Herman Cain‘s website posted a story today in its Best of Cain section about a hiring clause in the teachers’ contract in the Ferndale Public Schools in Michigan.

The article quotes the clause as follows:

Special consideration shall be given to women and/or minority defined as: Native American, Asian American, Latino, African American and those of the non-Christian faith.

Wow. White Christian males and white Christian females were legally being discriminated against.

The article further reports:

We (and a lot of other people, starting with Michigan Capitol Confidential) get results. The Ferndale Public Schools have quickly backed down and, with the full cooperation of their teachers’ union, will remove language from their contract that gives preference to those “of the non-Christian faith” in hiring.

The article questions:

When did people start using the terms Native American, Asian American and African American? Certainly not in the 1970s, when in these ethnic groups would have been referred to, respectively, as Indian, Oriental and Colored (or possibly Negro). If Ferndale was using the terms in this sentence in the 1970s, it was way, way, way ahead of the curve. I suppose it’s possible that they updated the terms for more recent contracts, but if that’s the case, then it means they read the sentence in question, which means they can’t possibly claim they didn’t know about the language favoring non-Christians.

I’m glad they’re changing the language, even if it’s only because public exposure is living them with little choice, but it’s not making things better when they lie about how and when it got there in the first place.

It always pays to read the small print.