Perhaps preferentialists are sincere when they say, as they do, that they do not demand or even approve of quotas. If so, I must have missed their objections to the various quota systems that are still in place around the country, often the result of decades-old lawsuits.
When a federal appeals court in Boston invalidated quota hiring in the Boston Fire Dept. yesterday, for example, “civil rights” advocates cried foul. (Link via Howard Bashman)
The 29-year old consent decree had required the BFD to hire one minority firefighter for every white hired. In reversing a district court opinion upholding the program, the First Circuit said the quota “had outlived its usefulness.” Writing for a three-judge panel, Judge Bruce Selya said, “At long last … parity has been reached between the percentage of minority firefighters in the BFD and the percentage of minorities in the city as a whole.”
Although it rejected the quota, the Court seems to adhere to the view that equality requires strictly proportional “parity,” which is also the BFD’s view. “Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Christian said he believes the makeup of the Fire Department should reflect the city.”
The “civil rights” community agreed with the Court that equality requires parity, but disagreed over whether it had been achieved.
Karen Miller, president of the Vulcan Society, an organization of black firefighters, said the decision was “disappointing, in light of the fact that problems still exist in the department and in the hiring process. … We don’t believe parity has been reached and if they based their formula solely on the entry-level numbers, then they were wrong, because that’s not what the decree states. We feel a gross injustice has been done to future applicants of color. We will not sit back and accept this decision and we will begin to strategize our next move.”
Leonard Alkins, president of the Boston NAACP, said he was disappointed by the ruling and would review it with the branch’s legal counsel. The NAACP had intervened in the case in support of the existing policy. The group had also filed the 1972 suit that led to the 1974 consent decree.
The traditional notion of fairness and equality was represented in the union, and let’s give it the last word:
Nick DiMarino, president of Boston Firefighters Local 718, said the decision means that now all hiring will be done ”according to the score. … It doesn’t matter what race, color, creed or religion, it should just be the highest score. That’s what the union has always felt. That’s the fair way. There should be competition one on one. If you beat me, you deserve it.”
Let’s be serious: the union didn’t believe that when the FD was all white. OK, maybe the quota has long outlived its usefulness, but the BFD was almost certainly a locus of deliberate, willful anti-black discrimination.
Do you think these quotas were bad at the time the old racist system was overthrown?
The quotas probably weren’t bad at the time the old racist system was overthrown. They have outlived their usefulness now, IMO, and are only bringing about a new racist system. Better to toss them overboard.