When I read the news accounts about the Supreme Court’s ruling on "Ricci vs. DeStefano," the white firefighters' "reverse discrimination" lawsuit against the city of New Haven, Connecticut, I had two immediate reactions--one, that Ricci, the white firefighter whose name will be forever linked, now, to the issue of the legality of inclusive hiring practices, is either grossly misinformed, or is an absolute, cold-blooded liar.
At a post-Supreme Court-decision press conference, Ricci said to the assembled media that the Court's ruling in support of the white firefighters’ position made it clear that: "If you work hard, you can succeed in America.”
That's what he said.
I know he was very excited, and that he was feeling very vindicated and proud of himself when he heard the decision, but how could he have said anything that was so fundamentally uninformed or so blatantly incorrect?
Since when has there been a connection between “how hard you work” and “how successful you will be,” in this country?
If that's how it worked, millions of black slaves, sharecroppers, domestics, factory workers and laborers would have amassed trillions of dollars, by now, and would have been able to pass those inheritances along to their descendants. If it were ever as simple as “working hard” in America as a key to achieving success, the average black family would not have 10 cents in wealth for every dollar in wealth held by the average white family.
Who worked harder on the plantations, on the farms, in the factories, in the homes of wealthy whites than black folks? Today, who works harder than blacks who have been relegated to the economy’s worst-paying jobs?
Even though Ricci and his fellow-New Haven firefighters, somehow, were favored in a ruling that will, in all probability, have disastrous effects on employment and promotional policies across America, for years to come, he still seems to be painfully and embarrassingly ignorant of what it has taken to get ahead in America’s workplaces-- especially in the nation’s fire departments.
My second immediate reaction was to wonder how Philadelphia’s outstanding black fire commissioner, Lloyd Ayers, will handle such issues going forward, especially since our own city, this past week, decided not to contest a similar legal action brought by white Philadelphia firemen who claimed they were also victims of discrimination in a recent fire department promotion exam.
In an apparent effort to avoid ongoing legal costs, Philadelphia decided to settle, and agreed to pay the plaintiffs $275,000 (which works out to about $35,000 apiece for the participating firefighters). The Philadelphia firefighters had claimed that they had been discriminated against because they received lower grades than blacks on the exam and because ten of the 14 people who administered their exam were black.
Two more things disturb me about the Supreme Court’s ruling – one, it was another, chilling reminder of the illogical extremes to which Justice Clarence ("We're still so proud that he's there.") Thomas will go to prove that he does not empathize with the plight of the majority of black Americans, and that he absolutely does empathize with, and supports, the mindset of right-wing conservatives.
On the other hand, Supreme Court nominee Sotomayor has done a masterful and cogent job of reminding the entire country that all judges are, indeed, influenced by their life experiences and that those experiences, tempered by knowledge of the law and good common sense, are what we should be seeking from judges – at every level-- given the wide diversity of our national population and the related complexity of the issues.
Please, somebody, buy Clarence Thomas a mirror. Then, send him to the Wizard to get a “memory” and some “courage.” He clearly needs both. The Ricci decision has been another pathetic performance by him, one that should haunt him for the rest of his life, assuming, of course, he has anything resembling a conscience and that there really is a God.
It also occurs to me that Justice Thomas, Justice Kennedy, and the three so-called “hard-liners” that gave the white firefighters the 5-4 majority had to be aware of the embarrassing racial history of the nation’s fire departments.
For example, they should have been aware that right there in the city of New Haven, whites make up just 44 percent of the population, but 53 percent of the city’s firefighters, 63 percent of the fire department’s lieutenants and 86 percent of the captains.
In a more perfect world, “reverse discrimination" is a pretty weak argument to bring to the Supreme Court, when Justices fully comprehend that, by comparison, blacks comprise 36 percent of New Haven’s population, but just 30 percent of the city’s firefighters and, more to the point of the disputed promotion exam, just 22 percent of the department’s lieutenants, and only four percent of the captains.
Let me run that by you one more time – blacks are 36 percent of the population and just 4 percent of the captains in the New Haven Fire Department and, yet, the city of New Haven is charged with “reverse discrimination,” when it tries to to get more black firefighters promoted into departmental leadership.
Maybe Clarence Thomas and his fellow Supreme Court Justices didn’t read the accounts that I read that indicated that New Haven’s white test-takers, somehow, were given access to the written parts of the exam, prior to test day, and before black test takers.
Maybe they didn’t realize just how subjective and racially biased an oral exam can be – especially pertinent because 40 percent of the final test result was based on the oral portion.
Maybe they didn’t pay much attention to the fact that one black New Haven firefighter with 27 years of experience, a man named Wayne Ricks, was, curiously, given a grade of 69.9833 on the written exam, when all he needed to be included in the promotional pool was a "70."
Maybe it didn’t bother the Justices that, based on the test results, 13 whites would have been promoted to lieutenant and captain positions, along with two Hispanics, and that no blacks, at all, would have been promoted. Maybe it seemed normal and natural that dues paid by all New Haven firefighters into the New Haven firefighters’ union were used to support the Ricci group.
Maybe the Supreme Court has no appreciation of the fact that most U.S. fire departments systematically excluded black participation throughout most of the 19th century and remained segregated throughout most of the 20th century.
Hey, don't get smug. Philadelphia didn’t accept its first black firefighter until 1886, 21 years after the Civil War and well after black firefighters had already been hired in places such as New Orleans; Savannah, Georgia; Columbia, South Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; San Antonio, Texas; Topeka, Kansas and Nashville, Tennessee.
In speaking, now, directly to the validity of the New Haven promotion test, which they upheld, maybe the Justices didn’t know that, consistent with most major cities across the country, the fire department in New York City counts just 335 black firefighters out of 11,500 personnel, in a city that is 27 percent black. Maybe they didn’t realize, while they were rendering a decision on the New Haven test, that New York City has never been able to prove, when challenged, that there is a significant relationship between written fire department exams and the skills needed to be an effective firefighter.
Deep down in my heart, I really do want to believe that the Supreme Court of the United States includes some of the most fair-minded, well-informed people in our country.
The Ricci case, however, makes me think that's probably not true.
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The sad truth...
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