Heartwarming stories of diversity in the GoM

[QUOTE=Quimby;175583]On my boat the wheelhouse is all caucasian. There is one African American Master in the company. Deck is predominantly African American and Honduran. Engineering a mix of caucasian, African American, and Puerto Rican. I wouldn’t necessarily call it heartwarming though.[/QUOTE]
What about engineering? Any women engineers ? More specifically, that aren’t white and academy grads?

[QUOTE=acesouthcoast;175568]I guess there isnt to many black people in leadership roles now that i think of new york and the 10 years I’ve worked here. Plenty of older black gentleman working as utility man/cook/dayman as mentioned above but i can think of only two black mates ive seen. I have never seen an asian person on a boat in any capacity.[/QUOTE]
I’m no expert on NY harbor local knowledge, but that is not a regional thing.
All you have to do is look at the pictures of any union crewed ship. The offficers are usually all white and academy grads. The minorities are usually unlicensed, and not. I would say that is probably more of an economical thing (pleople that have the upbringing and means to go to an academy and people that don’t). If NY harbor deck officers are mostly all hawsepipers, then yea that would lead me to believe there might be some bias there.
I would say there are a large number of hawsepipers in the GoM.

[QUOTE=Quimby;175583]On my boat the wheelhouse is all caucasian. There is one African American Master in the company. Deck is predominantly African American and Honduran. Engineering a mix of caucasian, African American, and Puerto Rican. I wouldn’t necessarily call it heartwarming though.[/QUOTE]
What about engineering? Any women engineers ? More specifically, that aren’t white and academy grads?

I would have to agree that maybe its a cultural thing. Its pretty interesting. Ive never even thought about it until i saw this thread. I cant really speak on behalf of academy people because im a hawsepiper but its been my experience that most black people i work with either go tankermen or engineer if they want to work up out of the deckhand position. I have never met a black person that went to an academy so i cant really say one way or another if they are discriminated against when they graduate.

I definetly dont think the SUNY or maine grads are an elitist bunch. From my experience most of the cadets from these two schools are from middle class working families and have good attitudes towards all there co-workers. Kings point is a little different.

The most racist person I have ever met was a Staten Islander, and I’m from the south. We tend to just get along down here for the most part.

Yea, seems a lot of places have taken the words “All men are created equal” quite literally. I have noticed that.

We had a couple female deck hands and one Academy mate. They either quit or were let go in the layoffs.

[QUOTE=acesouthcoast;175590]

I definetly dont think the SUNY or maine grads are an elitist bunch. From my experience most of the cadets from these two schools are from middle class working families and have good attitudes towards all there co-workers. Kings point is a little different.[/QUOTE]

Uhhh. . . .

The company I was at had several female captains, several female mates, a few female ChEngs, I’ve worked with officers from all over the world and with all different backgrounds. So I would say there’s diversity in the GoM. I’ll stop feeding the 2 trolls though.

[QUOTE=cajaya;175593]Yea, seems a lot of places have taken the words “All men are created equal” quite literally. I have noticed that.[/QUOTE]

All men are created equal, but some are more equal than others.

[QUOTE=KrustySalt;175618]The company I was at had several female captains, several female mates, a few female ChEngs, I’ve worked with officers from all over the world and with all different backgrounds. So I would say there’s diversity in the GoM. I’ll stop feeding the 2 trolls though.[/QUOTE]

I don’t know about now a days but from the mid 90’s to the mid 2000’s, being on a TDW boat in the GoM was similar to being in one of those reality TV shows where they get a dozen people from all different backgrounds with absolutely nothing in common and making them live in a house together. I could go on for quite a while giving anecdotes but probably the bizarrest combination that I remember was a crew consisting of an obese, lethargic female Cajun captain, a Californian health-nut Mormon mate, an inexperienced clean-cut 20’ish CE, an Alabaman country-boy African American oiler, a late 50’ish brandnew OS & a gansta-Christian-rapper want-to-be AB. Tidewater would then switch 50% of their crews around every 2 weeks and then a whole new motley crew would be formed. I used to say that TDW could make a fortune selling videos of their GoM crews living together. It was my understanding that Trico, Seacor & both Hornbecks were similar. The GoM was nuts with diversity from my experience.

[QUOTE=cmakin;175610]Uhhh. . . .[/QUOTE]

Does thaty mean you have a problem with guys who went to SUNY or Maine…?

jdcavo
SUNY Maritime '80
Maine Maritime '88

The lack of women on some vessels might be explained that companies take the sexist attitude that if they hire younger females eventually they will start having children then they will have to start paying maternity payments and will have to find someone to replace them if they chose to stay at home to look after their children. Then there is the sexist attitude that by the time their children have grown up and they are able to back to work they will be middle aged and will be less physically able than their male counterparts, who would have to “carry them” when it came to performing physically demanding jobs.

[QUOTE=Quimby;175583]On my boat the wheelhouse is all caucasian. There is one African American Master in the company. Deck is predominantly African American and Honduran. Engineering a mix of caucasian, African American, and Puerto Rican. I wouldn’t necessarily call it heartwarming though.[/QUOTE]

Do they actually have an African parent or are they just an American that happens to be black?

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Lee Jackson, the owner of the new company Jackson Offshore is black. I believe he holds an unlimited master ticket as well as being a former harbor pilot somewhere along the gulf coast.

I have plenty of video/photos from 90’s Turdwater hitches. At the time I was in my alcoholic twenties and didn’t realize how bizarre things were. It all seemed rather normal as every boat was like that. I also recognize some of your descriptions and may know of those you speak of.

[QUOTE=follow40;175621]All men are created equal, but some are more equal than others.[/QUOTE]“All men are created equal, especially black men because we are ashamed of our past. Also, other groups don’t matter because they are not backed by scary organizations like the NAACP that will jump all over us at the slightest mishap”.

[QUOTE=Quimby;175583]On my boat the wheelhouse is all caucasian. There is one African American Master in the company.[/QUOTE]
I mean, that’s nice. Just saying…that still doesn’t sound very diverse, just tipping the iceberg diverse ya know? Not that I personally care, blacks and hispanics are not any less likely to be chauvinist than whites, but if I am going to talk about diversity, it is only fair that I include everybody.

[QUOTE=Sand_Pebble;175628]I don’t know about now a days but from the mid 90’s to the mid 2000’s, being on a TDW boat in the GoM was similar to being in one of those reality TV shows where they get a dozen people from all different backgrounds with absolutely nothing in common [/QUOTE]
I beg to differ. I sailed with someone who worked in the GoM in the ‘90s and they said it was the most racist, sexist backwards, exclusionary place they had ever worked at. Maybe Tidewater was an exception, or maybe that person and I worked at the same company that never really changed. It is true, I didn’t work that many places down there so maybe it was just that one place…[QUOTE=Sand_Pebble;175628]
consisting of an obese, lethargic female Cajun captain[/QUOTE]
I am still waiting to hear about a female engineer hawsepiper…

[QUOTE=Quimby;175594]We had a couple female deck hands and one Academy mate. [I]They either quit or were let go in the layoffs[/I].[/QUOTE]
Ok soo…yea still sounds a little to me like the layoffs were used as a nice purge, if the only women that you can mention not working in the capacity of “cook”…are no longer there.

I wonder if when one of those companies down there cut down the majority of AB’s down to deckhand pay and let two AB’s per vessel have AB pay… I wonder how that was decided upon? Who would get the higher pay? And I wonder how many female AB’s got the senior AB pay, or if ALL of them got cut down to deckhand pay, or if there was even one in the whole company that got the lead AB pay?
And I also wonder how many career AB’s who had been AB’s for 10 or 20 years got cut down to deckhand pay while others who had only been AB’s for 6 months got lead AB pay?

I do recognize that the GoM has made an effort to be conscientious about racism, but they forgot about all the other -isms. Chauvinism (the original meaning), nepotism, favoritism and [I]sexism[/I]. None of them are ok!

The GoM is a big place of -ISMS!!!

I have worked at quite a few places. The most diverse, friendly and professionally operated have been government and research affiliated. I would give those sectors an A.
I would say the GoM would get a big fat F!!!.

I already told you before in the mid to late 90’s Turdwater had 2 female chief engineers and three female captains. All 5 of them were lead position not relief chief or captain and all were hawsepipers. There were also several female AB’s and mates floating through the fleet. I know for a fact where one captain and an aforementioned mate who is now a captain are still working as masters of their own vessels. One of the Chiefs failed a drug test years ago and blamed it on having troubles at home with her wife. You’re not a special snowflake or unicorn.

I don’t usually take the routes that liberals take, but you are truly a dumb ass. Many people have proved you wrong, yet you still fight. Maybe that’s why you were let go!

Considering that sand_pebble created their account on the same day I started posting about the GoM, and doesn’t post much on other subjects…I doubt this person’s authenticity.
I may be wrong…just sayin…

Cayaja
I don’t know who put that chip on your shoulder but you need to get rid of it. If not it will weigh you down and sink you. Just do your job and let your work speak for itself. We all know prejudice and racism exists in the shipping business. How many Filipinos work in shipping; thousands? But how many masters and chiefs are Filipino? Sure the USA has prejudice as do most other countries. As an example I will give you this. Most drilling and OSV companies operating worldwide have an office in Aberdeen or the UK but you never see an Irishman working on the vessels and rarely women. In my experience the vessels operating in the USA are by far more diverse in employment than any other country. Perhaps it is because the USA is more diverse. You will never change the industry by bitching about it. If bitching about things made a difference we’d all be better off than we are. If you want to bitch join a union. They listen to bitching and occasionally do something about it. Until then just do your job and let your work speak for you. As Matthew said, “By their fruits you will know them”

[QUOTE=cajaya;175685]Considering that sand_pebble created their account on the same day I started posting about the GoM, and doesn’t post much on other subjects…I doubt this person’s authenticity.
I may be wrong…just sayin…[/QUOTE]

Other, including myself, have also proved you wrong. Not much you can just say to that.