Positive discrimination just leads to resentment

I refer to your front page article in the 10 January issue of Personnel Today.

Surely I am not the only person who finds the term ‘positive discrimination’ ludicrous?

Discrimination is discrimination. Prejudice is prejudice. To imply that discrimination against one group of people somehow differs from discrimination against another group is, at its core, discriminatory.

As a South African, I have seen a surfeit of qualifiers: racism was replaced by reverse racism, discrimination was ousted by positive discrimination, and affirmative action became the new job reservation.

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This is not the way to remove prejudice – it is a sure-fire way to incite resentment in yet another generation. I just wish that jobs were offered to the most suitable candidate.

Karyn Romeis
Learning solutions designer
Capita Learning and Development