|
FDNY official defends excluding famed 9/11 firefighter from procession for being white
 [NYPOST] A top FDNY official says it’s "most definitely" acceptable to exclude a white firefighter from a ceremonial unit based solely on his skin color, The Post has learned.Oh, yassss. Most definitely acceptable! Cecilia Loving, the department’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, is defending a decision to kick Lt. Daniel McWilliams — one of three firefighters in the iconic 9/11 Ground Zero flag-raising photo — off a color-guard procession so it would be all-black. Y'see, it would also have been perfectly acceptable to kick all the colored guys off the color guard so it'd be all-white. Right? Loving testified at a state Divsion of Human Rights trial on McWilliam’s complaint that he was the victim of racial bias. Oh, of course he wasn't. Not for a decision based solely on his skin color... Was he? When McWilliams showed up at a 2017 memorial mass to honor deceased members of the Vulcan Society, a fraternal group of black FDNY firefighters, he was barred from holding a flag in the color guard. Because he wasn't a firefighter, right? No, wait. He was. Regina Wilson, then Vulcan Society president, asked McWilliams to "help in a different capacity" because he is not black. That was when he offered to fry up the chicken? No? Loving, who is black, testified there is nothing wrong with that. No, no! Certainly not! Surely if there had been a black firefighter show up at a ceremony for a society of white firefighters... There is such a thing, right? "So, a request for an all-black color guard is not discriminatory?" McWilliam’s lawyer, Keith Sullivan, asked in the trial. ... trying not to snicker... "No, it isn’t," Loving replied. Then her lips fell off. Asked if it’s acceptable to request an all-black color guard, she said, "Most definitely." Is it acceptable to request an all-white color guard? Loving said it’s okay to replace a white member with an African-American to "uplift our identities and our separate ethnicities in order to instill a sense of pride and community and support for one another." Sure. Makes sense. Separate but equal color guards. And make sure they don't mix.
The lawsuit involves a 2017 incident that took place at a FDNY memorial mass honoring deceased members of a fraternal society of black firefighters. Posted by: Fred 2020-07-26 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=577932 |