"Don't worry mate, you're not too dark to.. (a little guessing on your part eh?) to find a job." This was what a previous work colleague told me in a reassuring tone. His matter-of-fact attitude left me in the lurch. This was not exactly the kind of support I was expecting. How does my skin colour -something I did not choose or set as an objective to achieve, feature as my unique selling point? This was another absurdity of the job market which eclipses many others in the inanity of its premises. People may wish to argue me down with talk about meritocracy and how it guides choices of recruitment and retention; to you. dear HR Platos, I say, tongue in cheek, "don't worry mates, you're white enough to afford saying such bull droppings -painful euphemism!"
I have dealt with HR people all my professional life. It has been often a prosaic tale of unwarranted mistrust. A typical member of this mildly maleficent clan is a below-average Everyman with a fail-proof, play-it-safe strategy: (White): Looks-Passport-Salary. (Not White): Experience-Education-Attitude
I find the above illustration stunning: no intersection, no overlap, no duplication. These are two different processes for God's sake! Isn't the recruitment objective supposed to be the same? These HR people started to earn my admiration: How could they juggle the different demands of a colour-coded staffing strategy?
