Affirmative action news: Latino Group, Black Group and NAACP Backs White Firefighters

Firefighter test as designed favored “fire buffs” who have spent their whole lives reading fire suppression manuals, and studied like maniacs for the exam. Incidentally, most firefighters matching that description happened to be white...

Latino Group Backs White Firefighters

by Melissa Bailey | February 6, 2009 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

As black and white firefighters joust over a landmark civil-rights case, Latino firefighters are quietly throwing in their lot with one side.

The lawsuit, Ricci v. DeStefano, was filed in 2004 by 19 white and one Latino firefighter who claimed they were denied promotion on account of their race. The case, which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear in April, has the potential to roll back affirmative action nationwide. Click here to read the suit; here and here for back stories.

Seeing the Supreme Court’s decision as a potential threat to affirmative action and racial equality in hiring, the local NAACP and the Firebirds, the black firefighters’ group, have sided with the city against the New Haven 20.

Meanwhile, the New Haven Hispanic Firefighters Association has chosen not to supports the Firebirds. Instead, Assistant Drillmaster Rene Cordova (pictured), president of the Latino group, said he supports the New Haven 20 in their fight against the city. He said there is no proof that the city threw the test out on account of race; and those who passed the test have the right to a promotion.

At least one Firebird reported at an NAACP meeting that racial tensions over the lawsuit have spilled over into the firehouse.

Sitting in the cafeteria of the fire academy, Cordova and a fellow executive member of his group discussed their stance.

“You can’t blame the New Haven 20 for being upset,” said Cordova’s colleague, who declined to be named. “Their idea that they should have been promoted is actually true.”

Cordova agreed. The pair contended that the real issue isn’t about race: Instead, they argued that the way the test was designed favored “fire buffs” who have spent their whole lives reading fire suppression manuals, and studied like maniacs for the exam. Incidentally, most firefighters matching that description happened to be white, they said.

Cordova, a 23-year veteran of the city’s fire force, started the New Haven Hispanic Firefighters Association about seven years ago as a community outreach group. The group was formed as Latinos emerged as the fastest-growing racial minority on the force, which now has 372 sworn members. In 1987, there were only 10 Latino firefighters. Today, that number has multiplied to about 50, he said.

“Hook Thrown”

Cordova was among the firefighters who took a written promotional exam in November 2003, with the hopes of becoming a captain or lieutenant. He recounted how his association was approached when the results came out — but declined to get involved.

After the city crunched the numbers from the test, it determined that the top scorers were white — a result that would not help balance out the racial makeup of the fire force. Then-Chief Administrative Officer Karen Dubois-Walton called a meeting with the leaders of two minority firefighters groups.

Cordova showed up to the meeting along with a representative from the New Haven Firebirds.

“There is a problem,” Dubois-Walton told them, according to Cordova: She warned them that “If we promote, it’s not going to be fair because not enough minorities would be hired.”

Cordova characterized the meeting as a first step in a campaign to build up opposition to the test. He opted not to get involved.

“There was a hook thrown,” he said, “but we just swam by.”

The Hispanic association is not a political group. It’s a community service group, Cordova explained. The organization is more focused on community outreach, like giving gifts to children on Three Kings Day, than in picking political fights. “Why get our name and reputation caught up in it?” he asked.

After much debate, in January 2004, the city Civil Service board voted to throw out the test results. In June of that year, the New Haven 20, including one Hispanic firefighter, filed suit, claiming they had been denied promotions, and opportunities for promotions, on account of their race.

The fallout from the promotional test has sent a rift through the firefighting force.

The union membership voted to take the city to court over its choice to throw out the test. The lawsuit, New Haven Firefighters Local 825 v. City of New Haven (2005), was dismissed.

Gary Tinney, the president of the New Haven Firebirds, has publicly charged that the union’s actions regarding the test favored whites over minorities. Tinney made that charge in the preamble to an employment-related lawsuit he has filed against the union.

Tinney called the union’s lawsuit against the city “an attempt to discriminatorily and exclusively represent the interest of its majority Caucasian” firefighters. (The matter isn’t central to Tinney’s legal battle; He used the example to try to build a case that blacks were being discriminated against.)

The controversy over the test “was unfortunate,” said Cordova, “because it pitted everyone against each other. It strained relations; that’s what it did.”

“It’s now practically an all-out brawl,” added his colleague.

Cordova said he and his fellow firefighters have sought to stay out of, and rise above, the conflict.

“Everybody has a grudge” against someone, he said. “But what happens in the past is in the past. If you’re mature, you overcome the grudges” and move on.

Instead of focusing on the race question, Cordova and his board member were more concerned about creating a better test. The last one, they said, was drawn from material that included passages that weren’t relevant to New Haven firefighting. It included a variety of books, including one from a New York City-based author that didn’t seem germane to their territory.

They said the performance differential stemmed not from race, but from studying habits.

Those who aced the test were nerds who read fire-fighting books just for fun, said Cordova’s cohort. “These kids will get together” and pay famous authors, like text prep manual writer Norman Hall, to come to New Haven to speak. “They think he’s superman.”

He said those firemen aced the test by memorizing all the books — including passages that others overlooked because they didn’t find them pertinent.

While he said he believes the test wasn’t well-suited to the city force, the firefighter argued that those who devoted the time and energy to passing the exam deserve the reward of doing well on it.

“They should’ve all been promoted,” he said. “It’s a travesty.”

Source: newhavenindependent.org - Link