A group of white and Hispanic New Haven firefighters last week took to the U.S. Supreme Court their claims that the city denied them promotions based on their race in a case that could have significant implications for public and private employers.
The firefighters contend that New Haven improperly threw out the results of a 2003 promotional exam because no blacks scored high enough to be promoted.
The city argues that it was required under federal law to reject the results because the test produced disparate results among test takers of different races.
It is true that New Haven, like any city, has an obligation to make sure its promotional exams and, by extension, its hiring practices are fair.
And the city certainly has an interest in seeing that its fire and police departments reflect the racial, ethnic and gender makeup of its citizenry.
New Haven’s population is 37.4 percent black. The highest-score for a black candidate for captain was 16th best overall, behind 12 whites and three Hispanics. The highest score for a black seeking to be promoted to lieutenant was 14th.
The problem with the city’s argument in this case is that there is no evidence that the test was discriminatory.
The city, in effect, argued that the results prove that must have been the case.
But the company that designed the test, Industrial/Organizational Solutions, makes it a point to eliminate any potential racial bias.
The argument put forward by U.S. District Court Judge Janet Bond Arterton that the plaintiffs were never discriminated against because no promotions were made is deeply flawed.
Try telling the firefighters who scored the highest on the tests that, since no one was promoted, they were treated the same as the firefighters who scored the lowest. That logic just doesn’t fly.
The city of New Haven, like many cities across the country, has always played politics when it came to promoting and hiring firefighters and police officers. The city routinely set aside new slots in both departments for blacks, Hispanics and whites.
City politicians have used those positions as bargaining chips to gain political favor from the leaders of New Haven’s different racial communities.
But white candidates attempting to win jobs as firefighters or police officers have been faced with other political obstacles.
Qualified candidates have watched as white candidates with family ties to both the fire and police departments often received preferential treatment.
The lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, Frank Ricci, had been a firefighter for 11 years and took the test for lieutenant. Ricci, according to the Wall Street Journal, is dyslexic and paid $1,000 to have someone read textbooks onto audiotapes to help him study. He also gave up a second job to concentrate on the test.
Ricci, according to the Journal, came in sixth among the 77 candidates who took the lieutenant exam. Ricci, and others like him, deserve to know that their work paid off.
Creating a fire department that reflects the racial makeup of a city is a noble reason to take race into consideration when making hires. But in this case, throwing out promotional test results to further a politcal agenda is wrong.
The hope is that the promotional exam is not declared racially biased simply because the results were different than what New Haven politicians had hoped they would be.
Reader response:
“I am a firefighter in new haven, and this news feed doesn’t tell the whole truth. Frank Ricci has been fired from a few fire departments because of his truthfulness or lack there of. This learning disability was made up for this complaint. Check his history and records. Also one of the biggest things is, the white firefighters got the study material months and almost a year before anybody else. Also there was only one Hispanic involved with this complaint. No other Hispanics stand behind what he and his friends are fighting for. Please investigate my comments and report the findings. Thank you.” — Roc Â
