That Pesky Equal Protection
When is racism not racism? I guess it all depends on the race being ismed.
The US Supreme Court is set to hear the case of Ricci et al v. New Have Connecticut to decide if denying promotions to qualified white folks because of their lack of minority status is Constitutional.
Ricci suffers from an unfortunate lack of pigment in his skin color. He is a Caucasian firefighter in New Haven and has spent months studying and listening to study tapes to prepare for the fire department’s promotion test. He spent his evenings, free days and even his drive to work getting ready for this once in a decade opportunity to move up to a command rank within the department.
His hard work paid off as he earned the top score out of everyone that took the test. Being the top guy surely would secure his future and give him his rightful place amongst the commanders, right? Not so fast their white guy.
There were 15 vacancies for upper ranks available to be filled. It turns out that 14 out of the top 15 scores from the test were white guys. The other one was Hispanic. If the department used the test scores as the deciding factor there would be no blacks promoted this time around. Not because of their color, but because no black proved to be as qualified as these non-blacks. It doesn’t make the blacks who took the test bad firefighters. But denying them a promotion because of their test results isn’t racist either.
After four racially charged city council meetings it was decided that as no blacks would be promoted, nobody should be promoted. The city’s civil service board rejected the test results and Ricci along with the other 14 qualified candidates were denied their hard earned promotions.
Barack Obama, the President of all the people, sided with the city and said that the test should be disallowed because it had “gross exclusionary effects on minorities”. They went on to site that while blacks make up 31% of the city’s firefighters, they only account for 15% of the officers. What that statistic has to do with Ricci and the other 14 is beyond me. I guess what they’re saying is that if 7 of the qualifying candidates would have been black Ricci would have been qualified, but because the blacks blew the test Ricci was not.
Lawyers for the firefighters claim the city violated the firefighters Constitutional right to equal protection under the law as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The president of the NAACP disagreed stating that because fire departments have been “the preserve of white males” in the past it is only fair to unlevel the playing field in the favor of blacks.
A similar situation in Chicago back in 1986 just had the city pay off $6 million last month to firefighters who had their test scores disallowed because they are white.
It’s got to be tough for blacks having depended on the Civil Rights Act to advance their cause for these past 55 years to now have that pesky equal rights constitutional protection make the act their adversary. It also seems pretty disingenuous to have a black man elected President of the United States trying to make an issue out of white oppression.
The Obama administration is lobbying the Supreme Court to send the case back to Connecticut for obvious reasons. A ruling in favor of the white guys will have far reaching impact on the racially unfair practice of affirmative action in almost every other venue in the country.
No one is denying a history of black oppression, but to claim that history is still relevant justification to racially prejudice hiring and promotions is taking a huge step back not forward.
The president just made the headlines discussing his daughter’s past medical problems with meningitis and commended the dedicated nurses and medical professionals that helped her recover and assisted the family through the ordeal. I wonder if he was looking for a black doctor or the most qualified doctor to treat her.
Maybe someone should ask.
