Leftist Reaction to Ricci v. DeStefano
In a narrow, 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the New Haven, Conn., firefighters who sued the city for reverse discrimintion. The lead plaintiff, Frank Ricci, argued that the city's rejection of the Fire Department's promotional examination violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Ricci took extraordinary steps to pass the exam. He quit a second job to make time for prepartion. He also suffers from dyslexia and paid $1,000 to have his textbooks recorded to audiotape. With intense study he ended up placing 6th out of 77 people on the lieutenant's examination. Ricci's achievement is clearly a personal triumph, and a powerful example of hard work self-determination. The Court's ruling, essentially rejecting New Haven's "reverse discrimination" policies, would appear to be a no-brainer. But no blacks or Hispanics performed well enough on the exam to be offered promotion, the city claimed potential liability from "disparate impact" lawsuits and threw out the results.
Much is being written, of course. My interest here is to record a few example of reaction on the far left of the spectrum. Clearly, leftist victimology, and continued claims of "accumulated disadvantages" of racism and "institutional discrimination" are driving the discussion on the left. Here are a few samples, in no particular order...
Hey, thanks for the link!
It will be interesting to see if this ruling precipitates a cascade of reepudiation to years of abuse at the hands of the grievance mongers.
I don't recall a case that more starkly reveals the poverty of modern approaches to racial advancement. The left has utterly abandoned any thoughts of a "color blind" society. They contend that not to be racist is in itself racist. If someone suggested today that we should judge someone not by the color of their skin but the content of their character, they would immediately be denounced as a bigot attempting to perpetuate a system of white privilege.
It escapes me how anyone could let themselves be tied into such philosphical knots. The damage it produces, to all races, is incalculable.
Perhaps most damaging of all, it sends a clear message that it's okay - indeed, required - to be racist. I think we'll come to regret the fruits of that tree.
It is the sincerest form of discrimination ever concocted.
Being a white male myself and having been subject to -exactly- this type of thing, I have to say F-in' A on the SCOTUS. You pass the exam, you should get the job. Whining that nobody the "right" colour (or sex, in my case) passed is textbook racism.
When it happens to you, its shocking. You find out you got passed over for multiple less qualified female candidates because you're a -guy-, not because they were smarter than you.
I left the country, myself. Went to the States where cash is king, and thank God for it. The PC thumb is still on the scale make no mistake, but at least you can level things up with a bag of gold. Or two.
As to the Lefties, its good that they don't like it. If they were quiet that would be a bad sign. May they all contract boils.
This Supreme Court ruling overturned an appellate court ruling by Obama's current nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge "a wise Latina woman would more often than not make a better decision than a white man.." ""appellate courts are were policy is made.." Sonia Sotomayor.
The bad news is she will be approved by the controlling party in Washington DC. A party that agrees with these two statements.
The good news is she will be replacing an equally confused Judge, weird David Souter, who believes the Supreme Court is were policy is made.
The good news being her appointment is no net gain for the confused party. The US Supreme Court has a rational majority without her. She can do no 'more' harm than was already there with Souter.
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