There’s another racial discrimination case brewing in Connecticut, but this one is close to settlement. The Connecticut Post reports that a lawsuit filed by 12 white firefighters in Bridgeport may be settled by the end of the month.
In a case similar to Ricci v. DeStefano, white firefighters sued the city for rescoring a lieutenant exam because no blacks scored high enough to qualify for promotions. Because blacks tend to score lower on standardized tests than whites, the city decided to give less weight to the written portion of the test and more weight to the oral portion. As a result, some of the white firefighters lost provisional lieutenant positions.
As with the Ricci case, the white firefighters lost opportunities because they were white. The Supreme Court’s ruling made clear that New Haven discriminated against firefighters based on race. Both parties in Bridgeport seem partial to a settlement, particularly the defendants. It’s highly doubtful that Bridgeport would prevail if the case goes to trial. The intent of rescoring the test was to promote employees based on race.
Comments on this entry are closed.