… Alas, some of us in the wrong direction.
A few minutes ago I received a press release from an organization celebrating its victory over a city and county government in a state appellate court on behalf of an employee who had claimed that he was denied a promotion because of his race. The court upheld the 11-1 jury verdict for the plaintiff in the lower court, holding that race had been the “motivating consideration” in “denying [the employee] a promotion to a supervisory position.”
It hasn’t been that long since all supporters of civil rights would have been overjoyed to hear this news. Now most of those same supporters, and all the usual suspect civil rights “leaders” and “activists” and organizations, would, I’m sure, withhold judgment until they learned the race of the successful plaintiff.
How sad, and depressing.
For what it’s worth, the organization is the stalwart Pacific Legal Foundation, which deserves congratulations. Its victory was over the city and county of San Francisco for discriminating against a San Francisco International Airport employee. I assume the press release will appear here shortly (it’s not there as of this writing). (The case is Cheresnik, McGoldrick, and Harman v. City and County of San Francisco.)
Although the airport had determined that Harman would be the next candidate out of the pool to be promoted, his promised promotion never materialized. In exercising oversight over the hiring process, the City determined that the applicant pool itself—consisting entirely of white candidates—was insufficiently diverse and did not represent the local community’s demographics. According to one airport official, the pool was “too white for City Hall.” The pool was dissolved to create a new more diverse application pool, and Harman was shut out of the selection process.
Despite his previous standing in the first application process as being qualified and “next in line,” Harman was not permitted even to interview during the second process on the pretense that he was not sufficiently experienced.
Roger Baldwin of the ACLU famously criticized those who believed in “civil liberties for our side only.” Now, all too many people who claim to support civil rights support civil rights only for certain groups.
Although most of these people think of themselves as progressives, that is not progress.
Embracing Illogic
John Rosenberg’s blog, Discriminations, deals with all aspects of this topic. Sometimes – often, sadly – his posts deal with the insanity of those who purportedly wish to stamp out discrimination by actually employing discrimination. This is one such t…