This is the conclusion of a judge in Chicago who recently ruled that the 89-point requirement was a bit too high of a mark for minorities to reach:
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Chicago discriminated against African-American applicants who took a 1995 firefighter entrance exam, ending a long chapter in a seven-year legal battle.
The lawsuit alleged that the exam’s 89-point cutoff for well-qualified applicants would produce a smaller percentage of minority candidates. By setting that benchmark, the city created a pool of 1,782 candidates that was five times more white than African-American.
In writing her opinion late Tuesday afternoon after 14 months of deliberating, U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall called the cutoff point “meaningless.” Also, Gottschall said the test “could not distinguish between those who were qualified for the position of [firefighter] and those who were not.”
…The test, which featured an 83-minute videotape that made up 85 percent of the total score, measured only note-taking skills, which rated last among identifiable abilities for Chicago firefighters, the judge wrote. (more…)
I have always been puzzled with the whole notion that a test in of itself could be racist. This case I think takes the cake on the issue. Sure, if you administer a test to people who have not been given the full opportunity to learn the information the test covers, yeah, I would say that is unfair.
But to sit the same rusty-behind men in the same room and have them cover the same information together and still come to the conclusion that the blacks among them are just not capable of scoring just as high as their white counterparts–that is going a bit too far (and quite insulting).
Sure, the test may seem a bit weeny, but I think we all have to admit that it has been a long time since we have heard of any fires in Chicago that could not be put out because the firemen were unable to do the work. In other words, high standards for any job are there for one reason–they want the best (who wouldn’t, especially if that person is expected to put their life on the line every time they are fighting a fire).
I guess part of the changes to the Chicago fire department is issuing a copy of “Fighting Fires for Dummies”.
I guess the next thing will be that the fires themselves will be deemed racist because they bring back memories of burning crosses.
“Sigh!”, said Dr. King as he turned over in his grave.
Just passing through, I’m totally digging the blog. Great stuff.
Perhaps I am being naive but I really wouldn’t care if the firefighters who arrives at my home could write a Pulitzer-winning novel. That’s not their job. I’m not saying that the test is unfair to Blacks but what is the purpose of watching a 83 minute video and taking notes have to do with firefighting?
If the school officials reformed the SAT exam and added a test for bull-fighting (you’ll never know when a college dorm is overrun by bulls) and most women failed, someone might ask some questions about the relevancy of the tests.
I don’t know the entire story but here’s a quote from the article: ” The city also failed to prove that the test measured key cognitive skills necessary to train firefighters, including understanding oral instruction and learning from demonstration.”
There’s more to this story than what’s printed in the article. For example, where’s the firefighters union? The African American Firefighters League initiated the lawsuit but no comments from the city’s union leaders?
This morning I heard on WVON (Black Talk Radio) that there are at least two white men who were hired to be firemen who were not qualified, one of them flunked the test and the other never took the test. Everyone here in Chicago knows that this city engages in very corrupt practices. I went to a rally and Cynthia McKinney (Congresswoman from GA) was the guess speaker and she even mentioned that she was aware of what is going on in Chicago.