for the record, below is the entire relevant passage of mine that Miguel
seems to think shows me to be Patronizing (with a capital "P"). i believe
anyone with adequate reading skills will see that he is either mistaken or
a bit overzealous in his approach.  it is hardly reactionary stuff!

BEGIN QUOTE:
we've got to treat people as individuals and not as members of groups.
some volunteers/interns are more capable at various tasks than others.
people fall into these job categories for various reasons, and their
official titles rarely tell the whole story of their individual expertise.
the same goes for groupings imposed by society (which is why i am opposed
to hiring or disqualifying from hiring based on race, gender, etc.).

i do agree that one must get one's foot in the door somewhere and lack of
museum experience shouldn't necessarily be a detriment (i'd prefer working
with someone with drive and enthusiasm to someone lacking these but having
museum experience).

as i said above, and as your post implies, we must avoid confusing the
terms "qualified" and "experienced."

however, at the risk of digressing:  my own (pessimistic view) (based on
what i'm personally seeing more and more, and based on the the many job
descriptions posted on MUSEUM-L for internship positions) is that "getting
one's foot in the door" means a lot more responsibility than it used to.
the money just doesn't seem to be there to hire competent, qualified AND
experienced people for regular staff positions, so interns and volunteers
are being used more and more in their places.

i'm seeing far too many internships at very low rates of pay being posted
that call for candidates to have the abilities to design database systems,
supervise volunteers, write grants, work out budgets, etc.  five years
ago, these would have been regular staff positions!  (my fear is that in
five years they will become volunteer positions.)

how my digression relates to this issue is that given that the typical
internship position is beginning to require more and more previously
gained expertise, i don't have much hope that those who are not
specialists of some sort or other will find many opportunities as museum
interns unless museums create positions specifically for them.

that is, if you want to hire minorities or women of specific backgrounds
without prior museum experience, you are going to have to create positions
where being a minority or woman of a specific background IS a field of
expertise in itself. (i.e., as intern/consultants for specific exhibits,
etc.)

it's sad that, since there seems to be no middle ground, museums seem to
be either hiring "interns" (at next-to-nothing pay) who are in reality
qualified to be regular staff, or they are hiring people perfectly
qualified to be interns to do work beyond their skills.

END QUOTE

--
i do not respond to unsolicited email.

kjk (inviting you to put as much thought into reading my post as you do into
writing yours).