Korean Job Discussion Forums

[madoka]

http://news.yahoo.com/milestone-promotions-us-capitol-police-135846528.html

As Yogananda Pittman and Monique Moore climbed the ranks of the U.S. Capitol Police, they encountered no top-level supervisors who looked like them. No black women, from the chief down to the captains, were represented in the upper management of the federal law enforcement agency responsible for protecting lawmakers and congressional buildings.

So it was more than a personal honor when the two became the first black women promoted to captain in the department, which in the past decade has been roiled by allegations from minority officers that they were passed over for promotions and subjected to racial intimidation and harassment.

"I just definitely think it lets them know that it's attainable," Pittman said of younger black officers. "When you see someone who looks like yourself in the rank of captain and what have you, they know they can do it."

The promotions may seem a pedestrian milestone in the year 2012 but they carry symbolic significance for the agency. Accusations of racism within the department have been addressed at congressional hearings, raised in multiple lawsuits and have drawn particular concern from the Congressional Black Caucus, whose members in 2003 said they were "incensed and embarrassed" by the alleged mistreatment.

Sworn statements from black officers and a 2001 class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of more than 300 current and former officers paint an unflattering portrait of the department. Black officers complained of losing promotions and favorable assignments to less-qualified white officers and of being humiliated in public and harassed with racial epithets. One officer says he found a hangman's noose on a locker; another reported finding a swastika-like symbol. One black officer nicknamed Ike says a K-9 unit dog was given the same name.

That lawsuit is pending after being revived by a federal appeals court in 2009. Other cases have been filed in the past decade, including just this year.

The Capitol Police has challenged at least some of the claims in court papers, denying that race played a role in the promotional process. Police departments have generally been slow to promote black women � partly because of promotional exams often alleged to be discriminatory and more likely to produce higher scores among white test-takers � even at a time when black men are increasingly reflected in upper management, said Christine Cole, a criminal justice policy expert at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

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I'd like to know what sort of promotional exam is so discriminatory that it targets black women in particular?

[pkang0202]

[Leon]

"Sworn statements from black officers and a 2001 class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of more than 300 current and former officers paint an unflattering portrait of the department. Black officers complained of losing promotions and favorable assignments to less-qualified white officers and of being humiliated in public and harassed with racial epithets. One officer says he found a hangman's noose on a locker; another reported finding a swastika-like symbol. One black officer nicknamed Ike says a K-9 unit dog was given the same name."

Seems to me this is the real story.

[bigverne]

[luckylady]

[radcon]

[madoka]

According to that article, whites can pass those promotional exams and apparently an increasing number of black men can as well. But it specifically states that those exams discriminate against black women. That's the part I find puzzling.

[luckylady]

and these are written exams?

I know there were questionable physical requirements for firemen some years ago, which were alleged to discriminate against all women in general but don't know about these other than what I mentioned.

[bigverne]

[Joe Boxer]

[Hugo85]

[geldedgoat]

[luckylady]

[luckylady]

[bigverne]