Say Anything Blog

The degree of twisted, convoluted thinking - as well as the unintentional and almost racist insults to minorities - in this New York Times editorial left me staring at my computer screen in amazement and wondering if anyone on that editorial staff actually thought about what they were writing.

The issue is the New Haven firefighter promotional exam and the Subsequent Supreme Court decision upholding the lawsuit of a group of white firefighters who sued after the test results were tossed when not enough minorities scored high enough to be eligible for promotion. The New York Times is outraged at this decision:

On Monday, the Supreme Court dealt a blow to diversity in the American workplace.

The court ruled, 5-to-4, that New Haven acted illegally when it threw out a promotion test on which minority firefighters had done poorly. In doing so, it put a new, narrower definition on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which is intended to root out discriminatory policies.

After decrying the fact that liberal Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor was one of the judges overturned in this decision, they got down to business:

Many black and Hispanic firefighters took New Haven’s promotion exam, but few passed. This sort of racial disparity often makes an exam illegal.

[...]

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the dissenters, provided the larger context. There is a long history of discrimination in the firefighting ranks. Although New Haven is nearly 60 percent black and Hispanic, few minorities are in command positions. She noted that New Haven’s test was flawed, and that other cities used better tests, with less racially skewed results.

The test was “flawed” and other cities used “better” tests. Translation: The test was too hard and other cities use easier tests.

Hopefully I’m not the only one who sees the blatant insult to minorities in that statement. Minorities are too stupid to pass a test?

The firefighter who brought the suit spent about $1,000 on the books containing the study material. And - get this - because he is dyslexic he paid to have the books put on tape. He studied. He passed. That’s determination. And any one of the minorities who didn’t score high enough on the test to get promoted could have done the same thing.

And don’t give me the minorities-are-disadvantaged-simply-because-they’re-minorities nonsense. Every single one of those firefighters has at least a high school diploma. They went to the same schools and had the very same opportunities as everyone else.

To insinuate that they simply can’t pass a test because they are minorities and that they should get an easier test is a terrible, thoughtless insult and has the ring of the mindless racism of ethnic jokes. 

Note to the left: If you’re trying to help minorities having low expectations of them isn’t the way to do it.