The Ricci v. DeStefano court matter is an example of a court case with strong public participation. The case summary is as follows: a group of African Americans could not get a promotion which they filed as racism in the workplace. Later, the group of African American firefighters received a promotion. However, a group of white Americans and one Latino American firefighter did not. Consequently, the group of white and Latino Americans filed the case as racism in the workplace (Rome, 2019). Whereas the case of African Americans was resolved internally and quickly, the case of white and Latino Americans reached the supreme court. The result was that the judge found racism justified and existing.
Several ramifications after this event were ethical concerns of the society regarding the case. People questioned the companies about how they decide who receives a promotion at work and the selection criteria to be promoted. It is interesting whether the company should only consider the test results or other factors like background and race when deciding which employee gets the promotion (McGinley & Porter, 2020). Since this case has arguable ethical ramifications, it received social recognition in the media and was discussed at a Supreme Court.
In my opinion, the City’s administration and the firefighters are right and wrong. The conflict is a little complicated, but when deeply analyzing the case, it is seen that both sides were trying to get their benefit and protect their rights. Therefore, the case has been filed and appeared at the supreme court. The case should also serve as a lesson for both sides; no matter who juridically won the case – the City should consider adding more transparency to the process of hiring and promoting employees. Firefighters should focus on actual knowledge and skills that can help them save lives, but surely not forget their rights to be not discriminated against.
References
McGinley A. C. & Porter N. B. (2020). Feminist judgments: rewritten employment discrimination opinions. Cambridge University Press.
Rome, S. (2019). Fairness under fire: Ricci v. Destefano and the racial legitimacy gap. Penn Undergraduate LJ, (7), p. 81.