses (HA!!!), they 
were not subjected to any scrutiny, nor did they have to compete for the 
contract, since they were the only entity that "qualified".  Turns out 
they also fleeced the City big time!

This sort of thing leads to these kinds of abuses.  Glad to see the voters
of California (a bellwether state, after all) are finally saying "enough".


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