I’ve always loved this sort of discussion, because people make points like the one Mr. Navarette brings up here, the fact that Conservatives are always decrying people making victims of themselves, and then of course they victimize themselves afterwords. The problem is one of perspective.
Your average conservative objects to people who *aren’t* actual victims of anything granting themselves that status in order to muster support. How are the white (and one Latino) plaintiffs in the Ricci case *not* actual victims, here? I’ve always wondered at this notion that a white person *can’t* be a victim of racism, because white people are assumed to be wealthy, influential, successful, etc., merely by virtue of their skin color. If you don’t get hired for this job because the position was given instead to a black man, don’t worry: next month there will be a Fortune 500 CEO position open, and the interviewer will say, when he sees you, “Oh, no one told me you were white. When can you start?” So you see the Ricci plaintiffs, and all other whites complaining about reverse discrimination, are just spoiled little kids with too many toys already, jealous that the last one went to someone with darker skin. We have to have everything to feel content.
So some poor slob is dyslexic, pays a friend $1000 to make audio recordings of the textbooks he has to study, makes flash cards for another friend to help him review things that will be in the test, studies hard, and passes the test…and is told that the results are invalidated because he’s white, and someone who didn’t study as hard deserves the promotion as much, if not more, than he. Hmmmm….here you have to apply David’s Law. I’m David, and my law is this: to determine whether bias existed in any situation involving an allegation of discrimination, simply do one of two things. Either reverse the races involved, or remove the issue of race completely. If you can satisfy yourself that everyone would have acted the same, then there’s no bias…if you can’t make such a determination, then bias of course was a factor. In the Ricci case, if only black and Latino firefighters passed the test, and all the whites failed it, the city would have been happy to certify the tests and pass out promotions. No one can argue this point; nobody in city government would be worried about whites suing claiming a disparate impact from such a test. Since the reverse situation was handled differently from this one, bias was part of the decision, period. Any attempts to obscure this fact simply don’t add to the discussion much.
