https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/seattle-firefighters-now-drilled-on-ibram-kendi-before-promotion-to-top-jobs/Lieutenants’ test includes “How To Be an Antiracist,” “Memoirs of a Transgender Firefighter,” and other woke tomes Of all the jobs in a standard fire department, a lieutenant’s is among the most difficult. When a fire truck approaches a blaze, the lieutenant decides how to tackle it—what windows to breach, which floors to prioritize, and how best to deploy the truck’s three or four firefighters against a shifting, inanimate enemy.To see if they’re up to snuff, most departments administer a written test, typically multiple-choice, to prospective lieutenants. Candidates must score above a cut-off to be considered for the job, with higher scores increasing the odds of promotion. The exam, which covers a litany of topics from building construction to medical techniques, is designed to ensure that the people making life-and-death decisions know the bare minimum to make them well.So firefighters in Seattle, Washington, were surprised when their department’s lieutenant exam focused almost as much on social justice as on firefighting.The test, which has both written and oral components, is based on a list of texts assigned by the Seattle Department of Human Resources—including, as of this year, How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi and Both Sides of the Fire Lane: Memoirs of a Transgender Firefighter by Bobbie Scopa, according to a copy of the exam bibliography obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.Along with A Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias and Fighting Fire, a memoir by a female firefighter, the books about race and gender span over 800 pages—a large fraction of the total study material.
"This stuff has nothing to do with firefighting," said Wayne Johnson, a retired Seattle firefighter who helped write some of the city’s promotional tests. "It has everything to do with social engineering."The exam is part of a much larger effort to diversify a department that, as Seattle fire chief Harold Scoggins lamented last year, is "overwhelmingly" white men. Those efforts, critics say, have made the promotion process more about ideology and less about merit, politicizing a public service where competence can mean the difference between life and death.In fact, in 2021, local officials including Scoggins commissioned a report on diversity in the fire service. One of its recommendations: avoid tests that "rely heavily on knowledge of firefighting.""[T]ests that focus on how well applicants know the system and the job tend to favor those who make up the overwhelming majority of the fire service workforce, white men," the report says. "Questions that ask more about the candidate’s character and values, rather than knowing the ins and outs of the job, can be beneficial in advancing more women and people of color."Seattle appears to have taken that advice.An upcoming test for fireboat engineers, who operate the pumps and nozzles used to douse coastal fires, will quiz candidates on Robin DiAngelo’s Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education, according to the exam bibliography. The fire captains exam likewise assigns DiAngelo’s book—along with handouts on the "structural interplay between all oppressions"—while the exam for battalion chiefs assigns the 2021 report on fire service diversity.
Scoggins did not respond to a request for comment.Seattle’s tests are an outlier. In most cities, even Democratic strongholds like Boston and New Haven, written fire exams test only tactical knowledge. But in Seattle, where Scoggins himself helped protesters seal off the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in the wake of George Floyd’s death, promotions hinge on mastering these ideological tomes.Firefighters who sat for the 2021 lieutenant's exam said How To Be an Antiracist was an integral part of it, while basics like fire behavior took a back seat. "If I had only read that one book, I would have done really well," said Andy Pittman, a former member of the Seattle Fire Department. "What we should be studying—high rise fires, water supply—wasn’t emphasized as heavily."Pittman, who is Japanese as well as an Alaskan Native, said he scored well on the tactics portion of the exam conducted via video. But he hadn’t expected the written portion, which received the most weight, to be so slanted toward race and identity. While technically above the pass/fail cut-off, his overall score was low—tanked in part, he said, by the political questions. That put him near the bottom of the department’s promotion register, meaning he was all but certain to be passed over.Beyond raising questions about competence, former department members say, the ideological screening has worsened a staffing crisis caused by the city’s vaccine mandate, which put nearly 80 firefighters—almost a tenth of the department—out of work. At a time when the city desperately needs first responders, the fire service has grown more hostile to the sort of people who typically join it: big, burly men whose politics tend to be to the right of the average Seattle bureaucrat.
"These woke tests are making it harder for the macho guys to get hired," said Steve Collins, who, along with Pittman and other firefighters interviewed for this story, lost his job in October 2021 when he refused the COVID-19 vaccine. "They weed out people who are not politically aligned."The written tests are overseen by Seattle’s Public Safety Exams Administrator, Yoshiko Grace Matsui, who ensures that "civil service processes are equitable," according to her LinkedIn page. She did not respond to a request for comment.The emphasis on equity has even bled into physical evaluations. When women fail the Candidate Physical Assessment Test—a standardized fitness exam all recruits must pass—the department has been known to offer them an immediate do-over, said Josh Gibbs, a former member of the department’s special operations team. Men, on the other hand, must wait until the next testing cycle.Instructors have also been barred from gauging recruits’ readiness with tests more difficult than the standard assessment, said Ann-Maree Tedaldi, the department’s former fitness coordinator, again due to equity concerns."I was personally told I could not do any physical fitness testing to see where people were at or help them improve," Tedaldi said, "because the tests might be biased against certain populations."The result, she added, was a high rate of attrition among new recruits, who found that the city’s training program—one of the best in the state—was much more physically demanding than the basic fitness exam. That in turn perpetuated the department’s staffing shortfall, which has at times forced units to stop operating.The blunder reflects what Collins says is the fundamental design flaw in the city’s social engineering schemes: "Mother Nature," he quipped, "is not an equal opportunity employer."
Critical race theory isn't anti-white. it's white history.
>>1171347>freebeacon.comKek. No thanks
>>1171347thank you, good article. It's really a shame the way Seattle is changing; 10 years ago, crazy shit like this would've been voted out
>>1171356Its hilarious conservicunts trust the site that hired Fusion GPS and started the Trump Dossier
>>1171351>objectivity is a characteristic of white supremacy?
>>1171369No one mentioned white supremacy but you.
>>1171367Irony is too high an intellectual bar for the average wingnut on this board.
>>1171367>>1171356>Its hilarious that conservatives trust a site that directly links to the Seattle government sitehttps://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/PSCSC/ExamsAndRegisters/Bibliographies/2023%20Fireboat%20Engineer%20Final%20Bibliography%20%283-22-2023%29.pdfFind a new cope.>>1171351>claiming that all white people are oppressive, arrogant, ignorant, etc isn't anti-whitek
>>1171372cry some more, you mediocre bitchdoes posting conservative shill sites and lying about everything make you feel better? The fact that some slobby white turd decided to forward this over is proof enough that we need to root out more of you whiny bitches
>>1171375>white turdyeah you're racist>anybody who is not racist is a whiny mediocre bitchk>lyingwhere's the lie? Literally linked to the actual document on Seattle.gov. What's it like having such horrible views that the only cope you have is burying your head in the sand?
>>1171376You didn't link to shitWhy do conservicunts always need to lie to prove their point? This has nothing to do with CRT, and everything with a fragile white bitch scared of being mediocreYou'll keep amounting to nothing, not because you're white and 'the world is against you', but because you're just a dumb faggot
>>1171377Projection
>>1171376You’re such a victim
>>1171377>>scared of being mediocreAnd that's a bad thing, because...?Because White?Because White. lol
>>1171491I don't think I'll ever understand why the part of personal responsibility is so addicted to being fucking victims. You guys remind me of blue-hairs on Twitter. You literally can't stop.
>>1171496To be fair, you (Democrats, blacks, the left, faggots, illegal immigrants, women, etc.) made this the political status quo.
>>1171506>We, the party of personal responsibility, saw other people behaving badly and in a way we view morally reprehensible and THATS why we responded by behaving badly and morally reprehensible as revenge!The fact that you're not smart enough to realize you're basically admitting to having the worldview of a 9 year old is fucking hilarious. Someone else does something bad so that means its okay for me to do bad thing. You're an actual child.
>>1171511>Someone else does something bad so that means its okay for me to do bad thing. You're an actual child.Then what of the children who made this the standard?
>>1171356>>1171367>>1171377>this didn't happen>>1171375>>1171496>>1171414>okay it did happen but who cares lol only a pathetic whiny baby thinks racism is a bad thingThis thread is like 90% of all debates with leftists
>>1171601have you managed to convince anyone that it's racist if you aren't allowed to be racist?
>>1171370White supremacy is mentioned in critical race theory classes all the time. The work of Tema Okun is often presented which posits that various things like objectivity are "white supremacy".https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Fnglc%2Fimages%2Fcontent%2Fimage%2FWSC_chars.png&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=75385dbf0fec4b69d175778c69e0eeb9dc573911e22dde05e5dba87c19036e09&ipo=imagesIn their view the act of being logical, the act of asking for evidence, the act of thinking and debating, is white supremacy. They wish to shut down these things when it comes to discussions about race and racism and how much racism there actually is and how much of the problems facing black people are due to racism or other factors. There is a whole institution in America revolving around "diversity". If a tech company has mostly white men and a few asian men and they insist they are hiring based on merit, they are often accused of being racist, they are pressured to hire underqualified minorities, and not asians. The same with colleges. Asian and white men are racially discriminated against on a massive scale to improve "diversity". Yet how much of this is due to "white supremacy" really?You say you want to talk about race, ok let's talk about race. Give me an intelligent counter-argument to the points I have raised here.
>>1171621life isn't fair
>>1171615Do you have a point or do you just hate white people?
>I don’t know what critical race theory is
>>1171621>they won't let me have the hogh paying job!>what do you mean police batons have homing mechanism for black people is more racist than me not getting my dream job?Your at the bottom of the list of people who need a leg up because racism. You can wait but its gonna be a while.
>>1171755"The law was made by White people for White people so it's intrinsically discriminatory against people of color and other non-humans."
>>1171776How long have you been a racist?
>>1171347This is some bullshit even for Seattle
>>1171347Every White should quit immediately and let it burn.
>>1171776 #>1776nice digits>>1171755 #It's the hatred of white people. See OP image which comes straight from Robin Diangelo a leading critical race theorist>>1171777 #CRT says that all white people are racist so I guess I've always been racist
A house is on fire and you see two people trapped on the 2nd floor. The first person is a mtf transexual. The second person is an ftm transexual. Who do you save first?
>>1171347YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK KEK
