on A Racially-Conscious America

As we await the Supreme Court’s decision on Ricci v. Destefano, here are some of the places I went to brush up on the details of the case. I’m always curious about what varying news outlets are saying.

The Root
The Center of Individual Rights (make sure you read their homepage. . .)
The New York Times
The New York Times
The New Haven Independent

A group of white firefighters are suing after the city of New Haven “threw out” a promotional exam over concerns that it was racially discriminatory. Of the 77 test-takers, none of the 19 African American firefighters qualified for a promotion based on the exam. The Root article does a good job of defining exactly what is meant by the language “threw out,” which recurs throughout the newspaper coverage.

The members of the board that certify the use of the exam for promotion use voted 2-2. With a deadlock, the exam cannot be certified, therefore preventing any promotions being made based on the exam. It is unclear whether or not the city rejected the exam in order to ward of cases brought by black firefighters or whether they rejected it under an interpretation of the “disparate impact” law which deems practices that result in an “unjustified adverse impact on members of a protected class,” even if unintentional, as discriminatory.

If the test had been certified, adverse impact would have been on the African American firefighters, with only white firefighters being promoted. The group of white firefighters argues that because the city did not use the promotional exam, they, in turn, were discriminated against based on race. It’s a complicated case that has been going on since 2003 when it was first brought in front of the lower courts. The case was heard in the Supreme Court in late April.

There’s no denying that race was considered in the city’s decision not to use the test. Instead, the question has become whether it is okay to consider race if you’re seeking to protect a particular group from obvious disparities. As the New York Times put it, it is the difference between “race-consciousness and unlawful race discrimination.”

Rulings from cases like Ricci v. Destefano or the University of Michigan’s Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger deal explicitly with the way America treats race. They are part of a larger, age-old question that nobody seems to agree upon: What is the best way to move forward from a history of past racial injustices?

No, the white firefighters did not benefit when the test was thrown out, but in a sense, aren't they now on equal ground with the black firefighters, none of whom would have promoted using the exam? Is this not what we are trying to accomplish, a society in which race is not a disadvantage, one in which everyone starts on equal footing?

Or are we trying to create a country where race is not a factor? There’s a significant difference, and I always cringe when people promote ignoring race. You can move past your history, but you can’t forget it. Nor should we try. With a past littered with imperialism, slavery, forced removal–and all the other debris– is a such a society even plausible? And would this mean that it is wrong for a fire department in a city that was 37 percent black at their last census to reject a method that prevented them from promoting any black firefighters into leadership roles commensurate with their numbers in the population?

If we ignore race, we are left with a country that is still rife with disparity, with the upper levels overwhelmingly white in areas like supervisory positions, socioeconomic status, or higher education enrollments.

To ignore race at this particular point in our history would be premature. It would render certain groups invisible. It’s a peculiar sensation, this feeling of looking out and not seeing yourself reflected back. For me, this feeling is tempered by the fact that I know it’s not always with intent; there is often no malice involved. It is simply the growing pains of our country as she matures.

So we’ll wait for the rulings and statements surrounding Ricci v. Destefano because it is rulings like these that in large part determine who America will grow up to become.