“Rather than keeping up with the Joneses, it’s better to pull them down to your level.”

Speaks volumes about you….

How about not worrying so much about the skin color of fire department leaders and more about the qualifications of said leaders?

When my house is on fire, the last thing I am going to worry about is what color the fire fighter is. I want the best, strongest, most qualified fire fighter wearing that big hat.

Fire departments can do much, much more to promote diversity — without diminishing the quality of personnel in the least, and almost certainly improving the agency’s performance.

By promoting people that can’t pass a test when all applicants have the same access to study materials?

OK, whatever you say…..

How “diverse” is the PD and it’s editorial board?

What do the tests test? And how much do they count?

Why do you assume that the New Haven Fire Department’s promotional process is well calculated to capture the best all around candidates? For one thing, it is governed by the “rule of 3s” which requires the appointing authority to select from the three candidates with the highest testing scores. Many times, dozens of candidates are separated by less than one point. What if by other practical measurements — common sense, reliability, temperament, initiative — the candidate with the fifth highest score (which may be less than one point lower than number three)is the best?

What is magic about the “Rule of 3s”? (St. Louis city uses the Rule of 6, and the police department groups comparable candidates in Clusters A, B, and C, with promotions allowed among all candidates within a Cluster, and moving down to the next lower cluster only when the next highest one is exhausted.

Getting and promoting the best people takes work. And organizations that cultivate large, diverse pools of qualified people are more effective than those that do not — whether its a fire department or widget manufacturer.

News organizations struggle with diversity, too.

And they, too, would be stronger if they did better.

“What do the tests test?”

I suggest that, in addition to determining who possesses superior knowledge necessary to the job, the tests also reveal those candidates who best exhibited many of the intangible qualities Eddie mentions.

Who had the “common sense” to realize the the competition was stiff, and that a successful outcome hinged on the extent to which they were willing to apply themselves to the effort? Who took the “initiative” to acquire the test materials and prepare an effective study plan? Who demonstrated the “reliability” and discipline necessary to follow their plan, put in the hours and learn the material forward and back? And finally, who had the “temperament” necessary to deliver the goods at crunch time?

Tests have always revealed more about the test taker than the degree to which they have mastered the subject at hand, and were I a black man, I’d be incensed by the contorted attempts made by Eddie and others to place the blame for my failure anywhere but where it belonged.

Nice try Safer. But no sale.

Most people do not test especially well — black and white.

Lots of extremely capable people do not test well — black and white.

Lots of people who do not test particularly well do superbly well on the job. They show common sense, reliability, even temperament, and initiative, and not just on narrow high stakes test taken or when it benefits them. They make outstanding candidates for promotion — often far better than people who test well.

The best promotional systems, the kind that best serve the needs of an organization, provide opportunity for a broad, diverse group of capable people.

I’ll tell you who should be incensed. The hard working fire fighters whose prestige is diminished because their leaders to haven’t demonstrated the vision or discipline to recruit and mentor a department that reflects the community they serve. These leaders could do it, and field a force that isn’t just top quality but also is diverse, but they haven’t.

Eddie,

I’ll grant you that many people do not test well, but it’s equally true that those who don’t are generally unwilling to expend the effort necessary to do so.

Hell, we’ve all been to school, and we’ve all seen that for every student willing to make the sacrifice necessary to pursue straight A’s, there are lots who simply don’t want it that badly. It is the way of human beings, it is thus and will always be, and the same holds true in all walks of life.

If I were a firefighter, and I knew that a top score on a multiple choice test was the one thing standing between me and a promotion that I dearly coveted, NOTHING would stop me from achieving that score. The material I would need to learn is clear, the time I would have in which to do it is known, and the same test is given to all.

If I then put in the work, achieved the top score and was denied the promotion I had earned, I’d have a beef. A big one. But if somebody outperformed me fair and square despite my best effort, I’d have none, and I’d be embarrassed to suggest otherwise. I wouldn’t whine that the goal of force diversity trumped my opponent’s better score, and I wouldn’t claim that I was really the better person for the job except for the unfortunate fact that I just don’t “test well.” Sheesh, if I were any kind of a man at all, I’d instead start studying for the next test, more determined than ever.

“Diversity” is simply the new buzzword for politically correct racial discrimination that seeks to replace equal opportunity with equal results.

Whether used to segregate or “diversify” racial discrimination is still racist. Lofty goals and righteous emotions do not purify racisim.

The racism we can be certain of in this context is the more than century long exclusion of blacks from service at fire departments across the nation. We worked very hard at that for a very long time.

Diversity means working hard to make sure that all capable people have an opportunity to serve and to advance. We have not worked so hard at that.