Gregory D.

Lee

Read Greg's bio and previous columns here

May 1, 2009

Will the Supreme Court Decide It’s Time for Blacks to Stand on Their Own Merit?

Last week the Supreme Court heard arguments in Ricci v. DeStafano, which is one of several cases the Court will hear this term concerning race and civil rights.

This case stems from a lawsuit filed by a group of white New Haven, Connecticut firefighters who claim they were denied advancement when the city tossed out a promotion test in which they did better than other experienced black firefighters did. New Haven city officials reasoned that allowing the test scores to stand potentially violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and that could lead to lawsuits from the black firefighters who didn’t do as well as their white counterparts. The Act requires that employers not rely on either hiring or promotional tests that have a so-called “disparate impact” on minorities.

In other words, if you’re a black firefighter who didn’t study hard enough to do as well as a white firefighter taking the same test, you can sue the city if it doesn’t throw the test out. Conversely, if you’re a white firefighter and studied hard to do well on the test, your hard work and studying is meaningless under the Act. It should be obvious even to the O.J. Simpson murder trial jury who the real victims of discrimination are.

When city governments hire public safety civil servants and promote them solely on race instead of their ability, everyone suffers. Residents suffer because they are saddled with unqualified, taxpayer supported employees. It gets even worse when these same incompetent people are promoted. Inferior supervisors will invariably make bonehead decisions that can cost lives and property. Morale within the city fire and police departments also suffers, eventually leading to a buildup of resentment that will contribute to a toxic work environment. I wonder how many studies there have been on the cause of employees “going postal?”

Blacks who are hired and promoted, thanks to the discriminatory Civil Rights Act of 1964, realize they were promoted because of their race and not their ability. Qualified blacks who do an outstanding job and do get promoted based on merit can’t help but think that their white coworkers will always wonder if they were promoted because of the color of their skin instead of their abilities. That would upset me if I was a black and worked hard to get ahead. I wouldn’t want to be stereotyped as getting promoted simply because I was black.

As a white male, I have been subjected to so-called “reverse discrimination” during my entire adult lifetime. Recently I experienced a combination of racial and age discrimination when I applied for a community college instructor position. Under today’s standards, if you are an older white guy, you have two strikes against you before you even file an application. I thought an institution of higher learning would naturally seek out the best qualified instructors available for the benefit of its students. How naive could I have been? A Hispanic with less education and far less law enforcement and teaching experience got the position. I wasn’t even offered a job interview to compete for the job.

Why should a white man have to tell his children that despite hard work and accomplishment, they can be passed over for a lesser-qualified person, solely based on his race? How can lesser qualified blacks experience self-esteem when their promotion is given to them simply because of their race? 

For 45 years, the federal government has mandated reverse discrimination and it is about time it stopped. How can anyone justify its continued use when there is a black president and black attorney general? The election of Barack Obama demonstrates that race relations have come a long way since the 1960s.

Continued discrimination against whites can no longer be justified and should have never been tolerated. It’s time blacks stand on their own abilities when competing for jobs and promotions.

Now the Supreme Court has the opportunity to end racial discrimination and finally provide “equal protection under the law” by finding this part of the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. But does it have the courage?

Gregory D. Lee is a nationally syndicated columnist for North Star Writers Group. He can be contacted at info@gregorydlee.com.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

This is Column # GL075. Request permission to publish here.