labi wrote >>
joev wrote >>
God damn - I hope they don't do the same stupid "one of each" thing. Pick someone smart, someone who can do the job. They should not pick someone primarily because they fit a gender/orientation/ethnicity the council feels should be represented. But who wants to be that because Tavares is a black woman, they'll fill the seat with a black woman?
It sounds a lot like you are implying that one could not be (for example) black, female, AND "someone who could do the job."
I would say it's not just council who feels diverse race/gender/etc should be represented. It's those darn voting citizens who feel this way.
I feel like the people who think that the issue is all overblown are usually people who are, shall we say, over-represented. Maybe in your case I'm wrong, joev.
I'm not implying that at all. If a black woman is the best candidate, then I'm all for her. However, the replacement member's race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc., shouldn't play a role in his/her selection.
Also, last time I checked, only 43% of the members are white, while 65% of the city as a whole is - so I'm in fact underrepresented, if you want to look at it from an identity politics standpoint. But I don't care wallow in identity politics.