In 1974 U.S. district court judge Louis Bechtle, noting the history of discrimination in the Philadelphia fire department, issued an order setting aside “12 percent of each new class of recruits for African-Americans, with the goal of hiring 151 blacks among the next 1,250 firefighters selected.”
That goal has long since been met, but the “consent decree” lingers on, despite a growing lack of consent. Former Fire Commissioner Harold Hairston (who’s black, if that matters)
says the goal was reached and wonders why the decree is still in effect. “It seems to me you were supposed to get 151 additional hires. We had met and exceeded it.”
Not only does the unconsensual (is that a word?) consent decree still linger, it still engenders resentment, apparently on both sides of the color divide it reinforces.
The resentment seems to have been illustrated Friday in the form of a white pillowcase folded to look like a KKK-style hood. It was attached to the locker of Joe Montague, a white lieutenant at Engine 9, a predominantly African-American firehouse in Mount Airy.
Why Montague? Presumably because he is vice president of an organization of firefighters that promotes “fair promotional and hiring practices, free of any race based quotas.”
Fair, colorblind policies? Those, of course, are offensive, fighting words these days. Sure enough:
Some see CAFFA [Montague’s organization] as a Klan equivalent. That was made plain by lettering on the faux hood: “KKKAFFA.”
The hood is being investigated as a hate crime.
