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So I used to work for a small company (~20 people) where all but one person was of a certain nationality. The reason for this was that all of the company's cli

So I used to work for a small company (~20 people) where all but one person was of a certain nationality. The reason for this was that all of the company's clients were also companies that were mostly comprised of people of that same nationality, many who spoke limited English. Because this company was small, everyone wore many hats, including technical staff having to interact with the clients. So while a candidate of a different nationality/ethnicity/race could technically be hired, the odds of this happening was extremely unlikely - because the language in question was usually not spoken by people outside of this nationality (this was nearly 15 years ago, things have changed a bit now). The one employee who was of a different nationality was part of that tiny exception - he had picked up the language from somewhere. Would you classify this hiring policy as racist?

threatofrain 4y ago
It's within the sphere of discrimination but may also be a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_fide_occupational_qualification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bona_fide_occupational_qualifi... Of course this only describes how a legal framework might negotiate between adverse impacts and technical merit. In terms of who has the responsibility of fixing the ripples of current and historical wrongdoings between races, I don't think businesses are the right place to start. By the time it gets to business, asking people to make potentially unmeritorious decisions is a kind of corruption. Society-wide grievances ought to be addressed at the national level via a reparations program which funds education and family.