Wait What? BWI Airport Fired Their Black Fire Chief Because He Hired Too Many White Firefighters
Baltimore Sun – Officials at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport announced the hiring of its fire-and-rescue department’s first Hispanic fire chief Thursday, shortly after acknowledging that they had terminated its acting chief, an African-American, the day before. The hiring of Victor N. Ferreira Jr., a 52-year-old retired Prince George’s County fire official, comes amid complaints about diversity within the airport’s fire department, following the hiring of an all-white class of firefighter recruits last month. Ferreira said in a statement that one of his goals is “to ensure a diverse, inclusive workforce.” “I intend to reach out to a number of organizations to follow up on initiatives that focus on boosting opportunities for minority firefighters,” he said.
Meanwhile, officials with the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People questioned the airport’s termination of Gregory Lawrence, who was named acting chief in November. The two organizations criticized the airport’s fire department about the all-white recruit class earlier this week.
“This doesn’t smell good at all,” said James Hill, president of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters. “We have got to get to the bottom of this. Somebody needs to answer the question of why he was terminated.” Others also expressed concerns. “I don’t know the substantive grounds that are there for the acts that have been taken, so you’re sort of in a holding pattern until you find out what the cause is for the termination,” said Daryl Jones, an Anne Arundel County councilman who represents the district where BWI is located. “It certainly raises suspicion. … It looks like there is a call and response there.” Jonathan Dean, a spokesman for the Maryland Aviation Administration, confirmed that Lawrence was terminated but described the decision as a “personnel matter” that airport officials will not comment on. Airport officials would not answer questions about the timing of Lawrence’s termination and the complaints being raised about the recruit class. The recruit class was composed of nine white men, whom Dean called the most qualified candidates. With their hiring, the 89-person fire-and-rescue department became 26 percent minority and women and 13 percent African-American, Dean said.
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This is one of the most head-scratching, funny, sad, pathetic, hilarious stories I’ve read in a while. Let’s set out the facts:
A black man hired 9 white men, who he called the most qualified people for the job, to be BWI firefighters. The NAACP then complained that the firefighter class was all white. BWI then went ahead and fired the black man who did the hiring. The NAACP then complained that he was fired. What in the fuck is going on?
At the end of the day, you want the most qualified people being your firefighters. In some rare cases, I’m even ok with affirmative action. This is not one. They should make all the potential firefighters wear fucking masks and turbans if they are going to hire based on skin color. The black fire chief picked the 9 best for the job. And got canned for doing so. It’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever read. I read the story over 10 times to see if I missed anything. And I didn’t.
The NAACP got on their high horse and bitched, and then when BWI fired the guy who they were bitching about, they bitched again because that man happened to be black. Woops! Someone got caught with their hand in the cookie jar! (To be honest, I think that’s the right place for that cliche, but I can’t be for sure. It sounds good though.)
What a disaster. It’s not always about race. It rarely is. And in this case, it most definitely was not. How mad do you think the now fired chief is that the NAACP “stood up for him” and thus got him fired? It’s insane. He didn’t ask for that shit. He was doing his job as best he could. It fucking sucks he went out like this.
And if I totally missed something, please let me know. Usually there’s more to a story than meets the eye, so I tried to be careful with this, but I don’t see anything I missed.