The New Haven Connecticut Fire Fighters Exam

In 2003, the city of New Haven gave an exam to 118 candidates for promotion.

Twenty- seven of the candidates were black.
There were fifteen available slots for promotion.
None of the black candidates did well enough on the exam to qualify for one of the promotions.

One candidate, John Ricci earned a score that placed him number six on the exam. To earn this score he:

Quit his second job
Laid out over $1000 to buy books that the city recommended he study
Paid someone to read them onto audio tape (he's dyslexic)
Took numerous practice tests and practice interviews
Studied as much as THIRTEEN HOURS a day

Good for John! Congrats on the big promotion! You earned it!!

Right? You got the promotion, didn't you John?

No, because like I said earlier, none of the black candidates scored well enough to get one of the coveted fifteen available promotions.

The city decided that NOBODY would get a promotion.

This is a solution that the city called RACE NEUTRAL. Hense the name of this blog.

What would have been truly Race Neutral would have to handed out the promotions based on merit. What they actually did was say "Sorry, but even though you did well on the exam...we can't risk a disparate impact lawsuit".

I'm no fan of Justice John Roberts, but last week he asked the lawyer defending the city and their actions- "Would it have been lawful if the city had decided to disregard the results of the exam to select firemen for promotion because it selected too many black and too few white candidates?"

Unconditional race neutrality requires that our perceptions, expectations, and behaviors be uncorrelated with one anothers race.