WORKPLACE DIVERSITY : PROFILES :...

I had worked at Pasadena City College for five years, teaching the whole range of classes in the history department, and when a full-time opening came up, I applied. A young man of Japanese descent who had just graduated from college with a degree in Japanese studies, which is not history . . . got the job. I filed a grievance. They let me finish that semester, but they would not rehire me, and will not to this day.

Affirmative action has been a critical and rather positive necessity as far as the world in general is concerned. But it has to be used properly. At Pasadena, they had been making efforts to expand their faculty to mirror the student body. I assume they hired him because he was Asian and young. . . . I was older and not an ethnic minority.

Just because it hasn’t been properly applied once, doesn’t mean the idea (of affirmative action) is bad.

I have two adopted kids. They’re both minorities. I would hate to think such a thing (affirmative action) would not be open to them. But it has to be done properly. Affirmative action means you give someone a chance when they are qualified. If this young man had been qualified, frankly, I would have backed off. . . .

It’s taught me what it’s like to be discriminated against. It’s different only in that it is the people of my own ethnic background who are doing the discriminating.

Editor’s note: Williams, a former part-time teacher at Pasadena City College, filed a grievance against the school last year after she was not hired for a full-time teaching job. A PCC official said the school’s hiring process is fair and complies with state regulations and the school’s own policies.