One of the difficulties with Autism is communication. It is defined as a Communication disorder. Some would argue it is a Communication Dis-alignment. We communicate fairly well with out own, but when we have to enter the world of Neurotypicals (Regular Brained people), it can sometimes be difficult. Even those of us who have trained ourselves to follow the social norms, we slip up. We misread the situation, or we don’t express ourselves clearly enough.

This morning, I slipped up.

I was on LinkedIn. Linked is is supposed to be a business Social Media. Where you can meet people and companies in the same field as you. You can use it to find work, and read blogs about your field of specialty.

It is not.

This morning, I was on LinkedIn, and I saw a post. The post I believe was supposed to be empowering. It stated “If I get on a plane and see a Black pilot, I’ll breathe a sigh of relief knowing the person in charge is capable of overcoming many obsticles to achieve their goals.”

Beautiful. I agree. Overcoming obstacles is a good thing to be able to do at 30,000 feet.

So I commented. and I screwed up. My logic at the time was clear in my mind. If the person is doing a great job (At whatever they are doing), then why does skin color, or ethnicity matter?
I also do not remember seeing the Pilots when gettin gon flights in the last decade…

I felt I was clear. Let them do their job, whether they be Black, Yellow, Red, or White.

I did apologize for misreading the situation. But I’m still not really convinced I did…

I had forgotten that this was a whole thing. And later someone posted about Affirmative Action.

Now, I have been out of the Continent for a long time, but here is what I have gathered was the intention of Affirmative Action: Look at credentials, and experience when hiring people. Don’t look at race, gender, or other things not connected to the job.

In China here it is a whole strange thing. We have men doing jobs here that I would not expect, and feel a bit uncomfortable with here. For example, I have met so many men who sell women’s underwear. Not just happen to be at the store, but who’s job is to Hawk them. Stand in the street call people out, look at them and find the right size, and style for them.

And Why shouldn’t they be able to do this, or any other job? My old western upbringing tells me warning bells should be ringing, but nobody else bats an eye. So I have to think about what is actually preventing this? Not his knowledge of fabrics, sales techniques, and style.

But the Pilot post drew me back to a few days ago.
The title is misleading. But the body of the text explains that an Ethnically Non-Chinese Pilot, flying in Chinese Domestic Airline, was forced to Emergency land at an airport that was not the destination (Beijing).

The Policy in Emergency Landings states they must make the announcements in English first, then in Chinese. I believe this is so that it is recorded in English on the black box, but I don’t know. He did this, but the complaints quickly turned to his piloting ability.

The insinuation to me was that Chinese Pilots can land in any weather, bad or good, so why give us the unqualified foreign pilot?

The Airline, did back the pilot up, and defended the decision, which was not his to make in the first place.

So my point that I was trying to make, and apparently failed to on Linked in is this: Good people come from all walks of life. All races. All Genders. All Heritages. All Sexualities.

To find a good worker, you look at their resume, not their skin color.

If you wish to read the full article on the Pilot in China, it is here