Reich advises President Obama that white men need not apply.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich advised President Obama and others that in order for Obama's stimulus funds package allocated to businesses in the construction industry to be effective, workers other than white men must take advantage of it.

Here's Reich's own headline: "The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers." You can read Reich's rationale here, on his blog. On January 8th, Reich blogged, "...if construction jobs go mainly to white males who already dominate the construction trades, many people who need jobs the most - women, minorities, and the poor and long-term unemployed - will be shut out." Dominated by white males, Mr. Reich? Must be an ivory tower from 1959 in which you reside because that couldn't be further from the truth. USA Today reported as far back as 2007, that "67% of construction workers are Hispanic."

As one Internet article pointed out, if Obama were advised to omit black workers or Hispanic workers, wouldn't that strike a cord with the American public? "Omit", "left behind", "only go to white males"...doesn't matter. I can follow Reich's logic, to a point, but he could've made his recommendations without blatantly attaching the caveat to omit "the white man".

(I didn't include illegal aliens in the mix because they're illegal and shouldn't be in our country in the first place.)

Read his blog post. If I were to propose that both the NFL and NBA, leagues dominated by black males athletes, need to institute a program to get more white athletes on teams, that would be deemed racist. No? Yes it would. What Reich is proposing is nothing more than the 2009 version of Jim Crow, which was repealed in 1965. In case you're not familiar with Jim Crow laws, they helped to segregate blacks and whites - white drinking fountain/black drinking fountain, whites enter here/blacks enter here...only blacks and Hispanics need apply for these construction jobs, that sort of thing. What Reich is proposing then is a methodology of somehow controlling what percentage of a stimulus money goes to white men versus minorities, women, unemployed, etc. That's Jim Crow. Let's not sugarcoat it.

Hey, whoever's qualified for the job should get it - white, brown, black, whatever. What about areas of the country where white contractors and white construction workers are predominant - like my hometown of Waterford, WI? Will they be denied access to the stimulus package because they're white? So it's a regional thing then? And will more illegal aliens be scooped up as job applicants because they're non-white?

Reich should've just proposed what he proposed and left out any mention of "white construction workers" and it would've been fine. I'm all for giving the unemployed opportunities, job-training for the unskilled...regardless of color. I'm all for equal opportunity for women and minorities. What I'm ALL FOR is the best MAN or WOMAN getting the job. Period. Dumb asshole. I never liked Reich when he was working in the Clinton Administration and now I hate him even more. This is part of the "CHANGE" the Obama camp has been proposing throughout the election?