Since NDAI will be relocating to Connecticut in another week or so, I’ve been reviewing the columns I wrote the last time D. Dowd Muska was a resident of the Nutmeg State. Not terrible work, although I was much younger, and much more foolish, back then. (I still thought smart, responsible, brave folks would stand up and save the Republic. Now I know that the cultural and policy shifts we need will manifest only after the whole rotten system collapses.)
The column below, written in the spring of 2009, is as timely as ever, given the battle to end “progressive” racism.
Once you’ve read it, catch up on what happened at the High Court here.
Enjoy!
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It’s crude, but there’s no better way to describe the situation: They got screwed.
In 2003, New Haven’s fire department conducted an examination for prospective lieutenants and captains. The city encouraged firefighters to study hard, since the test included both written and oral evaluations, and would be administered by Industrial/Organizational Solutions (IOS), a national firm with extensive public-safety experience.
Over 70 applicants took the exam. Of the top 15 scorers, 14 were white. One was Latino. None were black.
It’s not difficult to see where this story is going. The ugly racial politics of the Elm City quickly took command of the promotion process. Boise Kimber, a “minister,” felon, and all-around sleazoid, used his standard thuggish tactics to make it clear that there would be a “political ramification” if none of the promotions were awarded to black firefighters. (Incomprehensibly, Kimber, a key crony of Mayor John DeStefano, heads the city’s Board of Fire Commissioners. Late last year, in an editorial that called him a “repeated embarrassment” and “not fit to hold a city post,” the liberal New Haven Register demanded his resignation.)
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