by Staci Anderson

Created on: October 26, 2009

What is "Multi-racial" anyways? I have seen this on many job applications. Is this a question for the applicant to answer or the employer to have the ability to put an applicant in a classification.

Always, I have thought that any type of ethnicity question on any type of application is unethical. Really, what does it matter unless the employer is discriminating. This would not be the type of person or firm I would want to be associated with. A person should be hired based on their education and job skills, not on the color of their skin, or their ethinical background.

In college, I had to take a "Diversity" class because employers were insisting to have this in their work place. This was to help eliminate discrimination so employees can work together and be more unify. When ethical questions are being asked, then discrimination is being promoted.

Personally, I would want to be hired based on my Bachelor Degree in Accounting that I worked hard to complete and past job skills than on the basis that my nationality is Dutch, Swedish, Indian, and Irish. What about my son? He is blonde-haired, blue-eyed and has very light skin. Should he be classified in a group by his looks than his qualifications?

When you look at the bottom of most applcations, there is a statement at the bottom stating that the employer is an "equal opportunity employer and they do not discriminate based on race, religion, or creed." Having an ethnicity question does allow the employer to discriminate but would be hard to prove. What will be next, a religious affiliation question?

As a society, we are supposed to have evolved over the years past this type of behavior. When we still practice employment based on ethnicity, then we have set ourselves back to the depression and before when the Irish, Italians, African-Americans, etc. could not get jobs based on who they were and their nationality.

We do need to stop putting individuals in a "class of people" based on how they look, the color of their skin, or the way they dress. Employers should be penalized of removed if caught incorporating such practices. We should consider personalities, education, and qualifications for jobs.

Ethnicity questions should be completely removed from applications before more questions can be allowed on applications to discriminate against individuals to prevent them from being employed. This will keep the employer from being labeled as discriminating and the applicant will have a better chance to be employed based on qualifications.

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