Source: Boston Globe
From back in 2003, when the consent decree ordering some affirmative action measure for the Boston Fire Department was lifted:
[I]n March, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed Stearns, finding that the fire department’s affirmative action policy requiring the hiring of one minority firefighter for every white one was discriminatory because the department had already achieved racial balance. The court found that the federal consent decree "had outlived its usefulness."
Attorney Toni Wolfman, who represents the NAACP, which brought the 1972 suit that triggered the affirmative action policy, disagreed with Lichten’s statement that the court rulings will lead to a more "normal" hiring practice.
"If a return to normal means a return to the way in which the Boston Fire Department conducted its hiring prior to the mid 1970s, it will be a disaster for any applicants of color in the city," said Wolfman, adding that there’s not an effective check on the discretion used by those doing the hiring.
I certainly can’t attest to the respective qualifications of white and black candidates, and for all I know the back row in the above photograph may contain non-white BFD inductees obscured from view. But "outlived its usefulness" of the consent decree reversal seems premature.
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