The socialists are at it again. The hard-earned money of Montgomery County taxpayers will be used to study why whites are disproportionately represented in the county’s fire department. Apparently fewer blacks are applying and those who do are failing the employment test at higher rates than whites (though not explicitly stated).
The question they want answered is not how can the performances of blacks be improved. The politicians want to know why whites are performing so well! Good grief.
Why don’t we just do away with performance standards altogether? Get rid of the MCAT, LSAT, GRE, SAT, and all admissions and employment tests so that everybody will be equal. Am I the only “person of color” around here who’s insulted by paternalistic and condescending junk like this?
From the Washington Post (registration req.):
The class of recruits that started training this month is 89 percent white — the highest proportion of whites since the county took over hiring from volunteer fire companies in 1988.
The recruit class’s disparity with the county’s population — 60 percent white — elicited strong criticism from elected officials and community leaders.
County officials have blamed the drop in minority recruits on the fact that the county last year instituted a race-blind hiring process after county attorneys expressed concerns that the race-conscious hiring process was unconstitutional.
Check out this intelligent and innovative idea:
Officials have said they may replace the written firefighter aptitude test with one that affords greater opportunity to minorities.
The current test may skew toward applicants who have previous volunteer firefighting experience, officials said. In Montgomery, that means a largely white pool of applicants.
Perez said some tests also factor in an applicant’s response to stressful situations, ability to interact with diverse communities and facility with foreign languages.
They plan to dumb down the test. Anything they do to make this test easier to pass will entail lowering the standards. Let’s see, what sort of aptitude test will afford “greater opportunity” to blacks? A test given in ebonics? Hip-hop slang? Lots of pictures? If rewriting a test so that blacks can pass it isn’t outrageous to blacks, nothing is.
Blame it on the Supreme Court. Again. In 1971, it held in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. that for purposes of hiring, an employer’s use of a high school diploma requirement and two standardized written tests violated the Civil Rights Act. Black applicants were disproportionately flunking the test, apparently the same as in Montgomery County.
Griggs laid out the “disparate impact” analysis for employment. Absence of discriminatory intent is not the end of the discussion. Even if an employment practice is “facially neutral,” i.e., a scored test, it’s suspect if it has a disparate impact on members of a “protected class.” That is, if a lot of black people flunk it.
Proving that someone intended to discriminate against you is unnecessary. All you need to do is show that a high percentage of others like you (dark skin?) also failed the test. That’s actionable.
This is why race preferences exist. Companies don’t want to deal with lawsuits, so they set aside a certain number of jobs for “protected class” members. In plain language, these are called quotas. In PC language, this is called “diversity” outreach. In my language, it’s called “unconstitutional.”
(Hat tip: Michelle Malkin)
Update (5:41 p.m.): Michelle Malkin linked to the post (cool!). [Note (3/26/05): This post is from my old blog, and I think I was excited because it was the first time Michelle linked to my site.] I really want to get the message out that racial preferences are wrong. The solution to disparities in admissions and hiring is finding a way to maintain high standards for all while providing the training/experience/education necessary to equip individuals to compete. Lowered standards beget lowered expectations. We all deserve better.
