Dude, seriously? Now you want to hang out?

Seriously!

The meeting dumper didn't show to the meeting, despite his boss's assurance that he would. Neither did the other key player. Oy. Reschedule joy.

Seriously.

OK. I need to take a little walk to get lunch so that at least I leave the house today. Where to go, where to go.

I don't think I understand what you mean.

The term "reverse discrimination." People don't seem to mean "discrimination" before they put it in reverse, so much as "discriminating against the disenfranchised."

There's discrimination against the franchised, and against the disenfranchised. People just love to forget about the former being essentially the same thing, although rooted differently, and having many other different characteristics.

I don't think there's anything about my statement that is at odds with acknowledging institutionalized racism. I'm pro-affirmative action. I'm against one particular group thinking they're the only ones who suffer discrimination and that because of their membership in that group they are congenitally incapable of discriminating against others. I'm not saying that's what you're saying, but that is an attitude that I see around my town a lot and it's wrong-headed. The sooner people realize that discrimination comes in all packages, the sooner we'll be able to root it out.

Where to go, where to go.

West

discrimination comes in all packages

That was the point (poorly expressed, I see) of my post.

omg.

Scientists may just be the cheapest friggin' people on the planet.

There's a farewell lunch for one of the physicists. I don't really want to get into what these guys make a year, but let's just say, I am the lowest paid person here, making half of what the second lowest paid person makes.

They heaved the lunch planning on me, presumably because I'm the only person here with a vagina, and only people with vaginas can make reservations.

They all said, "don't care where we go."

So I suggested a restaurant closeby, not too expensive (affordable to me).

FREAKING OUT!

They have EIGHT DOLLAR BURGERS! WHOA!

Know what? Then you don't go. I don't care to see you painfully reach for your wallet and try and determine down to the penny exactly what you owe, and haggle over whether the service was good enough for a tip.

DON'T GO.

/rant

ita, I was being flip, and not entirely clear, I think. No, they can't legally discriminate for being white and or male, but, much like sexual harassment against men, it's probably hard enough to demonstrate in court as to be a not terribly meaningful protection.

As I understand the situation in my state, the racial and sexual aspects of the discrimination law are symmetric, but the age part is asymmetric. That is, a Black manager is no more allowed fire all of the White people in his unit than a White manager is allowed to fire all of the Black people. Similarly, if a manager decides that people over 40 lack the drive and energy to do the job, and she fires all of them without showing that their performance is substandard, she has violated the law. But if the same manager decides that people in their 20s lack the maturity to do the job she is welcome to fire them. That’s because the law specifically prohibits age discrimination against people over 40, not age discrimination in general.

Age is not so much a protected class; employees close to retirement are. Oh, ERISA.