One of the most tiresome and unbelievable claims of the pro-preference left is its denial that affirmative action means quotas.
It doesn’t? That would surprise both minority group spokesmen and city officials in Davenport, Iowa.
Leaders in Davenport’s minority community say racial inequality in the city’s hiring and contracting practices need to change, and they hope to meet with the mayor and city administrator.
The Affirmative Action Citizens Group, which met Friday at Gospel Mission Temple, also wants the city to hire a full-time affirmative action officer to oversee the policies that could be enacted to ease the inequality they see and follow the recommendations of a disparity study completed in 2009.
The group points to U.S. census statistics that show the citywide work force being 80.7 percent white, 10.8 percent black and 7.3 percent Hispanic, but the city’s work force is 86 percent white, 3.9 percent black and 3.1 percent Hispanic.
“It doesn’t take a genius to look at this data to see the need to reverse this under-representation,” said Brenda Drew-Peeples, a Davenport lawyer. “We are appalled at these figures. The data in this report is unacceptable.”
Nor does it take a genius to look at the heated claim that “under-representation” demonstrates “inequality” to see that those who believe equality requires proportional representation also believe that affirmative action requires quotas.
It would be worth your time to follow the link above to the Quad Cities article and read the comments. As of this writing there are 23, and they range from critical of affirmative action to highly critical of affirmative action. Here’s one of the more interesting comments:
It is amazing to me how a group can “force” the city to hire another administrative position pushing paper to get more minorities hired by the city. Around 1992-1993 I took the written test for the Davenport Fire Department. In the notice prior to the written test and at the testing center, it clearly stated that the top 30 test scorers on the written exam would be invited to take the physical test. The Saturday prior to the physical test we were informed that 49 would be taking the physical test and to make arrngements for at least an additional 2 hours. After questioning why19 additional people were allowed to test, we were informed that the city needed to have more minorities included in the physical testing portion. There were 3 women, 3 Hispanics and 1 African-American that were in the 49. Testing day came, 48 showed up to take the test. The 49th individual found that he was unable to perform the ladder portion of the test in a practice session the Saturday prior to the test for fear of hieghts. The persons that were at the physical test that morning were upset by the circumstances that were dealt. It made the test last 2 hours longer for each of us, added additional staffing by the fire department due to the number of personnel there to take the test and for what, to give the 49th best written score taker their chance to be a fireman for the city of Davenport. I know now that if it were up to this group, that that individual would have had an unfair advantage to be hired before anybody else that tried out that day if it were not for his fear of heights. Because of groups such as these we add additional costs and undue processes to city’s, county’s and state’s budgets because it is unfair to hire the people that prove they can do the job. It is which minority can do the job, they get hired first. By the way, the first 6 minorities were in the top 30 exam scores. The names and test scores were posted so everyone knew where they stood after each portion of the test.
I hope this commenter is now a Davenport fireman, or was at least given the opportunity to be one. I believe his judgment of what’s fair, and what equality requires, is sounder than that articulated by Davenport attorney Brenda Drew-Peeples or, for that matter, the “wise Latina” held up as a standard by Justice Sotomayor.
