OK. Perhaps I see things differently than most people. But when I fly, I’m more interested in having the best pilot possible than I am in having diversity in the cockpit. Wait, that doesn’t sound very woke, I shouldn’t say “cockpit”. Let me try again.
When I fly, I am more interested in having the best pilot possible than I am in having diversity in the genderfluidpit.
So, when I see United Airlines announcing that they’re going to make sure that half of the next 5,000 pilots they train are going to be women or “people of color”, I’m less likely to want to fly on United.
It’s not that I think that women or “people of color” (what a ridiculous phrase) aren’t qualified. Pilots on flights I’ve flown on in the past may have been women or “colored people” (how is that any more offensive than “people of color”?). But I don’t know, because I never pay attention to who’s flying the plane.
But now I’m going to have to start paying attention. Whenever I see the pilot is someone other than a white dude, I’ll have to wonder how they got there. Are they flying my plane because they got the job based on merit, or because they were part of some affirmative action program? Are they really the most qualified person, or are they the most qualified woman or person of color that United could find?
To be fair, the genderfluidpit door is always closed and locked so I don’t know what happens during those long cross-country flights. It could be that United has some weird eugenics experiment going on behind closed doors and they need women and a diverse gene pool to make it work. That’s the only reason I can come up with that would explain why the gender or race of a pilot would matter.
Maybe I’m the only person who will admit this, but when it comes to diversity in the genderfluidpit, nobody cares. Oh sure, you might say you care, but you really don’t.
If your plane is hurling toward the ground, you’re not going to give a rats-ass about the diversity of the flight crew. You’re not going to care if the pilot’s name is Clarence or Clarissa or Roger or Rashonda. Your only concern will be that, of everyone who applied to be a pilot, Clarence or Clarissa or Roger or Rashonda was the best of the best.
Every person allowed into their training program means that there’s another person who doesn’t have a spot. I’d prefer my pilot be selected because he (or she) showed an incredible aptitude for the skills required rather than because he happened to be a she, or not white.
Like I said, there are qualified pilots of both genders and all colors. But, not all candidates are equally qualified. And, if I’m flying seven miles above the earth, I want to be assured that the person behind the yoke is the person most likely to get me back on the ground safely.
United is telling us that it’s more important to them that they appear to be “woke” than it is for them to hire the most-qualified pilots. They’ll be, essentially, pre-screening their pilot candidates based on criteria that has nothing to do with their ability to do the job. And, in some cases, they’ll be turning away higher-qualified people just so they can hit their target number.
That implies that they’re willing to sacrifice quality for quantity.
And they will.
Because you can bet that there’s an entire department at United whose jobs, salaries and performance bonuses are based on how close that number gets to 50%.
So, thanks United. You’re going to force me to pay attention when the pilot introduces him/herself. Before I didn’t care. But now I have to. And now I’ll have to wonder if the pilot is there because they’re the best, or because selecting them helped one of your bean counters get a bonus.
