Firefighter
This week New York’s Fire Department hit headlines with a civil rights issue that has everyone heated! The FDNY decided to administer a new entrance exam in an effort to hire new firefighters for the first time in 5 years. However, some of the existing New York firefighters feel that the FDNY are pandering to minorities by lowering the standards of the entrance exam to accommodate diversity. The FDNY’s lack of racial diversity has been a subject of ridicule for the past several years. There is no doubt that the diversity in the FDNY is surprisingly pitiful, 91% white, and only 3% black, shocking I know! But the department is walking a fine line between promoting equal employment opportunity and tilting the scales to help minorities. Judge Nicholas Garaufis ruled that “retroactive seniority and priority hiring of 293 minorities” would begin “immediately”. This decision caused an uproar resulting in 200 firefighters protesting outside of the courthouse in Brooklyn, NY.