www.jurist.org
The question then becomes whether American society, out of timidity, fear, or wrongheaded belief, wishes to return to those days of "white men only need apply."
Some might argue that the executive order and AG memo do no such thing " that they merely speak to assuring equal opportunity. And yet, they advocate for a return to practices that historically led to only white men being considered and hired.
The so-called "merit-based" period they romanticize was one where consideration and appointment rested more on relationships than actual merit. The fundamental criterion for consideration and hiring was who one knew rather than what one knew. And since, due to virulent discrimination, white men primarily knew other white men as peers, those relationships led to the lily-white outcome discussed above " the very system to which the President and the Attorney General (a woman, which is an irony not lost on anyone except possibly her) wish we return. If you believe I overstate the case, consider Attorney General Griffin Bell's own comments about judicial appointments, courtesy of a 2021 University of Toledo Law Review article by Katherine Simpson.
