Affirmative Action For White People

America is moving towards becoming a majority-minority country (2042 baby, yeah!). But let’s assume that this country is still a safe place for white people to work and prosper without being hindered by racial oppression. I know that is a huge assumption for some people, but let’s run with it.

In other parts of the world, being white is almost certainly a racial hindrance. A racial diversity initiative in another country could well include a commitment to hire well qualified whites to do a job that qualified non-whites could also perform.

Last week, a Saudi Arabian law firm placed a real emphasis on finding the best white person available to do a job. Too strong of an emphasis. The Saudi firm, The Law Firm of Salah Al Hejailan (LFSH), sent a request to a recruiting agency the firm uses to find new talent. I published the email on Above the Law:

We are interested in recruiting one senior Anglo-Saxon lawyer (with 7+ PQE), preferably with Saudi, but at the very least with GCC work experience to play a corporate/commercial role in our Jeddah office. By Anglo-Saxon we mean of Caucasian ethnicity as opposed to lawyers from the MENA or Asian Sub-Continent who happen to have UK or US nationality/qualifications. Please bear in mind that, as a general legal practice, we expect the successful candidate to have sufficient maturity/acumen to handle a broad range of legal work rather being specialised in one particular field.

Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta — or a Viking.

Now, at first blush, this email is patently racist. It’s so surprising and poorly worded that the Salah Al-Hejailan — managing partner of the law firm in question — issued a nearly immediate apology, promised disciplinary action against the employee that composed the email, and pledged to engage his employees in training so that something like this would “never happen again.” As I understand it, Salah Al-Hejailan has a great reputation both in his country and abroad. I take him at his word.

But we are talking about a company based in the Middle East trying to thrive in a global economy. Would it be so bad if the firm really wanted a white person to fill a specific position? Or is it just bad that a low level employee had the poor judgment to say it out loud?

Let’s take off our politically correct hats and engage with the real world after the jump.

Let’s get the most obvious problems with this email out of the way. A clarification statement issued LFSH expressed that the firm was simply looking for “a person who speaks fluent English to a very high professional standard.” But the email as written seems to specifically exclude Indians from the pool of applicants. I’ve met many Indians who “happen to have UK or US nationality/qualifications.” Most of them speak the Queen’s English to a “very high professional standard.”

And while we’re here, I’m also assuming that the person who wrote the original email didn’t think Jewish people qualified as Anglo-Saxon or Caucasian. Nor do I think that person was looking for an Anglo-Saxon/Caucasian woman. These are problems that can’t be ignored, and it sounds to me like Salah Al-Hejailan understands these problems.

But just because it is wrong to exclude women or Jews or Indians in favor of of the most qualified white, American or British, male you can find doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a business reason behind the email.

Salah Al-Hejailan is trying to run a competitive global business, a western style law firm, in the Middle East. Even if Al-Hejailan is the most racially un-biased man in the universe, you can’t tell me that there aren’t certain benefits to having a white face as part of your company in that part of the world.

A token, if you will.

Maybe Al-Hejailan is not racist, but what about his clients? What about his colleagues? What about the U.S. Government? You’re telling me that being able to trot out “familiar face” when he has to deal with certain westerners can’t be a help to his business? It’s not like all American and British companies that do international business share an enlightened view about racial tolerance. Saudis didn’t create a racial preference for white Americans and Brits among some white Americans and Brits. Maybe such racial preferences are part of the unwritten rulebook, but can we argue when other companies get a hand on a copy?

The only universal language is “math,” but the only global language is “money.” If a Saudi law firm thinks that it can make more money by hiring at least one white guy, isn’t that the capitalist dream we’ve been espousing for the past 200-plus years?

Of course, capitalism does and should have its limits. It’s simply not okay to exclude Indians or Jews or other ethnic groups because of the racist predilections of a some of the people you work with. Racial tolerance is a long term goal, not a short term gain. And you want people who are willing to fight that war every day. The best thing to do is to interview all qualified candidates. You never know when you’ll find the perfect person, regardless of race.

But if there are numerous qualified candidates, then maybe The Law Firm of Salah Al Hejailan is well within its rights to take racial makeup into account. If it’s a tie, it makes sense for the firm to favor diversity and hire the white man. White guys gotta eat too.