Unequal employment opportunity.

A while ago, one of the biggest regional phone companies was trying to hire someone to write sales brochures about new service offerings.

They found a candidate with a perfect combination of qualifications: a good writer with knowledge and experience in telecom.

He had two insurmountable disadvantages, however. He was a white male, and the company was under pressure to hire people who were neither white nor male.

The interviewer confided that without him, "the company will suffer, the customers will suffer, and the stockholders will suffer." He added that the ideal employee would be a one-legged Hindu Eskimo lesbian, and apologized for not being able to hire him.

On the bottom of the employment application was a statement about the company being an "equal opportunity employer," and a list of agencies in Washington that rejected job candidates could contact if they felt they were discriminated against because of race, gender, religion, disability or sexual orientation.