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Recently I wrote a rant about affirmative action and discrimination. Most agreed with my assertion that discrimination is discrimination, regardless of who ends up on top.
Chief Justice John Roberts once said, "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race, is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”
Now the Supreme Court will be ruling again on whether or not race can be used as a determining factor in the hiring process. so called "benign discrimination," has been in practice for many years now, but employers who wish to avoid lawsuits will be watching this next case very closely
The case involves "20 firefighters from New Haven, Connecticut. In 2003, the city administered a test to determine eligibility for command positions in the force. No black firefighters passed the test, which consisted of a multiple-choice exam and an oral question-and-answer section.
The city opted to throw out the rest results and suspend firefighter promotions, citing US civil rights law that prohibits employment practices that harm minorities. That decision prompted 20 firefighters who passed the test to sue" (VOA).
I have been researching many of the cases on race that have been taken to the Supreme Court. Now the court is extremely hostile to Affirmative Action, and using race to determine policy. From what i've seen, I expect the Supreme Court will rule against the employer, citing that you cannot throw out a test which many demonstrated command-level ability just because no blacks passed.
It is clear that the race issue is still alive in America today, but looking at the history of these cases, the way to solve the issue is to award these positions based on merit.
Justice needs to be color-blind, it really bothered me that the article mentioned that this is the first race case to hit the Supreme Court after we have our first African-American president.
The Bottom Line: Supreme Court is hostile towards using race as a factor for employment, see P.I.C.S. v Seattle. The swing vote is Moderate-Conservative Anthony Kennedy, and he will probably side against the employer. The way to end discrimination is to stop discriminating.
Thanks For Reading, Cheers!
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Links In The Sidebar:
1. VOA NEWS SOURCE
2. Affirmative Action Rant
3. Coloranter Raver's Suggested Further Reading