From the Montgomery Advertiser:

In the wake of layoffs at the city’s Sanitation Department, state Rep. Alvin Holmes is filing a request with the Montgomery City-County Personnel Board asking that they convene an unscheduled session to reconsider the layoffs of 12 sanitation workers.

If the board doesn’t convene, or if the workers aren’t reinstated, Holmes said he’s prepared to file a federal lawsuit on the grounds of racial discrimination.

Eleven of the 12 workers laid off Monday are black.

“The mayor (Bobby Day) has singled out the lowest paid workers, the overwhelming majority of whom are black, which shows improper racial motivation on the part of the mayor,” Holmes said in the statement to the personnel board.

If it were racially motivated then why wouldn’t all 12 of the laid off workers be black?  Holmes is implying that Day wanted to intentionally fire black employees and choose to do so by selecting low paying positions, knowing that blacks would comprise a disproportionate share.  I don’t buy that.

“It’s unethical, really, and it’s racist,” Holmes said. “He would never lay off all whites and one black.”

That is a pretty heavy accusation to be leveling Mr. Holmes.  Calling someone a racist should have to meet the same bar as calling someone a rapist or pedophile.  All of those accusations are so potentially damaging to one’s credibility that they should only be used with extreme discretion.  The public doesn’t care about the legitimacy of the claim; all they hear is the accusation.

Not to pick nits, but Mr. Holmes’ statement is pretty stupid.  Who is he to know what anyone would ever do?  And if all the people laid off are white, then how can there also be one black?  All but one would have to be white.

Was there a legitimate reason to lay off 12 sanitation workers?  If so, what percentage of those workers are black?  If, say, 50% or less are black then Holmes may have a point.

A more reasonable explanation for laying off sanitation workers is that those are jobs that can easily be contracted out if the need arises.

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This entry was posted by Brian on Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 at 6:00 am and is filed under Alabama, Race Card. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.