Ap National News – May 21 ,2007:
The mostly white Fire Department of New York discouraged racial diversity by using recruitment exams that inadvertently discriminated against blacks and Hispanics, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Monday in a civil rights lawsuit.
The complaint alleges that the Fire Department administered exams in 1999 and 2002 that, while not purposely or obviously racist, were littered with SAT-like questions that are do not test an applicant’s ability to fight fires.
It cites a wide disparity between the scores of whites and those of blacks and Hispanics on the exams taken in 1999 and 2002. Because of the results, blacks and Hispanics “were underrepresented among higher-scoring applicants” on a list of eligible applicants from which the Fire Department intends to draw entry-level firefighters through May 2008.
Examples of the questions being disputed;
http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article/article.jsp?sectionId=46&id=54815
Wow those sound so racist.
I dont know why someone doesn’t just own up to not studying.
Mr. Fusion said:
“But your idea of only work related questions do not answer the question of what would be a race biased question.”
You’re wrong. Your focus is the problem. A race-biased question does not have to be something that is offensive. It can be anything that is more likely to have been gained from experiences that some groups have and others don’t. Often, biased exams are class biased and class correlates with race. Only eight to 10 percent of the white American population lives in poverty. More than 30 percent of African-Americans are poor. Poverty is a signifier for less education and fewer broadening experiences. So, a test that measures educational attainment to a high extent favors people who are at least middle-class, who are disproportionately white. Requiring that job tests be work-related attempts to provide equal opportunity by focusing on basic and job-related skills. For example, I’ve always been a reading and writing whiz. But, the fact that I do well on tests because of those abilities and good analytical skills does not mean I would make a good firefighter. Only the work-related questions can actually determine my suitability for that career. Someone who can’t tell you who Balzac, Tolstoy or even Dickens is, is much more likely to make a good firefighter than I am.
You also might want to think hard and fast about whether you want to be a fellow traveler with Lauren the Bigot. What he says above is taken directly from the ‘scientific’ racism movement, which uses pseudoscience to try to make racism, especially ‘white supremacy,’ acceptable. Experts in psychology, testing and education do not recognize the biased use he is making of ‘g’, which, in itself, is controversial. Lauren is citing Richard Lynn, a rogue psychologist no one other than other ‘scientific’ racists takes seriously. The fact of the matter is that there is no proof that any ‘race’ is inherently less or more intelligent than another. Are you saying that you agree with Lauren, and his hero Lynn, that there are ‘inferior’ races who should be eliminated, so that ‘superior’ races can prosper? You really need to clarify.
#34,
You said:
The fact of the matter is that there is no proof that any ‘race’ is inherently less or more intelligent than another
Lauren said:
Blacks score lower on IQ tests, on average, than whites. This does not make whites superior. Asians score higher than whites. This does not make Asians superior. They are group averages, (Bold are my emphasis)
Well I don’t understand your problem. Every statement Lauren made he qualified. At no point did he claim any one race was more intelligent then another, only that on average some groups score higher then other groups on specific tests. I think Lauren made the effort to deflate the superiority you claim of him.
Nowhere in your post do I see anything suggesting a job related question can be racist and I still don’t understand how one could be. Your use of the excuse that denial of education disadvantages lower income groups is bull. That is strictly an economic bias, not race.
I don’t answer for Lauren. If you have a problem with something he wrote then challenge him, not me. I do suggest you don’t attribute quotes or opinions to him that are not in his post. That is far more wrong then his being wrong on some small issue.
“I think Lauren made the effort to deflate the superiority you claim of him.”
Then, you need to do some research. The next step in Lauren/Richard’s Lynn’s game is to attribute superiority in intelligence to whites, superiority in some sports, especially basketball, to blacks and superiority in rote learning to Asians (thus explaining away high scores on educational attainment tests.) The corollary is that groups are inferior in anything other than the areas Lynn credits them. That is how he reaches white supremacy while misleading the ill-informed.
Again, I suggest you do some research instead of being played for a fool by the likes of Lauren the Bigot. You might start with the Richard Lynn entry at Wikipedia, which, though biased in his favor, does explain his racist views.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lynn
if the test is so biased towards blacks how did the vulcan society come about? arent they lack firemen?