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Is Race Still a Factor in the Fire Service?
I just read on Stater911 about a FF in Austin TX who was fired for posting naked pics of himself online. He did this on his own time and was fire because it showed poorly against the Austin FD. I don't know if "size" was a factor. But in DC a FF was cooking naked in a firehouse, intoxicated off duty. Nothing has happened and his name has not be given out. Now the reason I bring this up is because 30 African-American FF filed a grievince agianst the DCFD for whites being less punished then blacks for the same instances.
In my time I've people come up and talk to me about issues in thier firehouse from being called nigger or hearing nigger/black jokes to be denied driving privliedges. Just recently I heard of a company that had one African-American and while at the company banquet members thought it would be funny to serve him and HIS WIFE, chicken and watermelon. They came to me because I attended the state and county meetings and spoke my mind. While a member of the Recruitment and Retention committee I tried to have them place our booth at the Hispanic and African-American Festivals besides the state fair. No luck. I asked if companies wanted me to contact loal black churches with them to try to get members no luck.
I don't paint everyone with the same brush. I've had some very good experiences in the fire serivce. I'm, always welcomes where ever I go whenever I say I'm a FF from Delaware. I've had more bad experiences with the public then the fire service but I know there are problems out there.
I ask, "does your company or department reflect your community. Comning from a predominately Black department I'm proud of the fact that we have more white members then whites in the community.
My question is - As you look at your department, does it reflect the community? If not have you approached people of color to get them to join, if so how, if not why. Do you think the members of color are treated fairly in your company or department?
And lastly, do you think there is still a racial issue in the fire service today?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by capcityff on
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Race is still a huge problem here. This isn't just a fire department thing, but a community thing. I've had people not want to be treated by me because I'm white. I've also been called a racist a countless number of times. Not because I was doing anything racist, but because they felt like it.
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Permalink Reply by Alan McGuigan on
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I think that one as a member of the fire service on or off duty has a responsibility to act in professional and responsible manner. You represent the values of the service on or off duty you’re expected to use good judgment off or on duty. . As a department I think that it the responsibility of the department to make sure that everyone be made aware of the departments expectations on an off duty you can assume everyone knows what behaviors are accepted or not accepted but this may not always be the case. I also think there needs to be progressive disciplinary procedure followed. Was this a first offense or were there other issues prior to this incident?
As far as race is concerned i would hope that the race issue has been put behind us, and not a factor in this decision or any decision. Race issues should be put in the past but not forgotten hopefully for the lessons we have learned from those mistakes made where judgment was made not because of who the person was or what they did or capable of but because of their gender or race, race or gender should never be a factor .
Unfortunately i think there may be and still are situations where decisions are being made based on race or gender form both sides of the fence, we have come a long ways but we still have a ways to go.
As far as our department is concerned we have representation from different culture race and gender groups not sure if it equally represents these groups in our community or not? We are an equal opportunity employer but I hope in the end new hires are not based on any of these factors but who is best suited or qualified to do the job because let’s face it people lives people lives and property are on the line and we want the best no matter what the gender or race . I don’t care who it is that’s going to drag my ass out of a burning house, perform cpr on me or get me out of a wrecked car I want them to be the best male female black white brown yellow firefighter/ems , that’s what matters
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Permalink Reply by Mark Oomkes on
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Pretty well sums it up.
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Permalink Reply by Just Plain Craig Moyer on
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I know I used career examples but I'm guessing its worse in the volunteer side of things because theres usuallyt no recourse in handling the situations I understand about HIRING the most qualified. Buit when its a volunteer situation its different. Our fire company has been around since 1949, had to go to court to be recoginized as a viable enitity. In that time I think we proved ourselves over and over. I was amazed when I first joined that we got more resepct from the down state (country to my mind at the time) companies because while going to the state convention out engine stopped and helped on a chicken house fire (please thats too obvious of a joke) while in thier parade uniforms. The first African-American Chief outside of our company was from down state. Theres been 2 black chiefs who held the deputy position before they became chief. So far no one else outside of my company has been higher then assistant chief. (1 or 2) out of 60 companies in 30 years. I can recall being not dispatched on a 3 alarm fire. Someone we ended up covering a company on the otherside of the county.
I guess I'm wondering about the acceptance of minorities. Women have made inroads in the fire service because of EMS. When I applied for a 9-1-1 position I knew of 4 blacks besides myself. A Deputy Chief, a 5 yr member of the fire service and 2 other very qualifed people. I placed 21 on the list..the highest rank black. I was only hired because they said they HAD to hire a minority. Meeting the people that were hired before me really let me know what I was up against. A young lady just out of high school and someone from the same company as a person on the hiring committee. When I worked there in 1990 the 9-1-1 center had been in operation for a little more then 20 years. They could tell me why each and every black person quit. Could they do that for whites...no, I asked. Why because there had only been 5 in 20 years. I fought to get hispanics hired because of growing langauge issues. They decided it would be "better" to use a language service that we had to tranfer in and then couldn't tranfer the call to EMS. Nothing like dealing with a choke baby with someone in another language with no EMS skills.
We had an issue this past summer, we scratched and someone wrote on Facebook that if it was a KFC we would have gotten out as well as other racial jokes. I asked the same question on the local discussion board and was derided by people saying there wasnn't a problem until it appeared in the paper a week later. And to this day that OFFICER never apologized to our members.
Do I think there is still a racial issue in the fire serice. Yes. I just wish more people would say yes there is but lets see how we can fix it.
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Craig, sure there's racism in the fire service and in the world. That's because there is ignorance in the world as a whole. And that is what racism is, ignorance.
IMHO, what has extended the problem, is that now the pendulum has swung so far the other way there is reverse racism or discrimination and that causes animosity towards "protected" groups. Whether it be quotas, preferences, affirmative action or whatever you want to call it, does not make it right. Hiring people because they are the best qualified for the position is doing what's right.
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I don’t think fire is any different than any other organization public government or private unfortunately there are those out there that will judge based on color gender and religion. How to fix this?? It’s something that has been addressed for many years and we have come a long ways but we have a long ways to go. We need to continue to educate and set policies in place that address these issues. However I don’t think you will ever completely erase it unfortunately we can only try and make it better
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Permalink Reply by Oldman on
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There are racial issues worldwide. Some places worse than others.
My department has many different nationalities. As far as I am concerned, we are all the same. Our blood is red
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Permalink Reply by Ron Ayotte on
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I have a friend who is now retired form the job who is of African American descent. When he took the exam over 32years ago.. he left the "race" question blank. It was optional to fill it in or not.
He scored high on the entrance exam and was called into a metro Boston FD for an interview. One question they asked was " why didn't you file for minority status? That would guarantee you getting hired."
He stated that he wanted to be hired based on merit and test score and not by race.
Dr. Martin Luther King in his "I have a Dream" speech stated that he dreamt of the day when his children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Having hiring quotas based on race does just the opposite.
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Yea I guess calling it a class thing is a little more accurate. All of the racial comments I get are mainly in the low income areas of the city.
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I agree. Maybe there just aren't as many African Americans that wanna be firemen as there are whites. Why try to push them into the job? What good is that going to do for the others that they work with and for the people they serve? Just take who tested the best regardless of race.
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Permalink Reply by John Dobson on
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Well I can't speak as for race we only have a few African-American, Hispanic in are area and none have ever applied. But we have never treated females any differently than males when they join. We are close to 50/50 on the male to female firefighters. I would think knowing are department most would not care, But a few I would not know about from the way they have treated women on are department.
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