Judge Rules New York Discriminated Against Minorities
A decade ago, author Shelby Steele wrote about a racial preferences debate between the American Civil Rights Institute’s Ward Connerly and law professor Christopher Edley on C-SPAN. Among other things, Steele lamented over what he called the “disappearance of the black individual.”
During the Q&A portion of the debate, a pro-preferences black Harvard student rose to “challenge” Connerly for opposing lowered standards for blacks. Steele wrote (emphases added):
“Now consider what this Harvard student is called upon by his racial identity to argue in the year 2002. All that is creative and imaginative in him must be rallied to argue the essential weakness of his own people. Only their weakness justifies the racial preferences they receive decades after any trace of anti-black racism in college admissions. The young man must not show faith in the power of his people to overcome against any odds; he must show faith in their inability to overcome without help. As Mr. Connerly points to far less racism and far more freedom and opportunity for blacks, the young man must find a way, against all the mounting facts, to argue that black Americans simply cannot compete without preferences. If his own forebears seized freedom in a long and arduous struggle for civil rights, he must argue that his own generation is unable to compete on paper-and-pencil standardized tests.”
I’m reminded of Steele’s words every time I hear or read about blacks filing lawsuits that claim civil service exams are discriminatory. It’s truly maddening. Instead of being embarrassed by the implication that they can’t be expected to compete against whites on paper-and-pencil tests, they hold their heads high while proclaiming it in public. I don’t get it.
In 2007, the Department of Justice under George W. Bush filed suit against the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) for violating the Civil Rights Act, claiming that two pass-fail written exams and the rank ordering process disparately impacted minorities and weren’t job-related or consistent with business necessity. The Vulcan Society, a fraternal organization of black FDNY firefighters, joined the lawsuit.
Last summer, Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled that FDNY discriminated against blacks and Hispanics with a recruitment exam used between 1999 and 2007. Last week, the same judge ruled that New York City intentionally discriminated against minorities by continuing to use the exam. (Source)
Download the 107-page FDNY exam from 1999. (PDF).
Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the city’s use of the “discriminating” tests. “When I came into office, it was right after 9/11, so we used the old test because we had to recruit right away. We didn’t have the luxury of revisiting and starting the process of building a new test base.” (Source)
New York City faces millions in damages, which may or may not include the additional cost of hiring consultants to develop a test racial minorities can pass at rates similar to whites. What would such a test look like? No multiple choice or reading comprehension questions? More pictures? Oral only? Or perhaps the city will drop civil service entrance and promotion exams altogether. It might sound the death knell for disparate impact lawsuits.
But not likely.
