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Today could be a very uncomfortable day for Sotomayor as the SCOTUS is set to hand down its ruling on the New Haven firefirghter reverse discrimination case - Ricci v. DeStefano. In all probability she will be overturned, as she should be.
Firefighters Case Looms Large for Sotomayor -- Politics Daily (http://tinyurl.com/nu3wzc - broken link)
I don't know how the Court will rule today but I don't quite know what can be done about it either. Back in the 50's and 60's during the Civil Rights movement we all thought that the only thing that was needed was equal opportunity.
The problem is that equal opportunity is based on the assumption that everyone is equal. While there is legitimate debate as to why it may be, 40 years of equal opportunity reveal that this may not be the case. If, for whatever reason, we are not all equal then equal opportunity guarantees unequal results.
So in the early 90's the Civil Rights law was amended in order to achieve equal results and the idea of 'disparate impact' became the law of the land. Ever since disparate impact we have been twisting ourselves into pretzels trying to figure out how to include those who were not performing well on a level playing field while at the same time trying to select the best qualified candidate for the job. Maybe it cannot be done. You cannot staff with the best qualified while at the same time including candidates who are not as qualified as others that you may have chosen. If anyone else can figure out how to do that, I'm listening.
Passing on the best qualified for no other reason than attempting to achieve some kind of a balanced work force makes absolutely no sense to me. The whole country and all racial groups will suffer as a result. The United States of America used to be number one in the industrialized world. Currently we are much further down the list and we will continue to slip further and further.
If I'm not the most qualified then I don't want the job. The City of New Haven Fire Department hired a consulting firm and spent a lot of money to come up with a test and a procedure that would not have a disparate impact. If it was agreed that the top 15 scores were to receive promotions and I did not score in the top 15 I would be embarrassed to make any noise about it. I either did not work hard enough or I'm just not as intelligent as the top 15. Either way I was not one of the top 15 most qualified.
Court rules for white firefighters over promotions
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.
Court rules for white firefighters over promotions - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090629/ap_on_re_us/us_supreme_court_firefighters_lawsuit - broken link)
law enforcement thus far are the only ones to do any winning on reverse discrimination. if you plan to tackle the obvious, the fact that civil rights were highjacked a long time ago, then you better bring a very good lawyer.
If you want everyone to be treated equally, you had better be able to handle the bad with the good. Everyone was tested equally and those who failed did so equally. There is no one to blame for failing the test but the one who took the test.
Added: I'll definately be keeping an eye on this thread.
So in the early 90's the Civil Rights law was amended in order to achieve equal results and the idea of 'disparate impact' became the law of the land. Ever since disparate impact we have been twisting ourselves into pretzels trying to figure out how to include those who were not performing well on a level playing field while at the same time trying to select the best qualified candidate for the job. Maybe it cannot be done. You cannot staff with the best qualified while at the same time including candidates who are not as qualified as others that you may have chosen. If anyone else can figure out how to do that, I'm listening.l
All we can do is cases like this, is to create a selection process and testing that is race neutral, while sill trying to select the best people for the job. Just because the minorities applying for the promotion were not the sharpest knives in the drawer, is not a poor reflection on minorities, or the testing procedures, its just a poor reflection on the people taking the test, who did not pass.
If we had tryouts for the Boston Celtics, and the short whites, Hispanics, Filipinos and Japanese failed to measure up, the Celtics should not toss their results out the window.
but somehow, it is permissible to do this in critical jobs like firefighters and police, but not sports teams. Could you imagine using "disparate impact" when assembling the US Olympic teams?
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Court rules for white firefighters over promotions
