A Win for Individualism Over Affirmative Action?

“Think about it: we went into slavery pagans; we came out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came out with the American ballot in our hands…When we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look the facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, we are in a stronger and more hopeful position, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe.”
– Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery

A quick summary of the Ricci vs. DeStefano case:

• The City of New Haven, CT gave a promotions exam to a group of firefighters.
• None of the “African American” candidates scored highly enough on the test to qualify for promotion
• Upon noticing the “racial skew” of the results, the City Civil Service Board threw them out, deciding not to make ANY immediate promotions; even though they had enough qualified individuals to fill the positions
• 20 firefighters, including a Hispanic, sued—claiming racial discrimination
• The city maintains that it scrapped the test to avoid litigation by black firefighters.
• A District Court judge sided with the city, tossing out the suit before trial
• Last year, a 3-judge Second Circuit panel, including President Obama’s current Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, upheld the former “precedent”
• June 29th, in a 5-4 decision (clearly split down ideological lines) the Supreme Court ruled that the CT firefighters had been racially discriminated against & the previous ruling (in favor of the city of New Haven) was overturned

So, what happens now? What’s the result?

While very few articles written about this controversial case acknowledge anything more than the potential repercussions this reversal will have on Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, perhaps this is the foot-in-the-door for a serious discussion about the true effects allocation of jobs based solely on race has on the working-class—particularly those that protect & serve our communities.

As most Americans do, I want only the most capable firefighters & therefore, the most capable leaders commanding them when responding to a fire at my home. Being the daughter of a firefighter, I can’t imagine anything less.

So the question remains, could the reversal of the former Second Circuit ruling be a win for individualism, for merit without sole regard to race?

I sure hope so! Even as a woman who would benefit thoroughly from Affirmative Action, I’ve grown to despise the practice more & more as I’ve witnessed the effects of the program that was once (albeit faultily) designed to level the playing field.

Like many things that are in law as a result of politically correct speech & appeasement, Affirmative Action (pdf) in all likelihood began with the best of intentions, but as we have clearly witnessed in this case, evolved into a scapegoat for further racial division.

It’s resulted in the groups that support racially-preferential hiring demonizing the supposed racial “majority” to the point of reverse discrimination. It’s allowed our nation to venture so far down the road of appeasement that we have come to a point where the person’s ability to do the job most effectively is not the primary concern of employers…rather “who could potentially sue who” is the most prominent factor in promotion decisions.

Take examples from their website…

“The Future of Affirmative Action” states:

“Despite the challenges brought by Ward Connerly & the Right Wing, Affirmative Action will continue to be necessary because of the nation’s changing demographics & to need to include these human resources for international competitiveness.”

And the goals:

“…creating an atmosphere [where] all employees take ownership of the diversity problems & recognize they are part of the problem as well as of the solution.”

“…creating an organizational culture where racist, ethnocentric, & sexist language is totally absent.”

“…Treating each person as an individual with their own set of norms & beliefs. It is letting go of stereotypes & generalizations, recognizing that even within a culture no two people are the same.”

Is the “Future” statement not stereotypical or a generalization of all “Right-Wingers”? Does that statement not imply that every “white” person (since that’s who all the right-wingers are supposedly) is the same?

In order for a “diversity” program to be effective, you must categorize & group people based on certain distinguishable factors. That completely defeats the context surrounding these statements.

If Dr. King’s dream were realized, then all blacks & Hispanics & every other minority group must be held to the same standard as their “white” counterparts. That’s the only way the playing field would ever be level. Those statements must go for minorities judging whites as well as one political ideology judging another.

For a concept like Affirmative Action to work, it cannot be a 1-way street.

I digress…

It seems that while many public officials agree with the reversal, they would rather remain out of the spotlight, pending the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor.

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX), however (a member of the Senate Judiciary committee,) acknowledged that this was a “victory for evenhanded application of the law” & also noted that “all 9 judges were critical of the trial court opinion that Judge Sotomayor endorsed.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, when reading her dissent from the bench stated that the CT firefighters “understandably attract the court’s empathy.” (That’s the problem!) She also said that while she didn’t agree with the reversal, the methods used to come to the original conclusion were definitely questionable.

The Supreme Court, being the highest court in the land, should have NOTHING to do with empathy! Justice is blind (or at least supposed to be) & anyone applying an empathetic decision to a court case is not doing their job as it was designed to be done.

Now, if the firefighter’s examination for these leadership positions had been designed with questions that were about some topic EXCLUSIVELY for “white folks” (fake i.e. country music & cow-tipping—although this is obviously not race-exclusive, just stay with me I’m trying to make a point) then one could potentially argue that the test itself was racist in nature & discriminated against “minorities” (or exclusively against blacks since some Hispanics did pass & both groups are said to not be country music fans or cow-tippers).

Instead, this test was designed specifically by a 3rd-party to find leaders who demonstrated the highest ability to lead the rest based on knowledge of the job. However, once the results were taken into account—the firefighters who passed the test were not promoted specifically because they were white.

(Which although reported in the MSM, isn’t true—there were 3 Hispanics who also passed the examination.)

The employment decision was made based solely on race—disparate impact? I think not…or at least not in the traditional “victicrat minority” sense.

And as Justice Kennedy stated, this case would essentially have left room (if upheld) for all employers to discard any results they didn’t like because a certain racial group didn’t meet the racial quotas that were determined by the employer.

These firefighters were swept up in another of the negative effects of affirmative action—a brain-child of the progressive “civil rights” movement?

As Ann Coulter stated in this week’s commentary,
“Say, if the threat of a lawsuit permits the government to ignore the Constitution, can pro-lifers get New Haven to shut down all abortion clinics by threatening to sue them? There’s no question but that abortion clinics have a “disparate impact” on black babies…”

…I didn’t think so.

The Supreme Court should not succumb to “race-conscious jurisprudence” of any kind.

They made the right decision; the humane decision.

The unbiased decision based on factual evidence & the City of New Haven should be ashamed.

This is a true example of equal treatment under the law & only time will tell if these brave men will actually be given the promotions & retroactive pay which were rightfully earned.

NOTE TO READERS– Do not assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment that is made below because I choose to let them stand. However, remember that I do hold the authority to remove comments that are derogatory in nature at my discretion.

If you found this article interesting, please check out “Does Modern-Day America Mean Heritage Over Country?”