The Supreme Court got one right yesterday. They ruled on a case that made it to the top court in the land that dealt with reverse discrimination and involved Barry-O-Bama's pick for the very same court. That person is Sonia Sotomayer if anyone hasn't heard.
In 2003, the New Haven Fire Department in Connecticut denied promotions to a couple of white firefighters despite their test results which were good enough to warrant being promoted. Why did they do this? Because the other test takers had been minorities and they didn't do well enough to be promoted. What does that have to do with anyone else in a fair society you ask? Well the New Haven Fire Department didn't want to be accused of being racist to all the minorities that had tested piss poorly despite the fact that the test results should have been enough to stand on their own.
The two guys who tested well enough to be promoted took the case to court and it made it all the way to a federal appeals court where Sonia Sotomayer sat on the committee. She put in her vote that the decision of the New Haven Fire Department should stand. Remember this is the same woman that said a wise Latina woman would make better choices than a white male based on her experiences, whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean. When a few people claimed that was a racist statement they were chastised for being too harsh and maybe a little racist themselves. Remember Barry said that his grandmother was a typical white person who was afraid of blacks or some such shit and it becomes painfully clear that stereotypical statements are okay depending on who is making them.
Some experts now say that many tests for promotion produce lower than average results for minority test takers. It's not that the questions have anything to do whatsoever with race, it's just that these experts say that minorities don't do as well when taking certain kinds of tests. How fucking racist is that statement? These experts have taken the fact that some people just suck at taking tests and tried to turn it into something else. They claim that while they can't explain it, some tests just produce lower than average results when taken by minorities. They have done everything short of stating that minorities just aren't as smart as their white counterparts. I believe it was Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder that once made comments like this about blacks in particular and no one thought that was alright. I wonder if if he had just worded differently what he said about black football players being better athletes than their white counterparts, if people would have been as upset. Remember the movie, 'White Men Can't Jump'? Of course you do, but do you ever remember anyone getting all up in arms over the message that was sending? That movie said the same thing that Jimmy 'The Greek' said but in a different way and it was not only acceptable, it was a pretty big draw to the box office as my memeory serves me. Try to imagine if someone had made a movie called 'Black Men Can't Ski' and imagine the fucking uproar that would have caused. Reverse racism is alive and well and very much accepted in this country because everyone is too fucking scared to call it like it is.
Meanwhile, the white guys who were denied promotion because of this whole fucking mess are the ones who really got screwed. One of the men has dyslexia and studied up to thirteen hours a day to pass the test and yet there are people who claim that these tests were weighted against minorities. No, these tests were weighted against people who either didn't study hard enough or just aren't smart enough to pass. Why is it okay for people to say that minorities may not be as smart as whites when it is said in defense of minorities? I think that is such total bullshit. I know that the color of your skin has nothing to do with your brain power but these experts are trying to use the color of one's skin as some kind of crutch.
I don't blame the New Haven Fire Department for making the decision they did. They did it because they were afraid of the shit storm that would have have followed if they hadn't just thrown out all the test results. This is what affirmative action has brought us people. We went from hiring people based on merit and skill to hiring them based on color or sex in order to make the workforce more balanced. Hiring people has nothing to do with race and I would hire nothing but minorities if they were the best choice for the job that I need done, but if they weren't then I am sorry.
It may not be fair but that's fucking life isn't it?
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Great article!
ReplyDeleteI think instead of "Black Men Can't Ski" you should said have said "Black Men Can't Swim". Oops - did I just write that out loud?
I almost wrote it. Despite the fact that it seems to be true for almost every black person I have ever met, I know it would still seem quite stereotypical of me to say so.
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