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Department of Injustice
Townhall.com ^ | March 30, 2011 | Walter E. Williams

Posted on 03/30/2011 5:54:39 AM PDT by Kaslin

One of the requirements to become a Dayton, Ohio police officer is to successfully pass the city's two-part written examination. Applicants must correctly answer 57 of 86 questions on the first part (66 percent) and 73 of 102 (72 percent) on the second part. Dayton's Civil Service Board reported that 490 candidates passed the November 2010 written test, 57 of whom were black. About 231 of the roughly 1,100 test takers were black.

The U.S. Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, rejected the results of Dayton's Civil Service examination because not enough blacks passed. The DOJ has ordered the city to lower the passing score. The lowered passing grade requires candidates to answer 50 of 86 (58 percent) questions correctly on the first part and 64 of 102 (63 percent) of questions on the second. The DOJ-approved scoring policy requires potential police officers to earn the equivalent of an "F" on the first part and a "D" on the second. Based on the DOJ-imposed passing scores, a total of 748 people, 258 more than before, were reported passing the exam. Unreported was just how many of the 258 are black.

Keith Lander, chairman of the Dayton chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and Dayton NAACP president Derrick Foward condemned the DOJ actions.

Mr. Lander said, "Lowering the test score is insulting to black people," adding, "The DOJ is creating the perception that black people are dumb by lowering the score. It's not accomplishing anything."

Mr. Foward agreed and said, "The NAACP does not support individuals failing a test and then having the opportunity to be gainfully employed," adding, "If you lower the score for any group of people, you're not getting the best qualified people for the job."

I am pleased by the positions taken by Messrs. Lander and Foward. It is truly insulting to suggest that black people cannot meet the same standards as white people and somehow justice requires lower standards. Black performance on Dayton's Civil Service exam is really a message about fraudulent high school diplomas that many black students receive.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes called the Nation's Report Card, tests students at the fourth and eighth grades in math, reading, science and writing. The 2009 eighth-grade scores in Ohio were: In math, 54 percent of whites and 14 percent of blacks tested proficient; 54 percent of whites were proficient in reading while 13 percent of blacks were; in science, 43 percent of white and 6 percent of blacks tested proficient; and in writing, 38 percent of whites tested proficient compared with 13 percent for blacks. This black/white education gap remains through high school completion, as seen by huge score differences in college entrance exams taken during the senior year.

There are a number of explanations for poor academic performance among black students, and they include students and parents who are indifferent, alien and hostile to the education process. There's often a poor education environment where thugs are permitted to make education all but impossible. There are often poorly performing teachers and administrators. These problems are masked by fraudulent grades followed by fraudulent diplomas. Grades are meant to convey information to students, parents and the outside world about academic performance. If a student is given A's and B's, when academic performance is really at the D and F levels, the student, his parents and employers are misled. Because black graduates see their grades and diplomas equal to that of white graduates, they and others will understandably see differences in treatment by employers or colleges as racial discrimination.

The most tragic consequence of the DOJ actions is that it brings into question legitimate black achievement and possibly sours race relations. Some Dayton white police officers might see their fellow black police officers as affirmative action hires and have less respect and possibly bear a grudge for assumed differences in treatment.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; US: Ohio
KEYWORDS: affirmativeaction; derrickfoward; hispeople; holder; keithlander; naacp; racism; sclc

1 posted on 03/30/2011 5:54:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
The reason they fail the test is because the can't read above the level of a six-year old.

No more complicated than that.

Do we really want cops out there who can't read?

2 posted on 03/30/2011 5:56:45 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("...crush the bourgeoisie... between the millstones of taxation and inflation." --Vladimir Lenin)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Absolutely not


3 posted on 03/30/2011 5:58:57 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
No doubt cops who can't read might turn to serious "beat downs" in frustrating situations.

If we could keep them focused on Eric Holder's neighborhood he might eventually figure that one out.

4 posted on 03/30/2011 6:00:58 AM PDT by muawiyah (Make America Safe For Amercans)
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To: Kaslin
...The DOJ is creating the perception that black people are dumb...

Hope and change.

5 posted on 03/30/2011 6:03:17 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Do we really want cops out there who can't read?

Maybe they can be equipped with electronic notebooks that feature little pictures on buttons they can press to "write" their reports, just like the clerks at McDonalds.

6 posted on 03/30/2011 6:03:33 AM PDT by luvbach1 (Stop Barry now. He can't help himself.)
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To: Kaslin

Eric Holder is a racist twit who fancies himself a social engineer. The fact that he is our Attorney General is a crime in itself. Just one more epic Obama fail. I’m losing count.


7 posted on 03/30/2011 6:08:03 AM PDT by Mich Patriot (Today, if you build a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse. RReagan)
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To: Kaslin
On your way from Kentucky to Michigan, avoid Dayton.

Errr, avoid Michigan, if you feel the need to travel head South.

8 posted on 03/30/2011 6:11:24 AM PDT by USS Alaska (Nuke the terrorist savages.)
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To: Mich Patriot

The reason they can’t pass because the learned from Union run Schools.


9 posted on 03/30/2011 6:12:07 AM PDT by scooby321
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To: Mich Patriot

The entire 0bama administration needs to be impeached


10 posted on 03/30/2011 6:13:18 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

Politically incorrect and non-discussable: IQ is inherited and varies across ethnic groups. Asians have a higher mean IQ than whites, and whites have a mean IQ higher than blacks. A certain group of Jews have the highest mean IQ of all, the so-called Ashkenazi Jews, which maybe isn’t too surprising given that people have been trying to kill them for a few thousand years, and the ones alive today are the offspring of the ones who survived.

But returning to the issue, since the mean IQs of blacks is lower than that of whites, one would expect lower test scores even given equal education, which they probably don’t even get.

Only the abject racists argue for racial quotas.


11 posted on 03/30/2011 6:33:14 AM PDT by coloradan (The US has become a banana republic, except without the bananas - or the republic.)
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To: coloradan

Holder, 57 out of 490 equates to approximately the relationship of blacks to whites in the general population. Quit stacking the deck with dumbbells in important jobs. If they can’t cut the mustard, tough!


12 posted on 03/30/2011 6:43:39 AM PDT by yorkie01
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To: yorkie01; All
Holder, 57 out of 490 equates to approximately the relationship of blacks to whites in the general population.

That might be true nationally but not in Dayton which is 43% black. An inability to find enough candidates to pass the existing tests, while having a large population from which to draw qualified black candidates, is alarming. Racism is not the answer to improving the situation. Education is.

13 posted on 03/30/2011 11:53:56 AM PDT by newzjunkey
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The problem with these affirmative action double standards, is that sooner or later,you are going to run into reality.


14 posted on 03/30/2011 5:08:15 PM PDT by jmcenanly ( "We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him." -Samuel)
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