Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Meanwhile, at the Plantation



I'm going to get into trouble for that headline. It is a reference to this quote:

On her last day in the Civil Rights Division's voting rights section, an African-American 33-year veteran of the Justice Department wanted to send her colleagues a message: "I leave with fond memories of the Voting Section I once knew," she wrote, "and I am gladly escaping the 'Plantation' it has become. For my colleagues still under the 'whip', hold on - 'The Times They are A Changing.'"

The woman, who retired in late December of last year, was not alone in seeing racial discrimination in the Civil Rights Division and the voting rights section in particular. The section, which is charged with protecting the voting rights of minorities, has seen a dramatic drain in African-American staff over the past few years. And a number of those who have remained have alleged discrimination -- according to a knowledgable source, at least two African-American employees have filed Equal Employment Opportunity complaints against their supervisors, claiming they've routinely been passed over for promotions given to white staff.

How extremely odd it all sounds. Surreal, in fact. Of course asserting discrimination does not mean that it has been proven, but that two employees have filed complaints does raise a few eyebrows (or scales) here at the Snakepit Inc., and also makes me determined to follow the story carefully.

These stories about the Bush administration employment policies can be conveniently filed under "Fox and the Henhouses".