Edith Cresson was appointed, in 1991, the first woman to become Prime Minister of the Republic. She was fired for blatant incompetence. A milestone had just been reached in the quest for gender equality. Considering how many mediocre white men have held this position before, wasn’t it time a mediocre white woman could also crack down on it?
The celebrations must be darkened, however, because of the shortness of the mandate: 10 months and 10 days. A record broken this year by British Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose carelessness was only able to unfold for 45 days. In the scale of progress of equality, we can therefore note that mediocrity now reaches the top, regardless of gender (still missing skin color and sexual orientation). But since the incompetent Boris Johnson ruled the country badly for three years, the systemic bias in favor of mediocre white men is still active, at least for duration.
We have Laval University political science professor Sule Tomkinson to thank for introducing the phrase “mediocre white man” into our national conversation this week. Do not say that the intellectuals have no influence on the city. The theme has been in vogue in feminist circles since the publication two years ago of the book Poor. The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, by Ijeoma Oluo. The thesis is easily defended. The number of male and pale idiots who have populated governments, started absurd wars, sold dangerous products, refused elementary progress, caused bankruptcies, oppressions and destructions is truly incalculable. Conversely, a statistic stands out: making our elites emerge from 100% of the population, therefore including women and minorities, rather than from less than 50% mathematically guarantees greater intellectual quality at the top.
Sure, some awesome white men have come through. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, the Roosevelts, to stay in the US But, by chance, not Donald Trump. Likewise, non-mediocre white men abolished slavery, instituted universal suffrage, recognized women’s right to vote, among other human advancements. But I digress.
We are in the century of the rise of women and I have always been in favor of policies that ensure an acceleration of the trend. This is what equal access employment programs are for: to speed up the process. If women today occupy half of the seats on the boards of directors of the Quebec state, it is because in 2006, Premier Jean Charest enshrined this objective in law and the objective was exceeded in five years, preference in hiring having been given to women, with equal skills.
Was that really the case, one asks? How is it that in five years, we discovered that there was a pool of women competent enough to fill these positions? Didn’t a few mediocre ones sneak in? My answer: I don’t have the slightest doubt. But given the number of mediocre white men appointed to these positions previously, that’s a perfectly reasonable transition cost. And since it forces us to choose men from half the pool, we are sure that fewer mediocre men will be chosen than before. In short, on average, the level rises.
Obviously, any good idea taken to its extreme goes crazy. We are there when the generous Canada Research Chairs are now subject to such criteria that candidates who make the mistake of self-identifying as white men are now excluded. This was the case for a chair in history at Laval University, which will not be occupied by anyone, because no quality non-white candidate has come forward. Historian, author and CEGEP teacher Frédéric Bastien filed a complaint with the Quebec and Canadian Human Rights Commission against Laval University and the Chairs Program for discrimination, because he did not even have the right to apply. His complaint would be inadmissible if the program had favored, even at 80%, the hiring of non-whites in order to achieve fair overall representation. But at 100%, the cup is, shall we say, full.
Professor Sule Tomkinson, supra, responded to this complaint with this tweet “Wish you all start your week with the mindset of a mediocre white man who is convinced he deserves a Canada Research Chair when he has only published a few unevaluated books by peers. » Mme Tomkinson is an award-winning teacher, whose, we learn, “teaching practices are geared towards openness”. Mr. Bastien and several Internet users judged that the accusation of a mediocre white man seemed a tad far removed from the generally accepted definition of openness. The professor provided the classic non-apology — she’s “sorry” that Bastien “felt targeted” — and her message was, as these lines were written, still on her thread. Another teacher, in geography, from Laval University, Adèle Garnier, came to her rescue. She enriched the debate by writing that Bastien and his supporters were “mean”, “jealous”, “old” and “ugly”. the tweet was withdrawn, but not before one of the people targeted, Mathieu Bock-Côté, replied that he was neither jealous nor old.
Having worked in academia for ten years (2003-2012), I can attest that it is now impossible for a mediocre white man to obtain a research chair, so heavy have the university requirements become. But we are forced to note that, even in 2022, white women teaching our beautiful youth in a Quebec university allow themselves to publicly spread undoubtedly mediocre arguments.
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