Diversity For Diversity’s Sake

Let’s go ahead and get one thing straight … our level of concern over who gets voted on (or off of) the University of South Carolina’s Board of Trustees equals our level of concern over who gets the next pink slip at La Socialista (a.k.a. The State newspaper).

Which is to say it’s nonexistent.

USC has hurled itself from a cliff of excess into a gaping chasm of mission creep and (poorly-wagered) taxpayer-funded market speculation – and the state’s flagship institution of “higher learning” is dying from the inside as a result.

Meanwhile, parents are paying through the nose for tuition as lawmakers continue to pour money down the drain.

Naturally, then, it follows that our level of concern over the skin color (or the gender, age or sexual orientation) of the individuals seeking appointment to the USC Board of Trustees is similarly nonexistent.

Either the candidates support USC becoming a University again or they don’t … it’s as simple as that.

Of course, to the co-opted PC police over at La Socialista, it’s ALL about race, gender, age, sexual orientation or any other defining (and dividing) characteristic they can come up with to ensure that USC remains committed to wasting your money.

Take the newspaper’s Christmas Day headline “Race to affect USC board’s diversity,” which proceeds to present one of the school’s Trustee races as follows …

Only African-American trustee challenged by attorney with strong political connections

Good Lord … could La Socialista have made this any more “Rosa Parks versus Boss Hogg” if they tried? Oh, and the reporter – Wayne Washington – is black.

Look, we’re not even going to mention the names of these two candidates because again, that’s literally how little we care about this race.

A plague a’ both their houses, as far as we’re concerned.  And an even bigger plague on the S.C. legislature and the administration of Gov. Mark Sanford. Why? Because in this case, both the legislative and executive branches have failed miserably to appoint qualified candidates to the ridiculously-excessive number of boards and commissions we have in this bass-ackward state.

What’s most interesting, however, is the fact that here in 2009 (almost 2010), the mainstream media still feels compelled to roll out diversity for diversity’s sake.

Washington even quotes an excerpt from board’s by-laws which he says “spell out that importance.”

The governor shall make the appointment based on merit regardless of race, color, creed or gender and shall strive to assure that the membership of the board is representative of all citizens of the state of South Carolina.

So pick the best person, just so long as the quotas add up, right?

BTW, the first African-American ever tapped to serve as Chairman of the USC Board of Trustees resigned in disgrace earlier this year after being indicted on bank fraud charges – a situation we’re not done investigating, incidentally.

For the record, we think racism in any form or fashion is wrong.

Old racism. New racism. Forward racism. Reverse racism. You name it.

Same with sexism, homophobia or any other -ism or -phobia that puts superficial considerations ahead of a person’s ability to faithfully execute the responsibilities they’ve been given.

It’s all wrong, but sadly, it’s par for the course in South Carolina – where elected officials live to fill quotas or reward their political allies.

No wonder this state is always first in everything bad and last in everything good.

Here’s the bottom line … aside from dramatically reducing the number of boards and commissions in this state, we need fewer “tokens” and “cronies” filling these positions and more people of all backgrounds who actually care about producing results.

Black, white, we don’t care … just get the job done.

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