Sexism and Racism in action in the worst state of the union

As many of my readers will know, I'm currently looking for work. My last position was a temporary job that ended in February. Since then I have been hunting for work. When nobody is responding to applications, it really hurts when within two weeks interview offers are received and then rescinded based on my gender.

I won't mention the company names but I will say that both were within the Greater Columbia South Carolina area.

In the first instance, I received a message that I should ring the company to book an interview. When I did, I was told there was no vacancy. That stunned me and I had a friend of the other gender ring and my friend was told - apply - there was a vacancy. If that wasn't sexist, what is. What does it matter what's between anybody's legs for an office job?

In the second instance, I received a message that I should ring the company to book an interview. I did and had a very surprised sounding woman on the phone who proceeded to give me an interview date and time. About an hour later, she rang back to say the interviewer would be out of town on the interview date and that she'd call me back. Well, she didn't so I called them and was told they still didn't know anything. Then I called again the next day and they still didn't know anything. Clearly somebody was trying to blow smoke up my backside.

And I almost forgot this one. Another company held a group interview. During the group interview it became obvious that the gender bias of the group was 6 of one and 2 of the other. Needless to say, the 2 did not get the positions. The company was uni-gender.

My friends who are not caucasian have even more difficulties. Believe it or not but the Ku Klux Klan is still alive and well and actively recruiting. They have but one agenda - to suppress the non-caucasian population. This goal is actively aided and abetted by small employers that often refuse to employ black people. Look at medical offices as an example - how many of their front desk staff are black or male or black and male? How many Attorneys have black or male staff on their front desk?

In the news recently there was a tale of the Klan recruiting in one of the smaller towns in South Carolina by leaving gifts of candy on people's doorsteps. It seemed to outrage the media but it just seems quite normal from what I hear from my non-caucasian friends and from my own experiences. How many times do I see a confederate bracelet or a coiled snake logo in a day? All signs of the Klan.

South Carolina has had a reputation for being the worst state of the union ever since it started that ridiculous Civil War back in the 1860s. How South Carolina could get away with thinking slavery would ever be OK is beyond me. Economically it doesn't even work because once you have slaves, you have to look after them and so on. It just doesn't work.