The theory, as written into law, goes like this: If all the people passing your test are white and all the people failing your test are not white, chances are that the test is not really fair.
It is difficult to go into all the possible criteria for all the possible tests out there, so they went for an outcome based litmus instead. If the test is producing a proportionate number of minority folks who are passing, then the test is reasonable. If the testing situation is such that all the non-white folks are failing, something may be fucked up. Interestingly enough, the law doesn't *require* that you throw out the test, you can argue for it on other grounds. New Haven, however, decided to chuck the test because non-white folks were failing it disproportionately. So they were actually trying to be "good" even when they didn't have to. The firefighters who passed the test, however, were unhappy that they would have to take a new test. So, the question became: should the test be judged on the basis of the perception of fairness in the test or based on the actual outcome of the test? It wasn't a question of whether racial diversity was a proper goal or not. It was a question of how best to judge fairness in a reasonably uniform manner. An interesting question indeed. Judah On Mon, Jun 29, 2009 at 12:55 PM, Jerry Barnes<[email protected]> wrote: > > I find it interesting that the test was supposed to be devoid of potential > racial problems. > From the WSJ: > > "The city set aside the results, although the test had been designed by an > experienced Illinois company, Industrial/Organizational Solutions, which > routinely scrubbed its assessments for any possible racial bias to protect > the agencies from potential civil rights complaints." > > It looks like New Haven went out of their way to avoid the problem that they > found themselves in. The irony. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:299231 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
