Two stubborn individuals have done more than anyone to slow the Obama political juggernaut over the last month: Frank Ricci and James Crowley. ...
Interestingly, both Ricci and Crowley are not the kind of folks the Republican Party has focused upon representing in the 21st Century. They are Northeasterners, civil servants, and union men. Indeed, their unions’ strong opposition to the racial spoils system and to racial blackmail has been one of the keys to their fortitude.
The Bush Administration systematically worked to alienate men like Ricci and Crowley, who had worked hard to pass civil service exams.
For example, on May 21, 2007, Bush's Department of Justice filed suit in the name of Bush Crony/Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales charging the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) with violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act...
May I suggest that as a tiny first step in rebuilding a potentially winning coalition, Republicans stop and rethink whether their President should have attacked the Fire Department of New York as racist?
Sure, these firemen are highly paid civil servants with a pushy union, and they’re New Yorkers to boot. But … 343 of them gave their lives on 9/11.
Last Wednesday, July 22, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, a Clinton appointee, gave Bush a belated going-away present by swallowing the Gonzales Department of Justice allegations wholesale and deeming FDNY’s 1999 and 2002 paper-and-pencil employment exams discriminatory against minorities solely on the grounds of Disparate Impact. ...
The judge found the tests discriminatory despite being unable to find any evidence of actual discrimination. Even John Coombs, the head of the plaintiff organization, the black firefighter’s Vulcan Society, couldn’t identify specific problems. Newsday reported:“Asked to point out questions he considered discriminatory on the exam, Coombs said, ‘I'm not going to answer that. It's irrelevant.’ He added, ‘It's a bad exam when the exam gives you … results that are abysmal for diversity.’... The Bush Administration’s claim that the test “is not job related for the position in question” was laughable. Each question is flagrantly job related. (You can see the 1999 and 2002 tests here.)
Thus Diane Cardwell of the New York Times reported on July 23 in Judge Finds Racial Bias in Fire Dept. Recruiting:“New York City used tests that discriminated against black and Hispanic applicants to the Fire Department and had little relation to firefighting, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled on Wednesday.”
Yet, Cardwell’s accompanying feature article in the same issue of the NYT, Racial Bias in Fire Exams Can Lurk in the Details, included numerous complaints that the problem with the FDNY test was that it had too much relation to firefighting:Besides, Professor Primus added, some of that knowledge is not needed to become a good firefighter. … Some of it tends to be knowledge that “firefighting junkies have, even though it is not really necessary for fighting fires.’”
Those darn “fire buffs” keep studying in their spare time how to save our lives. It’s discriminatory!
Cardwell’s explanation in the NYT of what’s wrong with the test can most charitably be read as heavy sarcasm:“Each exam consists of 85 multiple-choice questions about firefighting practices: the order in which a firefighter should don gear in an alarm; what the rear of a building would look like, based on its facade; the right situations in which to say ‘mayday’ rather than ‘urgent’ over the walkie-talkie.
“Nevertheless, a closer look shows that the exams also required applicants to read and understand long passages, often containing technical terms, and then answer questions about them.” [Italics mine.]
Cardwell complains:“One question, for instance, follows a 250-word description of the use and maintenance of portable power saws …”
I’m sorry, but portable power saws, especially the hellacious ones used by firemen to cut through steel and concrete, come with massive instruction manuals much longer than 250 words (owing to decades of product liability lawsuits, as the judge should know).
Read the rest here and comment on it below.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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59 comments:
---“Nevertheless, a closer look shows that the exams also required applicants to read and understand long passages, often containing technical terms, and then answer questions about them.” [Italics mine.]---
And they call that a test!?
If the white working class wants to improve its lot, it should realize it's supplying all the votes for the GOP, and take back the party from plutocrats. Republican pols are fanatically anti-union and contract out civil service jobs whenever possible.
A lot of men like Ricci would be more likely to support Republicans due to who-whom? issues if the party wasn't so extreme on trade, bailouts, social security privatization, and other non-identity issues that highten economic insecurity for people of all races.
What would you suspect the average IQ is for a White firefighter? It seems like the best blue collar job out there.
One thing I'd like the liberal busy-bodies(and their neo-con allies) who claim these firefighter tests are "biased" and "discriminatory" to tell me is, how can they tell the difference between blacks who fail these tests because they are simply not qualified, as opposed to blacks who fail because of the discriminatory nature of the tests? How do they tell the difference between the two?
Obviously, even the most politically correct airhead would have to admit that not every black person who takes these tests has to pass in order for the test to not be "discriminatory". Indeed, not all whites pass these firefighter exams, even though it is supposedly "biased" in their favor. No, wait a minute - maybe the firefighter exams are "biased" against some white people too!
I'm still waiting for evidence that these tests are discriminatory.
I know it is old news -
But, how is reading and comprehension not acceptable as a testing requirement?
And I think Steve is right. GWB pushed, and many didn't fight.
The bright side is more may fight under the current administration.
Steve -- If anything the problem with Bush is that he did not pick fights with the permanent (mostly Democratic) Civil Service Bureaucracy to protect his base: working class White guys.
He did not deliberately set out to screw them over, he just would not stand up and fight against the Black, Hispanic, Female, and Gay lobbies. Like Lindsay Graham he was terrified of being called names by the NYT, because Bush deeply cared about what people there thought about him. That's generally the case of people from his class and background: East Coast Preppy. [Bush's signal achievement was pretending to be a redneck Texan when he was 100% Kennebunkport ME.]
And no, contrary to your assertion, NYC is perfectly OK with people burning to death because of incompetent Black and Hispanic firefighters. Or a quota system. The calculation is that not too many will burn.
It's only when the pain becomes too great for too many people that you see a revolt against the elites: 1970's California taxing people out of their homes so nobody Howard Jarvis is successful in Prop 13. Obamacare threatens death-sentence waiting lines for most women who suspect Breast Cancer, so that support is kicked out from under him.
Most people in the US (thankfully) never have their house burn down nor do they know neighbors who need the firemen for that reason. It's rare. So people hardly feel they need a competent fire dept.
Medical care is a different thing -- even the younger women know they are vulnerable having seen older sisters, mothers, older co-workers undergo diagnosis and surgery. They get concretely the need for speed and accurate diagnosis. Rationing and incompetence in medical care is a greater perceived risk than a racially-quota driven firefighter system.
Ricci was saved because he had the good fortune to be banded with other guys who chipped in to hire a good lawyer, and the decision was narrow. Crowley was saved only by good fortune (he taught the anti-profiling case, was backed up by a Black cop on-scene, and recorded the incident through an open mike).
For the most part, isolated individuals will lose. Because all pols Dem or Rep, will fear taking on the Black, Hispanic, Female and Gay lobbies which create fear through media allies and blatant intimidation. It's only when things reach a boiling point ala Prop 13 where the pain is too broad and deep over too many people AND there is a broad political remedy (vote for a proposition not a man) that real change occurs.
The question is, how deep and long lasting will the recession be, and how much hurt will the White general public, particularly White Women, be willing to take before breaking with Black/Hispanic lobbies and Obama/Dems?
Crowley is probably more useful in "Boy Who Cried Wolf" than anything else.
I think it will take a "dam bursting" effect of popular anger to wash away the entrenched (40 years or more) bureaucrats who are committed to AA in all areas of life. This includes of course, Judges. That's the force that keeps it going.
One reason abortion / bible belt politics has been a loser for the Republicans is that it has forced Westerners and New England Yankees out of the party.
Culture clash here; I grew up in California in a household where my father grew up in the segregated south and my mother was a patircian wasp from the north. My mother was much more conservative than my father on many things incuding race, money, and religion.
The GOP needs to drop the insistance on being anti-abortion, embrace science and actually behave like actual conservatives and they actually might just have a chance.
ps - when I say conservative I mean that they actually try to conserve things - the environment, language, jobs, culture, money, way of life, etc.
"‘It's a bad exam when the exam gives you … results that are abysmal for diversity.’."
right out the horse's mouth. what more to say. the difference between him and the iSteve view is that he actually thinks it's a bad thing.
"Most people in the US (thankfully) never have their house burn down nor do they know neighbors who need the firemen for that reason. It's rare. So people hardly feel they need a competent fire dept."
I fear Steve's acknowledgement of testy is going to make him go from being amusing/stubborn to being overbearing/insufferable.
In Germany most people do care about who is a fireman. Because firemen take care of everything from fires, to flooding in buildings, to collapsed buildings, to emergency medical treatment, to freak accidents in the household, to helping out the elderly who are in a fix, to saving the local babe from a giant spider flown in via an exotic plant which she bought to impress her peers, to cutting somebody out of a crashed car on the Autobahn with a special saw, to saving a drowning person or finding someone who has drowned. Since most people figure that they may, at least once in their lives, end up in such a situation, most people do care about who are these firemen and they have massive union security and well-respected jobs.
A GOP "Northern Strategy" to get the votes of unionised white Catholic males? I guess there's a conflict with the GOP's tax-cutting and pro-big-business stance. Whereas supporting Hispanic immigration, especially illegal immigration, may need more funding for government services, but also lowers wages and weakens the unions.
"For the most part, isolated individuals will lose."
That's the most important thing for Americans of European ancestry to understand.
More reasons why the Republicans are called The Stupid Party.
"If anything the problem with Bush is that he did not pick fights with the permanent (mostly Democratic) Civil Service Bureaucracy to protect his base: working class White guys."
If only Bush had worked harder to push his illegal immigration agenda and pap like NCLB. *That* would have got the white males on board and shown them Democrats who's boss!
Off topic, is "isteve" supposed to echo "I, Claudius" or is does the "i" stand for something like "Internet" or "illectronic" (yo yo)?
"The GOP needs to drop the insistance on being anti-abortion, embrace science and actually behave like actual conservatives and they actually might just have a chance."
The pro-abortion and pro-affirmative action females already have a party - and a messiah.
What America need is a party with a leader who echoes the wise sentiment expressed by a certain European statesman who wrote: “I’ll put an end to the idea that a woman’s body belongs to her. . . .
Steve:
Do you have any numbers showing the difference in actual firefighting effectiveness between the Chicago and New York fire departments?
OT: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obama%E2%80%99s-naacp-talk-vs-department-of-educations-walk/
ah, quotas for AP classes. Not that it means there will be more passed AP exams. Can't do algebra 2? Who cares... onto AP Calc AB with you... gotta make those numbers!
Stupid suggestion here : why don't they ask a bunch of exclusively black firefighters to come up with the next selection exam ? It would be next to impossible to refute the results of THAT one on the basis of 'discrimination', so cities would save on legal fees, lost time, no ? Like I said, stupid suggestion....
Bush was abysmal. End of story.
How deeply he screwed this country will not be fully revealed, perhaps, until much later.
An amusing article somewhere claimed that on the subject of W, historians are currently divided in two camps: those who believe he was the worst president of all, and those who believe he was merely one of the worst.
This was the 'thank you' to FDNY after they lost 300+ at the WTC.
Kind of like the 'thank you' Neocons and Liberal Jews have been giving to the Western Allied powers that triumphed during WWII.
Well, thanks for the sacrofice, but we hate your guts and are scare sh*tless of you, so we're going to drown you in 'diversity'
Regarding the comment on Germany and what their fire departments do, what he described was what an American fire department does.
If there's a problem, and an American citizen doesn't know who to call, he or she will call the fire department. Sounds the same for Germany.
Germany doesn't have the faux racial problems that the U.S. does.
Also, Germany is over-unionized, and they over-train for EVERYTHING. A clerk in a German hardware store has had years of training before being allowed journeyman status.
On it's face, that sounds like a good thing. But unemployment is high, promotions slow, and their young, what few they have, are leaving the country, because of the high barriers to entry for good jobs.
There is not a politician in America brave enough to bring up a discussion about ending affirmative action. What I don’t understand, however, is why?
Why do politicians continuously and predictably kowtow to minorities? What are they so afraid of?
Affirmative action and racial quotas are a problem that politicians will one day have to confront; I just don’t see anyone of the horizons audacious enough to do it.
"testing99 said...
Steve -- If anything the problem with Bush is that he did not pick fights with the permanent (mostly Democratic) Civil Service Bureaucracy to protect his base: working class White guys."
It was not just by appeasing the civil service or the NYT that Bush failed to protect working class white guys. It was by pushing the whole republican program of free-trade and outsourcing.
Working class white guys may vote for the republicans, but they do not constitute the party's base. The republican party's base is money and moneyed interests (oil, real-estate, gambling, software developers, etc.), just as the democrats' base are moneyed interests (trial lawyers, the TV and movie business, public employee unions, etc.).
The only use that the republicans have for working class white guys - other than as easily bought votes every four years - is as bullet catchers in the middle east.
Can it be, Testing99 is right? I'm afraid so.
Nothing will change until things get much much worse.
All of America will have to be under siege before white Americans "get it."
And then it may be too late.
But as Churchill said, "never give up. Never ever give up."
The GOP needs to drop the insistance on being anti-abortion, embrace science and actually behave like actual conservatives and they actually might just have a chance.
Democratic Party Talking Point #523.
Actual evidence that the GOP is hostile to science is non-existent. As is any justification for supporting abortion. Your North-Eastern WASP "Republicans" are not conservative in any way, shape, or form. In particular they are dead set against "conserv[ing] things - the environment, language, jobs, culture, money, way of life, etc."
A GOP "Northern Strategy" to get the votes of unionised white Catholic males? I guess there's a conflict with the GOP's tax-cutting and pro-big-business stance.
Are there any Northern Republicans who vote for cutting taxes? I can't think of a one. And the "pro-big business" wing of the party is what used to be called "Rockefeller Republicans", who are avid fans of big government and were considered the enemy back in Reagans day. How did these clowns get to be seen as good conservatives?
One reason abortion / bible belt politics has been a loser for the Republicans is that it has forced Westerners and New England Yankees out of the party.
What has forced New England Yankees out of the party is that they are hard core lefties. The sort of people who trot to the polls to re-elect Ted Kennedy are not welcome in the GOP, and God willing they never will be.
The same thing applies to "the West", a region which is a lot more "small government" in myth than in reality. You want real libertarianism, look to the Bible Belt.
AA includes women, racial minorities, handicapped, gays, and probably others I'm forgetting. That's what, 75% of the population? Good luck on getting any politician to oppose that.
I dunno Steve, when its minorities that are getting outperformed by hard working, hard studying whites who memorize the minutia and read the fine print, that's AWESOME right? And those loser NAM's should be mocked for complaining about "Fire Buffs" whose mastery of minutia allows them to work the system.
But, when its whites that are outperformed in California college admissions by hard working, hard studying Asians who memorize the minutia and read the fine print, that SUCKS, right? And those loser workaholic Asians shouldn't be allowed to use of mastery of minutia to work the system.
Disparate Impact is bogus and the test valid when it gets more goodies for whites, and the admissions criteria suck because of disparate impact showing it gets less goodies for whites, right?
Hey, I agree about the Ricci case, but your arguments are showing a standard that is more "who whom" than strictly and consistently objective.
...since when is abortion a "scientific" issue?
The question is entirely moral/ philisophical not scientific, pretending otherwise is stupid. Science can't answer when an individual human organism (what a fetus clearly is as much as you) becomes a human person with legal rights, inherant value, spiritual worth etc (the issue at question).
Teaching to the test? This pattern reminds me of public education trying to close the achievement gap through NCLB. States dumb down the test but the gap remains the same.
It is good to see even though someone passes, they don't get hired as a fireman over someone with a higher score. Aptitude could save my life. However, in public schools, those who pass the dumbed down test get promoted to the next grade. But it turns out this isn't a bad thing as NCLB has made more students proficient.
This quandary reminds me of SCOTUS O'Connor staying racial preference is not OK in schools except for college admissions. Like NCLB is aligned with IDEA?
Here is where I think they are all wrong. Our society or government shouldn't be focusing on helping minorities, but on those with disabilities. If the police department focused more on how to incorporate and hire people with disabilities for office or paper pusher jobs, might not the rest of their world become naturally more politically correct? Call me a dreamer. However, I do know the only true measure of an effective teacher is how many of their students are remediated out of special education. But no one ever mentions this racism.
I read the power saw question to which you linked in your vdare article, and answered all the questions correctly, owing to the fact that all the answers were provided in the paragraph.
The question is clearly about reading comprehension, not who enters the test already having memorized saw maintenance techniques.
Anybody would can't work their way through that question is too dumb to work at 7-11, let alone be a firefighter.
It's time for equality.
If it isn't time for equality now, when will it be time?
End affirmative action now.
What are they so afraid of?
The media.
~Svigor
Stupid suggestion here : why don't they ask a bunch of exclusively black firefighters to come up with the next selection exam
This is a taboo question. Or at least, it must be, since it follows naturally from the nature of the discussion, but it's never asked. It's one of those odd, awkward little things that people just have to know not to bring up, without being told, like Jewish influence; we're supposed to both know and not know beforehand that satisfactory tests cannot be designed.
And obviously this puts the lie to the constant accusations of bias in testing.
~Svigor
"Interestingly, both Ricci and Crowley are not the kind of folks the Republican Party has focused upon representing in the 21st Century. They are Northeasterners, civil servants, and union men. Indeed, their unions’ strong opposition to the racial spoils system and to racial blackmail has been one of the keys to their fortitude."
They also are White 'ethnic' CATHOLICS.
Don't forget this one, Don Steve-O!
Why should the GOP be any different from any other large institution that has abandoned equal opportunity for all individuals in exchange for the soft quotas that racial extortionists seek? The leaders of these institutions can appease the race baiters and still slip in their friends and family.
On an unrelated note, I'd like to see Steve sponsor a contest where people can try to deliberately develop a racially-discriminatory test in a non-cultural field. Can it even be done purposefully much less accidently?
The mind boggles to wonder what a racially-biased math test would look like.
There's some truth to what Anon said about abortion and the GOP. I've seen many a white woman who would like to go GOP but is (unjustly, yes) terrified that if the GOP had their way that she's going to get raped by some big black guy and then forced to have the baby.
The point of overturning Roe is to put an end to bad law. The GOP should state that strongly, that if a woman is into abortion that she'll be able to get all the abortion she wants, but that they also believe that people shouldn't be forced to live around clinics, or pay for other peoples abortions or even worse, be forced to perform them.
"But as Churchill said, 'never give up. Never ever give up.'"
Ward Churchill?
Remember that famous photo of the FDNY raising the American Flag? The statue made for it was PC-eed, and depicts a white, black and hispanic raising the flag.
"Asked to point out questions he considered discriminatory on the exam, Coombs said, ‘I'm not going to answer that. It's irrelevant.’"
I almost admire the man for his brazenness. Just like the woman in New Haven who claimed she didn't even need to read the test.
Blacks Fail -> "Racism"
"That's generally the case of people from his class and background: East Coast Preppy. [Bush's signal achievement was pretending to be a redneck Texan when he was 100% Kennebunkport ME."
That's right Testy, the "WASP-Yale-Mafia" (I am serious 'bout this)!
I've always felt a socially conservative, economically liberal party (essentially, one following Catholic social thought) would be a huge winner. But the big money in each party votes the other way: the feminists want to keep aborting and big business likes cheap labor.
John said...
Steve:
Do you have any numbers showing the difference in actual firefighting effectiveness between the Chicago and New York fire departments?
7/27/2009
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Look into the Cook County Building fire a few years back. 69 W. Washington. Affimative Action leadership at its finest.
The reason why most politicians don't attack AA is because the vast majority of AA benefits women. Every woman is someone's wife, daughter, sister, aunt or mother.
AA will do great harm to this country and expose women and minorities of being incapable-why should anyone interested in seeing America collapse and Whites angry wish it to go away?
AA is leverage to use against liberals.
What we need is not an end to AA but more laws protecting Freedom of Association.
Look into the Cook County Building fire a few years back. 69 W. Washington. Affimative Action leadership at its finest.
Yep. I actually remember it... Few quotes a year after the high rise fire killed six people:
>>>>>
The Mikva report bluntly said actions of the Chicago Fire Department were “a significant factor in the loss of life and serious injuries.” The Witt report says firefighters didn’t “adequately search and account for occupants in the stairways prior to and during fire fighting operations.” The core problem, said Mikva commission member Sheila Murphy, a retired judge, was that several officials directing firefighters at the scene “did not know what they were doing.” Witt’s probe found “no evidence” that fire commanders had received “even the most basic training in regard to their own standards.”
I've seen many a white woman who would like to go GOP but is (unjustly, yes) terrified that if the GOP had their way that she's going to get raped by some big black guy and then forced to have the baby.
I don't believe you have.
The GOP should state that strongly, that if a woman is into abortion that she'll be able to get all the abortion she wants
How about the GOP states that the people make the law, whatever the law happens to be?
But, when its whites that are outperformed in California college admissions by hard working, hard studying Asians who memorize the minutia and read the fine print, that SUCKS, right? And those loser workaholic Asians shouldn't be allowed to use of mastery of minutia to work the system.
By all means point to the specific post by Steve in which he says that "Asians shouldn't be allowed to use of mastery of minutia to work the system".
I won't be holding my breath.
"“Asked to point out questions he considered discriminatory on the exam, Coombs said, ‘I'm not going to answer that. It's irrelevant.’ He added, ‘It's a bad exam when the exam gives you … results that are abysmal for diversity.’"
This cannot be for real.
This cannot be for real.
This cannot be for real.
This cannot be for real.
Why do politicians continuously and predictably kowtow to minorities? What are they so afraid of?
Protests.
Read _Shakedown_ by Timmerman.
Jesse Jack(ass)son's play book.
Sheila Murphy, a retired judge, was that several officials directing firefighters at the scene “did not know what they were doing.” Witt’s probe found “no evidence” that fire commanders had received “even the most basic training in regard to their own standards.”
7/27/2009
------------
The Fire Commish at the time was a White, Male, Irish, best-buddy-of-Chicago-Mayor-Richard-Daley, James Joyce, was told to fall on his sword and take the blaime for 69 W. Washington. Which he did eagerly for The Machine. It was so obviously a crony move to cover the ass of the on-scene bosses. Joyce was not even in town when the incident happened.
"I've always felt a socially conservative, economically liberal party (essentially, one following Catholic social thought) would be a huge winner."
I'd go the opposite way: concede abortion and gay marriage, since white people are more inclined to support both than minorities, and run on a hardline fiscally conservative platform. An "imlplictly white" platform, as others have called it: socially liberal but genuinely fiscally conservative.
You then get to paint the Dems (minorities) as looters and their supporters as beggars who are shaking down the government (read white people) for handouts.
It would probably win, and if not, it would at least expose minorities as beggars and extortionists and make it at least somewhat shameful to be a Dem supporter. The jig, at least, would be up.
An "imlplictly white" platform, as others have called it: socially liberal but genuinely fiscally conservative.
White people are not "socially liberal but genuinely fiscally conservative." Social liberalism is a fringe belief system.
Social conservatism and fiscal liberalism was the winning combination for the Democratic party for decades. The GOP only got a shot at victory when it picked up the social conservatism which the Democrats had discarded.
He added, ‘It's a bad exam when the exam gives you … results that are abysmal for diversity.’"
He's just repeating the beliefs of the leadership of both parties. And of acadamia and big business.
The looters in this country are the capitalists and captains of industy. We've just thrown several trillion dollars at them.
Sure, if you want to call moving piles of funny money and other people's money around and taking your politically-connected cut 'capitalism' or 'industry.' Wall Street is up to its designer neckties in government externalities.
Reactionary,
That is capitalism. You're talking about dividends paid to the owners of the government.
"This cannot be for real."
Denial - white trait #4,587.
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