Face the State

By Jessica Peck Corry

February may be the month of love, but for white men, they certainly aren't getting any. At least not from the Obama White House, congressional Democrats, or the economy.

As The New York Times recently reported, women are now on the verge of making up a majority of the American workforce. The reason: women are less likely to work in the fields hardest hit by the recession, including construction and manufacturing. Men have been the recipients of 82 percent of all layoffs since the recession started.

"Given how stark and concentrated the job losses are among men, and that women represented a high proportion of the labor force in the beginning of this recession, women are now bearing the burden — or the opportunity, one could say — of being breadwinners," Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress, told the Times.

The Times' report, based on government-issued jobs figures, is a far cry from the rhetoric pushed by President Barack Obama and his cabinet. As the media only briefly noted two weeks ago, Obama economic adviser Robert Reich told congressional Democrats that he believes government should ensure that job relief doesn't just go to white guys.

"I am certain, as many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high-skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers...I have nothing against white male construction workers," Reich told his audience. "Criteria can be set so that the money does go to others, the long term unemployed minorities, women, people who are not necessarily construction workers or high-skilled professionals."

As it turns out, however, it's the male construction workers who need the help the most these days. Women, more likely to work in publicly-funded health care or education jobs, are much less likely to see their jobs cut these days.

But not a peep of an apology, condemnation, or clarification has since come from Obama for the ignorant and bigoted assumptions made by Reich. The remarks, in fact, seemed to have inspired action by Democrats to push more social engineering in the form of gender and race-based job allocation.

Rep. Barnie Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, is now proposing an amendment to H.R. 384 that would establish as part of the federal government's Troubled Asset Relief Program an "Office of Minority and Women Inclusion."

The office would fall under the Department of Treasury and would be required to "develop and implement standards and procedures to ensure, to the maximum extent possible, the inclusion and utilization of minorities [including women]."

And Frank isn't alone. In a Jan. 27 Denver Post guest column, titled "Remember the Ladies," freshman Congressman Jared Polis, D-Boulder, makes the case that government should not only fund infrastructure jobs as part of its economic recovery plan, but that it should also extend additional opportunities to women, who represent less than 10 percent of the construction workforce.

As Polis writes, "Unfortunately, while President Barack Obama is to be applauded for proposing such a robust investment, the proposed infrastructure spending overwhelmingly benefits men and won't be of much help to unemployed women. Without efforts to increase workforce diversity, this could lead to a massive shift of hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth from women to men."

And he doesn't stop there. He and several of his congressional colleagues advocate expanding a labor department apprenticeship program to get more women into construction-related industries and other "non-traditional occupations." He buys into the patronizing suggestion that women can't apply for construction jobs without the aid of government bureaucrats.

But why would we want more women to go into professionals that require relatively low-skill sets, especially when they are the first to cut in tough economic times? Because in Polis' world, women would keep their construction jobs during tough economic times.

Polis, after all, also advocates increasing "targets" by federal construction contractors for female hiring, requiring firms to "design and implement plans for hiring and retaining qualified female workers. "Selection criteria for contracts could include assessments of these strategies and past performance."

Cities—both large and small—are clamoring these days to comply with federal race and gender-based criteria as a way to get their hands on economic recovery dollars. In Columbus, Nebraska, home to just over 20,000 people, of whom nearly 90 percent white, city officials are eagerly exploring ways to obtain more than $6 million in federal funds.

As the Columbus Telegram recently reported, "According to a memorandum from Chuck Thomerson, public works/environmental services director, the city has a combined total of nearly $4.6 million in projects that could qualify for funding. One of the conditions is that the council needs to have affirmative action on record for eligibility," with Thomerson further advising city officials that "Should you choose not to take action at this time, we will be placed at the bottom of the list."

In good economic times, where political correctness thrives, most white Americans, particularly men, tolerate being on the losing end of race and gender-based preference programs because they're employed. But in this new era of economic uncertainty, with unemployment over 7 percent, expanding federal preference programs is likely to get Obama and his friends in Congress into extremely hot water.

According to Ward Connerly, a lead backer of the national movement to end public preference programs, the way Congress is attempting to guide the nation's economic recovery "speaks volumes about the supposedly bipartisan and 'post-racial' nature of this new era in politics. One only guess what influence the Robert Reich 'white males in construction need not apply' philosophy will be involved."

And when government starts posting that sign in the window, the President and his allies should start to expect a lot more resistance from hardworking but unemployed Americans who had the misfortune of being born with the wrong skin color or sex.

Jessica Peck Corry (Jessica@i2i.org) is a regular editorial contributor to Face The State and serves as a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute in Golden, Colo.