> The linked article talks about a government agency (NYC Fire Department) who imposed a written exam for fire fighters...
Multiple choice question test: A, B, C, D. Not a written test. The word "imposed" is also a bit harsh. It's a test for fireman. Fireman that would be saving my ass in a fire.
> the judge ruled that the exam was discriminatory in results and was not shown (could not be shown) to be related to job performance.
The city is trying to remove the judge from the case and for his decision to be reversed.
> If you think that job performance at a software company is linked to race, I recommend that you keep your opinion to yourself. Maybe you can use it to your private advantage! ... or maybe you have racist assumptions.
I don't think that. And I shouldn't have to defend myself from being called a racist just because I've entered a discussion that has different races involved (and am white, well, as white as a born-Russian gets). You should also concider how much damage throwing that keyword around can do.
My point was that it's no longer necessary to link the testing material to job performance. But only to simply show that test scores are different between the races. And then to be politically correct.
This has been the trend we've seen in the last 10 years with these types of lawsuits.
There are parts of this country that not only have socio-economic differences between the races that impact the abilities of the individuals, but in some cases have cultures that downright embrace ignorance. If you start testing people for any job that requires a slightly above average ability in those parts, you will get drastically different results in the grade average of the races. This should not be used against the employer.
If the test is correlated to job performance better than other options that do not have disparate impact, it is allowed under the law. FDNY was unable to prove that the test was correlated to job performance (because they didn't ever make that correlation, the test was a cutoff to be considered to be on the force in the first place), which was their undoing.
Multiple choice question test: A, B, C, D. Not a written test. The word "imposed" is also a bit harsh. It's a test for fireman. Fireman that would be saving my ass in a fire.
> the judge ruled that the exam was discriminatory in results and was not shown (could not be shown) to be related to job performance.
The city is trying to remove the judge from the case and for his decision to be reversed.
You can also view the test for yourself (http://documents.nytimes.com/new-york-city-firefighter-exami...) and find out quickly it has everything to do with the duties of a fireman.
> If you think that job performance at a software company is linked to race, I recommend that you keep your opinion to yourself. Maybe you can use it to your private advantage! ... or maybe you have racist assumptions.
I don't think that. And I shouldn't have to defend myself from being called a racist just because I've entered a discussion that has different races involved (and am white, well, as white as a born-Russian gets). You should also concider how much damage throwing that keyword around can do.
My point was that it's no longer necessary to link the testing material to job performance. But only to simply show that test scores are different between the races. And then to be politically correct.
This has been the trend we've seen in the last 10 years with these types of lawsuits.
There are parts of this country that not only have socio-economic differences between the races that impact the abilities of the individuals, but in some cases have cultures that downright embrace ignorance. If you start testing people for any job that requires a slightly above average ability in those parts, you will get drastically different results in the grade average of the races. This should not be used against the employer.