Jordan Peterson has jumped on the bandwagon criticizing United Airlines for its DEI initiatives and called for mass resignations from United’s top leaders.
Jordan Peterson Criticizes United Airlines Over DEI
Earlier this week I wrote about the melodrama of Congressman Dan Crenshaw, who is “threatening” to support a passenger bill of rights after he claimed that a United Airlines ticket agent in Houston tried to grab his dog. There’s a lot more to the story going on.
> Read More: Congressman Crenshaw Tells A One-Sided Story Of Interaction Between United Airlines And Wife Over Dog
Veiled in Crenshaw’s criticism of United was an attack on United’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, with particular blame directed at CEO Scott Kirby. This has been echoed by many, with the charge levied that standards are lowered to meet diversity quotas.
Now Jordan Peterson, the famous Canadian clinical psychologist, has asked if 50% of the UA C-Suite will resign so the positions “they unfairly employed their privilege to obtain” can be reassigned to women and people of color.
Will 50% of the UA C-suite also immediately resign so the positions they unfairly employed their privilege to obtain may be likewise occupied by women and POC (oh despicable phrase)? https://t.co/YJj8WRsVak
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) April 7, 2021
Peterson doesn’t talk about travel very much, but has praised United in the past for quickly reuniting him with his lost laptop:
I think we all get the point that Peterson is making (hire based on merit, not any other factor). There are indeed troubling aspects of DEI, though I think far too many superficially denigrate DEI as pure evil when such initiatives are often innocuous (for example, in targeting our tendency to show implicit bias).
But Peterson is guilty of a logical fallacy (straw man) in suggesting that members of the predominantly white C-Suite at United resign in recognition of their “unfair” employment based upon “privilege.” No one is making that argument. No one is saying that white pilots should resign so black and brown pilots can take over. Nor is anyone saying that pilots gained their employment through privilege rather than merit.
I look intently for any sign that standards are lowed for so-called “DEI” candidates. Thus far, I have not seen any. That means that these folks who are hired are held to the same standards as all other candidates. If every candidate is held to the same performance standard, the outrage over DEI becomes less acute.
My concern with DEI is that it often fails to account for the fact that not all who share a skin color share economic or social disadvantage. Everyone is ultimately held to the same standards in terms of job performance, but awarding someone an extra point or second interview purely for their skin color or ethnic background without taking into account their life circumstances strikes me as a willfully ignorant way to pursue equality.
CONCLUSION
Jordan Peterson has joined the chorus attacking United Airlines for its DEI initiatives. While there does exist legitimate concern over aspects of DEI that place race on an unhelpful and superficial pedestal, I do not find it particularly constructive to mock it in the way Peterson has. That will not lead to a colorblind society either…
“ No one is saying that white pilots should resign so black and brown pilots can take over. Nor is anyone saying that pilots gained their employment through privilege rather than merit.”
Look around and you will see how wrong you are. The fringe left is filled with lunatics who actually DO want this to occur and believe this. Not just with pilots, but in American society overall. It’s all the result of white privilege to them. And it’s not just a few either.
And yes, the fringe right has their share of crazies too.
This is a great example of what DEI means for the lunatics Liberals. As long as it works in their favor, it is all good.
“St. Paul, MN makes history with all-female city council. All seven women are under 40 years old, and six out of the seven are women of color. From civil engineering to nonprofit directing, they have a wide range of professional experiences, which Jalali said helps capture the city’s diversity.“
Now, that’s diversity for them. And no, I have no issues with women of color (I am married to one) but I have issues when you call that diversity and celebrate.
Not that this is relevant, but 40% of UA’s top management already would fall under DEI.
@SeanM … Once again you provide an insight . Thank you .
As a long-time denizen one of the most diverse states ( Hawaii ) , on the one occasion that a mainland idiot advocated DEI , the idiot was greeted with laughter .
In the United situation , on the other hand , the idiot is assuming DEI was the deciding factor in the executive hiring , when it was likely not the case .
I am more worried about the increase in the idiot advocates and trainers of DEI advocating an ideology , for their own profit . That’s like the nonsense position of “community organizer” common among left-wing politicians.
At one time and still in some places minorities were not hired which certainly was a terrible policy. Now there is enough opportunities that people should be able to compete equally. And the government should do some kind of checks here and there to ensure a company isn’t trying to avoid hiring minorities.
I’ve worked in the federal government and there are people who constantly use race/minority status to try and get promotions/rewards that they truly don’t deserve. And as most reasonable people realize numbers will ebb and flow and won’t match the percentages of people in society to job positions. If one group makes up 15% of the population at times a company might only have 5% or other times 25% but it won’t and shouldn’t need to be a consistent 15%.
The worst thing for everyone is to push promotions/hiring on clearly less qualified people. I’ve known minorities that are extremely good in their job who also get annoyed seeing a less talented person get pushed for promotions since they are embarrassed by that and it makes their work/achievements seem less in nature by outsiders.
I have no idea who this person is, nor why you’re giving him any attention
He is a well educated psychologist that quit teaching to move into social media for a paycheck. To stay relevant and create content, he says many things. My favorite is men are in a masculinity crisis. United is just his flavor of the day.
Nothing to see here.
Peterson dabbles in anti-trans activism as well. He had an interview with 19 year old detransitioner Chloe Cole (she only seems to work with older men) and obvious twitter trollbot accounts have been plugging that interview for months.
So he’s rational.
Good
Anti trans activism is a good thing that should be encouraged.
He sounds correct about a great many things.
jason, Exactly!!
“While there does exist legitimate concern over aspects of DEI that place race on an unhelpful and superficial pedestal, I do not find it particularly constructive to mock it in the way Peterson has. That will not lead to a colorblind society either…”
Breaking news: DEI is the exact opposite of the color blind society.
Is DEI sunshine, flowers, and puppies? Absolutely not. Having said that, those people, Peterson & Co., are so intellectually dishonest, I mean, this is training program and they’ll set aside half of the available spots for some folks. They’re creating an opportunity path, not employment quotas, you still be able to apply to United Aviate Academy, normal United employment opportunities regardless of your background. And even if someone gets a cadet sponsorship due to his/her background, he/she’d still have to meet all the requirements to become a pilot, nobody is cutting corners just because of ancestry, gender, what have you.
It seems those people are just racist and afraid to say that out loud.
Or we can judge people on the content of their character and their ability instead of the color of their skin or their XX chromosomes.
What is the current training failure rate for women and minorities?
If it is higher than white men then United is putting itself in a precarious position.
It means they will have to choose between reduced manpower or putting pilots in the cockpit that aren’t qualified.
If the virtue signal here is that they are just going to discriminate on who they offer training slots to then that is a business risk.
If they plan to reduce standards so that the pilots community is “diverse” then that is a HUGE safety red flag.
It would be great if the FAA, Mayor Pete, etc. would clearly state that standards will not slip in the name of diversity it might make people feel better.
BUT…the FAA has been actively recruiting substandard candidates itself for the last few years so clearly ability isn’t at the forefront of their mission.
You’re making up scenarios that don’t exist to try and convince yourself there’s a “there” there.
>90% of pilots today are white men. Making efforts to recruit from underrepresented communities — to make cockpits look more like a cross-section of the American population — isn’t a denigration of standards. People aren’t plucked off the street and placed directly in the cockpit. Offering diverse candidates a placement in a training program where they’ll be strictly evaluated on their competency isn’t a bad thing.
If United can’t recruit diverse candidates at any point, why do you automatically assume they’ll lower standards to fill quotas? Why wouldn’t they simply fill the pipeline again with white men as they’ve always done?
There are a lot of valid criticisms of DEI programs, just not the ones you’ve contrived.
My criticism of these quotas is 100% valid if United is lowering standards to meet diversity quotas.
Go read any pilot message board…PPRuNe, Airline Pilot Forums, etc. and you will see examples where minority candidates are treated preferentially.
As has been stated by me and others….if you are incentivizing people to prioritize race then they will sacrifice ability to meet quotas.
Matthew, how do you know that standards aren’t lowered? Because United’s official statements say so? How did that different from Boring swearing up and down that safety is their highest priority?
If a recruiter is given a goal of hiring 50% from a certain group, their compensation depending on meeting it,, they’ll find many ways, formal and informal to make it happen,
That some byllshit 200-page standards book is officially still being met doesn’t matter. Syavdards will suffer.
That will happen for all employee groups, by the way. Even white makes wouldn’t be as qualified, once the ethos of choosing and training the best is replaced with a racial formula. It says the direction and let’s everyone know what top management values. You either focus single-minded it on safety, or you don’t. Everything wide is BS.
He is 100% accurate to point out the utter hypocrisy and dishonesty of United executives. DEI for thee, but not for me!
Jordan always brings impeccable arguments that are fact-based, which drives the Left insane.
The Left prefers emotions over logic, facts and reason. When confronted with superior intellectual arguments, they resort to name calling and slurs. Which is evidence of a weak mind.
When the engine flames out and the aircraft is spiraling to the ground, I’ll be comforted in my last moments knowing I have the most diverse pilots possible in the cockpit (yep, I said it) working on the problem.
Make cockpits great again.
Politics of DEI aside, Peterson is such a churlish bore, professional attention seeker, and verbose intellectual pseud. I’m reminded of a recent interview when he kept grandly referring to the ‘biblical corpus’ and the interviewer had to stop him and say ‘don’t you just mean … the Bible?’, to which he sheepishly answered ‘yes …’
@Jack … +1 .
DEI, & CRT are scary initialism for the conservative’s minds. UA/AA/DL – heck ALL US based carriers – are looking for FULLY trained pilots; 1,500 hours isn’t easy to obtain. UA’s Aviate program is giving the opportunity to a class, race, and gender that does not fit the route of coming through the ranks of the previous generation-hiring through the military. There’s a shortage of pilots. No one has been “given” a job based on DEI in the pilot category. It simply hasn’t happened. If you can reach the minimum hours required by the FAA, you shouldn’t be turned down for an interview. There are plenty of other tests that can deny your opportunities to become a pilot, but they should not be based on any DEI criteria.
Once graduating the flight schools, they must find employment from within or outside their flight schools, it’ll be years before anyone will be asked to fly in the right seat of a Major US carrier.
This hubbub from a social media pot storer is just an exercise of “wag the dog”
Although I may not agree with this particular comment I find the guy very insightful and astute. Liberals hate him.
No Cairns. He was and is liberal on other social issues. Health care, living wage etc. But his paycheck platform is conducive to taking the contrary appeal. Hey, he thinks men today are losers as well as women. That alone should give an idea he, though well spoken, has his own troubles.
@Cairns … His comment here about United indicates he may not have done his research before commenting .
Again, his comments blow like dollars in the windsock.
Maryland I respectfully have to disagree- at least in part- so yes and no- but I think it’s best said in another forum.
Agree to disagree
And Alert agree 100%.
I realize you’re all about the clicks and engagement but are we really not above covering this pseudointellectual and his right wing grift drivel here?
While the right has exaggerated the negatives of DEI, there’s zero evidence of it being good for business at all. Funds focused on DEI and ESG have performed poorly.
I of the position (paraphrased) from Syndrome of The Incredibles: “When everyone is included, noone will be.”
Include whites and men to have national history months, to have advocacy groups and employee organizations, to have our interests considered, and to also address scapegoating in the media and culture.
I saw an interesting twitter thread about the movie Airplane! where they originally considered making a lot of “stupid Polish jokes” and have a stupid Polish passenger but the Polish-American congress was contacted and they nixed it, fortunately. In the states, I have experienced Polish slurs used against me including from those who claim to be against racism.
The MLK dream, largely held ironically by conservatives, of being “color blind” has not worked in that as long as one group is scapegoated, everyone else is not going to abandon “identity politics”.