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NYC Firefighter Exams Discriminated Against Minorities: Judge
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by cyn.khoo | July 22, 2009 at 04:06 pm
910 views | 2 Recommendations | 2 comments
New York City has been discriminating against minorities in firefighter hirings, ruled US District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis on Wednesday, July 22. According to Garaufis, black and Hispanic people make up only 10 percent of the firefighter work force in New York, despite the fact that minorities make up most of the city's population.
The US Department of Justice and a fraternal order of black firefighters found stark disparities in results among firefighter candidates between 1999 and 2007, which used the same exams to hire over 5,300 entry-level firefighters. Out of the 3,100 black applicants and 4,200 Hispanic applicants who took the exam, only 184 black firefighters and 461 Hispanic firefighters were ultimately appointed.
In his ruling, Garaufis referred to the recent controversial case of the New Haven firefighter department, in which the city of New Haven threw out the results of a firefighter exam that a disproportionate number of minority candidates failed.
He said the New York City lawsuit presented a different question: whether the exam had "actually had a disparate impact upon black and Hispanic applicants for positions as entry-level firefighters." The Connecticut case, he said, "did not confront that issue."
The judge said the New York City case proved that "when an employment test is not adequately related to the job for which it tests , and when the test adversely affects minority groups , we may not fall back on the notion that better test takers make better employees."
City attorney Georgia Pestana said the city was "disappointed" and that a new test was developed and administered in January 2007 while the city spent $2 million on a campaign targeted at increasing the number of minorities in the FDNY (Fire Department of New York).
Currently, the New York fire department consists of approximately 16 percent black firefighters and approximately 25 percent Hispanic firefighters.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 16:56 on July 22nd, 2009
This sounds like the New Haven, CT, firefighter case.
at 05:26 on July 23rd, 2009
not sure what to make of this. does this mean that blacks and hispanics are not as smart as whites therefore the test should be dummied down? Are white people reading the test differently than black or hispanics? this is rediculous!! you have one test, the same test for everyone, some pass, some dont. so you failed the test and happen to be black, now, the test is unfare. what a joke!!!! I can't believe black or hispanic people would even want to be labled in that dummy category.