A while ago I wrote about the case of white Boston firefighters who successfully claimed they had been the victims of racial discrimination as a result of the BFD’s quota hiring policy. (Quota Un-Quota I is here, and other posts are here and here.)
Now, finally, a federal judge has ordered that the firefighters be hired immediately, with back pay and seniority. Even more surprising, reports Mickey Kaus, John Kerry agrees with the decision! Interesting.
Harold Lichten, attorney for the successful firemen, commented that “I think hopefully we’re just going back to normal, the way it was meant to be, so that now they are just hiring the best person, regardless of race or color.”
That, of course, is anathema to the NAACP. Toni Wolfman, NAACP attorney, replied:
“If a return to normal means a return to the way in which the Boston Fire Department conducted its hiring prior to the mid 1970s, it will be a disaster for any applicants of color in the city,” said Wolfman, adding that there’s not an effective check on the discretion used by those doing the hiring.
Now that I find really interesting. In 1964 one of the leading goals of the civil rights forces was to make sure the new civil rights act would rein in what was termed “white male discretion,” to require that hiring and employment decisions were made on the basis of uniform, colorblind standards. Now, the NAACP opposes the exercise of any discretion only by employers who are under strict orders to apply colorblind hiring criteria, but it favors unbridled discretion by college admissions officers who are free to discriminate on the basis of race.
How the world turns or, as they say, History happens.
