Back from the dead? Race-based labor arguments return to San Jose

Free market advocates vehemently oppose hiring constraints based on race, gender, ethnicity, gender-orientation, religion, country of birth, and any other non-merit-based parameter. Some San Jose activists, however appear to see the issue differently, and are re-introducing the concept of color, country-of-birth, and gender-bars to hiring to the public debate.

In a recent San Jose Spotlight story about a Silicon Valley Rising community meeting about the potential Diridon campus for Google quoted community activists as saying that Google needed to "hire the children of the people here," and "We don't want 20,000 people coming in from overseas."

Similarly, a San Jose Planning Commissioner has demanded that white men not run for political positions, and if they're in a leadership position, to resign.

In a San Jose Spotlight op-ed, the Commissioner commands: 

"Step Aside White Men, It's Time for Women of Color to Take over."

"It is time {for white men} to voluntarily vacate your seats, to suggest other candidates when approached for leadership roles, and make way for the voices that are most qualified to redress society’s ills."