Many have heard the basics of a group of firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut who banded together to file a discrimination suit against their city. The basics are thus: an exam was held for firefighters who wished to apply for promotion to captain, the test used was purely objective (it was written by a 3rd party company specializing in firefighter exams), and because few minorities–none of them black–passed, the city decided to scrap the exam and promote none of the applicants. The plan was apparently to administer another exam. But a group of the applicants, firefighters who were white and Hispanic, got mad and decided to fight back. They filed suit. Ricci v. DeStefano was knocked down by Sonia Sotomayor as not meeting the criteria for discrimination under the Civil Rights Act. According to Sotomayor, because certain minorities weren’t in the passing group, the test had to be racially biased. Therefore there was no merit to the claims of the firefighters filing suit.
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States overruled Sotomayor’s ridiculous opinion. And they did so unanimously.
Here’s my experience…every firefighter, captain, and chief I’ve ever met or worked with worked his or her butt off to get where they are. Firefighting is not an easy profession by any means, and every one of the men and women I know fully deserved the promotions they were given. I know captains of every color and creed you can imagine. Not one of them was ever handed their job because of a protected minority status, and every single one would be insulted by any person who suggested what the city of New Haven did. The Civil Rights Act wasn’t just meant to protect “minorities”–it was meant to protect all people, because everyone is capable of discrimination. I’ve been discriminated against for the color of my skin, too, for the first job I ever applied for at a Wal-Mart where the black hiring manager openly bragged that she would only hire black applicants. My sister was discriminated against by the same woman. I have heard people of all races–white, black, Hispanic, Asian, you name it–make racist remarks against every other race under the sun.
The fact is that white people were not meant to be excluded from the CRA, nor were Hispanic people like a couple of those who were also passed up by New Haven (and later joined the lawsuit). The exam that was used was found to be completely objective and not racially biased in any way. The simple fact that there weren’t any passing scores coming from certain races involved in that test does not automatically make that test discriminatory. It just means those folks need to brush up on their knowledge, take the test next year and do better. More often than not, people fail those tests the first time around. In each case, they worked harder and got it the next time around.
I applaud the decision by the Supreme Court today and the firefighters who refused to be passed up because of the color of their skin. They all worked hard for what they earned and they weren’t about to let the government take it away. Bravo.
*****UPDATE*****
I was incorrect in my statement that the SCOTUS voted unanimously to overturn the lower courts’ decision. They unanimously disagreed with Sotomayor’s opinion that the test was scrapped due to proven racism; the actual vote, however, was 5-4 in favor of the New Haven 20. It’s also worth noting that none of the men involved in the suit knew their status on the list of promotable firefighters; in fact, even after six of them found out they wouldn’t make the promotion list, they remained on the suit to defend what they knew to be right.
steveflesher
Philip
Mel Maguire
Mark Ciavola
Comments
I too applaud this decision. Now maybe Judge Sotomayor can explain to the Senate why she and her concurring judge decided to blow it all off with a one paragraph ruling.
Excellent, mel. One thing that has bothered me tremendously is hearing the phrase “reverse racism” in regards to this on the news constantly.
Wouldn’t the reverse of racism be racial blindness? I understand what those who use the phrase are getting at, but in reality racism is racism is racism. And someone who looks down on someone or holds them from advancement because of a person’s color or culture is being racist.
“Excellent, mel. One thing that has bothered me tremendously is hearing the phrase “reverse racism” in regards to this on the news constantly.”
I agree AFW. Doesn’t the term reverse racsim imply that one race is racist and other races are not?
I don’t envy the City of New Haven. Had the city accepted the test results then there would have been a lawsuit. Had they tossed the test results, then guess what; a lawsuit.
It’s too bad the impulse when things do not go your way is to file a lawsuit. I am not faulting the white and latino firefighters who did sue. But I hope they sat down with the city along with the black firefighters and tried to work this out.
John, my background is growing up as the child of a city official – I doubt there was any “sit down” offered to those firefighters. In fact, I’m willing to bet that they were probably treated like crap for calling the decision into question.
The label “racist” is thrown around like candy off Mardi Gras floats, and there’ s no innocent until proven guilty with it. Even if you are being falsely accused, you are guilty when it comes to racism.
However, I totally agree that New Haven was damned if/damned if not.
I’m all for legal reform. Loser foots the bill. I think that if the specter of responsibility were hanging over more heads, frivolous lawsuits would probably be a lot more rare. As it is, they are nearly ubiquitous.
“Even if you are being falsely accused, you are guilty when it comes to racism.”
LOL. Yep. I’ve been called a racist too many times to count. My cousin is a lesbian. Her partner is black. I couldn’t care less what color they both are.
They both met by cheating on their partners. Having been cheated on, I am maybe to sensitive about that. But, Adultery is wrong.
So I am not a big fan of them. I am not very friendly and family with them. I prefer they keept to themselves. Regardless of how bad it was with their respective ex-partners, cheating was not the answer. Their partner’s deserved much more consideration.
So a year ago it bloomed up I was bigoted because my cousin is with a black woman and I am so stand off about them.
I called them both up and told it like it is. It’s their adultery and their attitude of the ends jusitfy the means that angers me.
My ex did plenty of rotten things to me. But I did not cheat on him. I repsected him plenty to not do that. Iwas riased you don’t cheat. When it was over, I went my own way. I did not warm someone up first before making the break.
According to liberals, only white people can be racist. Most people with normally functioning brains consider hatred of other races enough to qualify as racism, but for liberals, you must be white, and of course, all whites are racist, whether they admit it or not! The whole “power+prejudice=racism” is such a load of horse crap