When Affirmative Action goes Racist

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/08/us/new-york-firefighter-lawsuit-bias/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

A U.S. district judge ordered New York City to pay $128 million in to firefighters who allege the city used an entrance exam that deliberately sought to keep African-Americans and Latino Americans off the force. The judge also ordered the FDNY to hire 293 black and Latino applicants. "It has been in the city's power to prevent or remedy the need for damages proceedings for a decade, and it has not done so," U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garufis said in his ruling on the class action lawsuit. He called it the "consequences of the city's decision to ignore clear violations of federal law." The federal government had sued the city (United States of America and Vulcan Society Inc. vs. City of New York) alleging the city violated the U.S. Constitution and local civil rights laws by using an entrance exam intentionally designed to discriminate based on race. The lawsuit alleged that the exams had little to do with firefighting and instead focused on cognitive and reading skills.

Those Irish and Italian hooligans can't control everything.

Someone smarter than me please explain why a test on reading and cognitive skills is racist.

Lemme explain where I'm coming from so others know how to approach my question: I think a test on the subculture of...say...Irish Catholics would a racist test: it would obviously be biased against anyone that wasn't white and catholic (who also knew about the Irish subculture on the East Coast).

I would have thought reading would be an essential skill for a fireman.

Otherwise how would he know to read a sign denoting a propane tank from a water tank...? Or how to follow written directions like signs.. or the right kind of retardant to employ in any given situation when he gets there.. etc

It seems they're saying blacks and hispanics have lower literacy rates than whites, so a test measuring reading skills and cognitive abilities is biased against said groups. Assuming fire fighting requires no reading or higher level cognitive ability, I guess they might have a ****ed up stupid retard point maybe.

Either way, this thing has pretty ****ed up implications.

I don't know the statistics, but I am pretty sure the average black or hispanic person(being human and all) has the capacity to read and reason. If anything, the lawsuit seems racist for implying otherwise. If literacy rates differ between whites and blacks/hispanics, forcing a fire department to meet quotas won't help that.

Maybe there are more details to this lawsuit, but this thing just looks.....dumb right now.

It's 5:30 AM and I've had no sleep, so a lot of things look dumb right now though.

Originally posted by StyleTime
It seems like they're saying blacks and hispanics have higher rates of illiteracy than whites, so a test measuring reading skills and cognitive abilities is biased said groups. Assuming fire fighting requires no reading or higher level cognitive ability, I guess they might have a ****ed up stupid retard point maybe.

Either way, this thing has pretty ****ed up implications.

I don't know the statistics, but I am pretty sure the average black or hispanic person(being human and all) has the capacity to read and reason. If anything, the lawsuit seems racist for implying otherwise. If literacy rates differ between whites and blacks/hispanics, forcing a fire department to meet quotas won't help that.

Maybe there are more details to this lawsuit, but this thing just looks.....dumb right now.

It's 5:30 AM and I've had no sleep, so a lot of things look dumb right now though.

Sounds like a poor excuse for the people who were too lazy to learn to read, or are just plain stupid to blame others for being proactive enough to educate themselves. I began reading at the age of 5 which for many is kind of late in life, and I recall how difficult it was for me as well, but come the hell on, when you become an adult, and still have these issues who can you blame besides yourself? What of all of the Caucasian, Asian, and other people out there who are illiterate, and can't make heads or tails of an elevator button? Why shine the light on only two?

Originally posted by Stoic
the people who were too lazy to learn to read

this must be the case

Originally posted by StyleTime
...I am pretty sure the average black or hispanic person(being human and all) has the capacity to read and reason

Woah woah woah. Slow down there before making outlandish claims.

If a test of reading skills keeps out black people then the education system is obviously failing pretty hardcore.

Cognitive and reading skills. If you don't have those, you can't do many jobs, I fear.

Whoever wrote that lawsuit talking about unimportance of cognitive and reading skills is cretin of the highest calibre.

Everythng can be consider racist now a days.

Originally posted by Digi
Woah woah woah. Slow down there before making outlandish claims.

Originally posted by inimalist
this must be the case

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
If a test of reading skills keeps out black people then the education system is obviously failing pretty hardcore.

Originally posted by ADarksideJedi
Everythng can be consider racist now a days.

From the info I have on it(admittedly just the article), I don't think this particular situation is.

Originally posted by StyleTime
Well, some things actually are racist.

From the info I have on it(admittedly just the article), I don't think this particular situation is.

Agreed.

Originally posted by dadudemon
Someone smarter than me please explain why a test on reading and cognitive skills is racist.

Because colored people are stupid 😉

I could imagine that perhaps the tests in question are culturally biased and that is what the complaint is about?

Originally posted by StyleTime
😂 I guess I got beside myself.

It's as the old saying goes, "all people have access to the same opportunities for success in all circumstances."

👆 It seems there is a larger problem that needs addressing.

Well, some things actually are racist.

From the info I have on it(admittedly just the article), I don't think this particular situation is.

I don't either.

Interesting fact: The sentence that immediately follows the one OV highlighted is the actual source of the complaint against the fire department.

Because of the hereditary nature of the fire department, white candidates were recruited and supported throughout the application process by family or neighborhood contacts and whites consistently passed while minority candidates failed.

It seems that they're alleging that FDNY made a test most people won't pass unless they already have inside access to the, predominantly white, fire department.

Well that part is probably true.

Even so, at best this is a case of lawyers wording things very, very, very poorly.