White firefighters sue over promotions

This story caught my eye amongst the Capitol Fax morning shorts today.

This is probably a situation that comes up in the south suburbs. We could be talking about places such as South Holland, Harvey, Dixmoor, Markham, Country Club Hills, Hazel Crest, Riverdale or in this case Dolton. I only mention these suburbs because for the most part most of them have a population that is close to or above 50% black.

Anyway here's the story...

Four white part-time firefighters claim they were victims of discrimination when south suburban Dolton passed them over for promotion in favor of two black candidates whom they allege were not qualified for the job.
The lawsuit alleges Dolton Fire Chief Jerry McCullough told the white firefighters in a meeting, "If you're not black, you're not getting hired."

Dolton Mayor William Shaw hired two black firefighters to full-time positions on Aug. 11, 2006, even though they did not meet the requirement that they must have been part-time firefighters for at least two years, according to the civil rights lawsuit filed last week in federal court.

Patrick Walsh -- a lawyer for white firefighters Doug Brown, Stephanie McKinley-Hart, David Shinault and Donald Shinault -- also claimed one of the black firefighters did not take the required written exam, and the other one failed the test.

Here's a little more, especially about the list itself...

On Aug. 10, 2006, William Shaw and his twin brother Robert, the village inspector general, allegedly created a fake hiring list that removed the two-year part-time requirement. The Shaws back-dated the list to July 3, 2006 -- but the village clerk stamped the list Aug. 11, 2006, the lawsuit said.

That same day, village trustees approved hiring the black firefighters.

A lot of the residents of Dolton, let alone the mayor of Dolton, came from the city itself. So it seems that Bill Shaw has brought some of his racial politics with him from Chicago. And in a very unfortunate area where you just might need to find the best person for the job instead of just looking at their race.