The Missouri Supreme Court has handed down an important ruling on reverse discrimination — upholding an award of more than $2 million for a white prosecutor, Melissa Howard, who was denied a judgeship in 2006 because the Kansas City Council wanted a minority in the position.
The decision reverses an opinion by the appeals court that the state human rights act didn’t apply to municipal judges. Specifically, § 213.055 of the MHRA states:
1. It shall be an unlawful employment practice: (1) For an employer, because of the race, color, religion, national
origin, sex, ancestry, age or disability of any individual: (a) To fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or
otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry, age or disability;
(b) To limit, segregate, or classify his employees or his employment applicants in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status and an employee, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, national origin, sex, ancestry, age or disability[.]
The city council members objected when all of the three nominees for the judgeship turned out to be white. Here are some of the statements made by council members:
“There is no diversity whatsoever . . . within the panel of contestants who have been referred to us.”
“I feel as though at this point I’m given . . . a very narrow opportunity for selection because I only have a sampling of one demographic of our city and that is Caucasian females.”
“[T]he fact remains this panel has no diversity whatsoever . . . I move that we reject . . . this panel back to the committee and not make a selection at this time.”
“For me there is an issue of equity related to racial mix, when you have thirteen candidates and you have six of color and none appear on the panel, it’s hard for me to believe that you have six of those candidates of color none of whom would qualify to be in the top three . . . I just don’t believe that is the case.”
“I have a hunch that if this [panel] is returned to the commission that there is a message there.”
“All one need do is look at the numbers, race matters in America, it matters in the State of Missouri and it matters in the city of Kansas City.”
“We need to send this panel back and show that this city, of Kansas City, is fair in its diversity practices” because “this [panel] does not reflect the diversity of Kansas City.”
“When we talk about diversity, do we include gender?”
“If there were three qualified black candidates on this panel, I would not be voting to reject the panel because they . . . did not represent the exact demographics of this city” and “this discussion is absolutely ridiculous . . . we have three qualified candidates here . . . we ought to vote for [one of them].”
“This has nothing to do with your [the panelists’] qualifications . . . I think you are certainly qualified.”
“We continue to talk about divisiveness . . . in terms of race relations . . . but the divisiveness took place when the panel was presented.”
“It ha[s] nothing to do with their credentials; I think all of them are highly qualified.”
“We have been in line for a long time . . . a lot of people have been in line . . . just to be represented.”
“Diversity . . . being an African-American in America it’s a whole lot different than you can ever imagine and so you really can’t say I understand where you are.”
“It’s not about these women. Each of these women have gone to college, earned degrees and made a very good life for themselves and have good reputations.”
“I think it’s a shame . . . [and] it may even be illegal for us to sit here and not have the courage to [s]elect a judge today.”
“These three women have risen up in a field that is male dominated . . . for us to dismiss the diversity they bring to the table is unfortunate . . . so I’m disappointed that we don’t feel you’re [the panel] minority enough – that you’re not diverse enough.”
Howard testified that she was asked why she even bothered to apply when she was not black. She was awarded $633,000 in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages.
Here is the opinion.
Source: ABA Journal
Lotta:
You wrote:
“2T, you have to say White American of European descent because you can’t say “American” and leave it at that while keeping a straight face.”
Oh yes, I wouldn’t want to acknowledge there are white people in America (of European descent). That way you don’t have to acknowledge genocide is being committed against them.
So, do you watch Black Entertainment Television regularly? Or do you watch White Entertainment Television? (as in you’re all WET?)
You wrote:
“America is a living story of conquest, assimilation and shifting composition,”
Thank you for admitting that white genocide is occurring. Your term for it is “conquest”.
You were forced to learn something.
Now someone needs to be tried for treason. Perhaps you?
“Your language itself condemns you”.
I was right. “White” is a swear word. Of course, believing that is racist.
Blouise:
Yes, I’m sure you like the Hitler picture.
Tootie,
The Hitler pic was a good come back.
I use girl/guy ’cause I don’t know if you be man or woman and don’t want to be disrespectful. If you’d like you can tell me and then I’ll address you properly. 🙂
2T, you have to say White American of European descent because you can’t say “American” and leave it at that while keeping a straight face. Go to the Four Corners area and stop and ask some real Americans, Americans of the first nation when they volunteered to become a minority in their own country.
Your language itself condemns you. America is a living story of conquest, assimilation and shifting composition. You just noticed that? You got a problem with the oldest and most quintessential of American traditions? Are you un-American too?
The fact remains all diversionary argument or rationale’ aside that the ‘genocide of Americans of European Descent’ rhetoric started with and is embedded firmly in the racist, white against non-white ravings and ranting of the White Supremacists, KKK, and the separatist Militia movement. It’s racist, and so are the people that base their political arguments on it.
Saying that, and saying that if the shoe fits, wear it, is not hate speech against you, it’s just an observation of reality. Reality is truth, everything else is just bullshit. You talk that racist crap ergo you are a racist.
Blouise:
Ol’ girl/guy. Got me what?
Tootie,
Come on ol’ girl/guy … mespo got ya on that come back … stop flibberty-gibberty-ing
mespo:
Also, when I suggested raising ones’ hands, I meant voting.
You, naturally, thought of Hitler. I suppose because that is how you raise you hand.
mespo:
So you are saying it is racist for white people to gather in one place?
What are you, then, saying about Africa? Or China?
Isn’t it racist to say that it is wrong for whites to gather together in one country when you are not saying it is wrong for blacks to gather together in another?
Are not your implications then that: only whites shall not gather themselves together?
In other words, isn’t that racism?
Tootie:
“When did white Americans of European descent raise their hands as a people and agree to become a minority race in their own country?”
*******************
Why right here Tootie:
http://rpmedia.ask.com/ts?u=/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cc/Hitler_1928_crop.jpg/140px-Hitler_1928_crop.jpg
Lotta:
One more thing: stop your hate speech against me.
Thank you.
Lottakatz:
When did white Americans (oops, is the word “white” a swear word?). Let me start again. When did white Americans of European descent raise their hands as a people and agree to become a minority race in their own country?
And if they didn’t raise their hands to this, does it violate any sacred notion or legal concept that the people of a country have the right to self-determination up to and including WHO precisely they will “BE” as a people? Including will they be made up in large part by their own posterity or by unsuitable foreigners and invaders forced on them by their government essentially BEHIND their backs and against their will?
And if they–Americans of European descent who are quickly becoming a minority in their own country–do have such a right to self determination, how and when was that right taken away from them?
Okay. Obviously, I’m talking above your pay grade, so I will assist you with some names to head you in the right direction, although you are not going to get the cutting edge information about genocide from them like you will from me: Steve Sailor, Patrick Buchanan, the late Sam Francis, Peter Brimelow (at Vdare, which, contrary to the brown supremacists over at the SPLC, is not a white supremacist organization.). Start there.
No one is talking about genocide in America for several reasons. Many Americans don’t see what is going on. They don’t know what the legal definition of genocide is. And the media isn’t going to let on that it is happening. Neither are Democrats who will benefit most from it. If it isn’t brought up more frequently, it will be too late.
Unfortunately Ted Kennedy is dead. I mean, that’s great news (like it’s great news Hitler is dead), but Kennedy deserved to be tried for genocide.
Oh, and I left out a key brown-supremacist group in addition to the NAACP and the SPLC. Cannot forget La Raza. It likes people only when they support the genocide.
Real big of them.
Genocide is the dirty word no one will say in public (because letting it happen in America is just too much fun).
Mike S., you make several relevant points in your posting and I can agree with many of them. Your rhetorical question about the extent of diversity is good one. I don’t know the demographics of KC but the City Council should and they should look to having the composition of city offices reflect the cultural and racial demographics of the city. If nothing else it’s good politics.
I think the City Council acted preemptively in their discussion of the perceived problem and their solution. There is a very fine line between encouraging diversity through legal means including affirmative action, and violating the law. I’ve been a participant in accomplishing just those goals and it take a couple of years to do it legally but it can be done legally and successfully and be of great benefit for all parties.
Given time and interest they could have answered your question and actually lessened any relevant and needless disparities that do exist.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
2T, Why don’t you give some links to the arguments regarding genocide of whites in America? I see that talk on White supremacist sites and the KKK site and some radical fundi christian sites. If you’re comfortable spouting racist bullshit here (and I wish you weren’t so comfortable) then back it up with links so people can ferret out just what kind of ideologues you use for support. You’re hateful rants are entering territory now that while honest at least, is repugnant.
Mike S,
You are right on target about desegregation. If the schools had enough money to spend billions and billions on buses, drivers, mechanics, fuel, garages, and so forth, it had enough money to equalize the funding for black schools and let people have neighborhood schools.
Brown v Board ripped neighborhoods apart and caused more animosity between the two groups.
It was also a lie and a fraud (besides being unconstitutional), because the goal was supposed to be about eduction not racial mix.
I find the biggest racists in America these days tend to be blacks and Hispanics. So, yes, we still have a racist problem in America. Affirmative Action sanctions racism by punishing innocent white people for something other guilty white people did in the past.
Naturally, the genocide of whites in America via immigration is a racist act of epic proportions. If it were happening to a black nation, the world would be in an uproar. But since genocide is happening to whites: IT IS OKAY.
I can think of fewer more obvious racist acts these days than that.
This is the type of situation that leads one to see just how complex solving a societies problems can be. We live in a racist society. We need to deal with this intolerance. Yet being a member of a discriminated against class of people shouldn’t automatically qualify you for a highly responsible position, if there are others more qualified. This record of the discussion on this does not do any of the parties proud, particularly:
“We need to send this panel back and show that this city, of Kansas City, is fair in its diversity practices” because “this [panel] does not reflect the diversity of Kansas City.”
Were there any Jews on the panel, after all KC has a large Jewish population? Any gay people? Any Latinos? Any Asians?
Any atheists? etc. Ad infinitum. Although most people here would consider me Left Wing, this is where I find much to criticize in Liberal thought.
Brown v. Board of Ed. ruled separate but equal was an unfair standard primarilly because there was no “equal school funding” in “equal.” The Liberal solution was “bussing” rather than providing adequate funding to the neighborhood schools. Not so curiously, the “bussing” seemed to be imposed upon working class white neighborhoods and had little effect upon wealthy surburban schools. The result was that the majority of white America, which had previously reached an anti-discrimination consensus due to watching with horror the situation in the South on their nightly TV News shows, began to feel (correctly)that the burden of desegregation was falling on them. The enthusiasm for civil rights waned and the “Southern Strategy” was implemented. Meanwhile the unaffected “limousine liberals” tsk’ed tsk’ed in horror at the racism of the working class.
By the way another great example of how good things could go bad was the appointment of Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall. Not only was Thomas unqualified for SCOTUS, he was a dim bulb compared to Marshall’s brilliance. Thomas was black, however, and the Republicans (G.H.W. Bush) proposed him as a cruel joke and nose thumbing towards notions of equality.
This City Council accomplished the exact opposite of what their well-meaning stupidity intended. I will always be an outspoken enemy of prejudice in any form, but sometimes in finding solutions we must think out the consequences of our actions and closely examine their rationales and rationality.
I suppose color me shocked is not appropriate….but what the hell…does Bakkee ring a bell…..
If only I had lived in KC I could have made some money by putting my name in for judge! If the Act does apply to Judges, this is not a surprising result in light of the statements by the council members.
Knowing the Kansas City Council the way I do, all I can say is “I am so not surprised.”
The only worse den of “reverse” racists (I really don’t like that term – a racist is a racist is a racist) in KCMO is the School Board.
Good. Frankly, the award should have been higher, and equal awards should be given to all three of the women who were presented. Racism is racism regardless of how these council members justified it, and there is no place for it in the hiring process.