Redefining Bias in the 21st Century

The U.S. Supreme Court has now issued its opinion in the incendiary case of the New Haven, Conn., firefighters.

The nation's top court came down on the side of the 20 mostly white firefighters who, claiming reverse discrimination, filed suit after not securing promotions despite attaining the highest scores on a promotions test test on which all African American and all but two Hispanic firefighters received a poor score.

Was justice served? We think not, but not for the obvious reason. Polarization rather than greater fairness will rule the day, and this would have been the case had Court had voted 5-4 for the City of New Haven, not the firefighters.

The case itself, while raising complex questions about workplace bias, involved civil rights law fashioned in an era that saw far more blatant discrimination. Back then, the urgency of segregation and widespread, institutional racism did not allow for a thoughtful undertaking of more nuanced forms of bias. Now, subtle bias has become more insidious.

Discrimination law considers how people are treated solely due to their membership in a particular group--race or gender or national origin or religion. It gives short shrift to a careful analysis of how being part of said group can impact such factors as our self esteem, our life experiences, the resources we enjoy or don't receive, our fears and what we believe to be our entitlements.

We applaud the city of New Haven for critically examining the test results and wondering why so few firefighters of color performed well. Although most of us believe tests and other performance indicators to be accurate measures of qualifications, the truth is they often can be ridden with subtle bias.

Our research bears this out. When the Level Playing Field Institute conducted a landmark study of 19,000 professionals and managers in 2007 to determine the role of bias in voluntary employee turnover, we found that people of color were three times more likely to leave due solely to unfairness.

Hundreds of stories poured into the Institute about the failure of managers to recognize employees' abilities. An Asian attorney wrote about the partner who referred to her typos, even minor ones like whether a term should be capitalized, as an issue with the English language. An African American MBA graduate compared notes with her fellow classmates after interviews to learn that she was the only one being asked about diversity; her classmates, in contrast, received substantive case study questions. Most of their experiences wouldn't fall under current discrimination law.

The problem goes beyond employment measures. The SAT, accepted as the measure of how a student will perform in college, turns out instead to be the best indicator of one's family income. Stories abound of how biased test results and measures, rather than hard work and merit, can give some an unfair advantage over others.

Take, for example, an immigrant high school student who studied night and day for the SAT exam without the benefit of prep courses or parents who spoke English. For months, she memorized every word she came across. Yet, when asked in class to answer an analogy question using the word "gazebo," she drew a blank.

The student next to her answered the question quickly and correctly. That student didn't learn the word from a vocabulary sheet; she had a gazebo in her backyard growing up, she divulged later, just like almost all of the houses in her neighborhood. Despite such hurdles, that immigrant student would go on to become a lawyer - and one of the co-authors to this commentary.

If we truly want to promote our society as a level playing field, then we must become more adept at differentiating between what actually is earned versus what is a matter of circumstance. We need thoughtful new standards that consider what our performance indicators truly measure.

One alternative is for colleges and workplaces to adopt a "distance traveled" metric, one that measures not just who crossed the finish line first, but also the distance from each individual's starting point to the finish line. For example, a college might consider a system that requires disclosure from parents of all the resources provided to the child - writing coach, tutors etc. Workplaces might give added weight to candidates who earned their accomplishments, including by paying their own through college.

The results might surprise us.

In the future the Court should not oversimplify the issue of equal opportunity and access to create bad civil rights law. Instead, we need to design new ways of attacking unfairness and bias in the 21st century.

Comments

[Ben017]

"If we truly want to promote our society as a level playing field, then we must become more adept at differentiating between what actually is earned versus what is a matter of circumstance. We need thoughtful new standards that consider what our performance indicators truly measure."

Neuroscientists are working on this. It seems that differences on standardised tests have physical correlates in terms of cortical thickness, gray matter and myelination.

"In healthy adults, greater intelligence is associated with larger intracranial gray matter and to a lesser extent with white matter. Variations in prefrontal and posterior temporal cortical thickness are particularly linked with intellectual ability."

'Relationships between IQ and Regional Cortical Gray Matter Thickness in Healthy Adults'
Narr et al Cerebral Cortex 2007 17(9):2163-2171

Also, note that cortical thickness varies in children:

"In those with average intelligence scores, the thickness of the cortex peaked at age 7, and then gradually thinned. By contrast, the smartest 7-year-olds had a thinner cortex that peaked in thickness by age 11 or 12 before pruning back."

[Ben017]

"Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns Report of a Task Force established by the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association Released August 7, 1995

"It is often argued that the lower mean scores of African Americans reflect a bias in the intelligence tests themselves. This argument is right in one sense of "bias" but wrong in another...

From an educational point of view, the chief function of mental tests is as predictors (Section 2). Intelligence tests predict school performance fairly well, at least in American schools as they are now constituted. Similarly, achievement tests are fairly good predictors of performance in college and postgraduate settings. Considered in this light, the relevant question is whether the tests have a "predictive bias" against Blacks, Such a bias would exist if African-American performance on the criterion variables (school achievement, college GPA, etc.) were systematically higher than the same subjects' test scores would predict. This is not the case. The actual regression lines (which show the mean criterion performance for individuals who got various scores on the predictor) for Blacks do not lie above those for Whites; there is even a slight tendency in the other direction (Jensen, 1980; Reynolds &:Brown, 1984). Considered as predictors of future performance, the tests do not seem to be biased against African Americans. "

[Ben017]

London School of Economics' Dr Satoshi Kanazawa has taken a look at the allegation of discrimination in the US over the past 30 years. The claims don't stack up.

Comparing NLSY Scores and Income shows that discrimination is a myth.

Kanazawa, Satoshi (2005) The myth of racial discrimination in pay in the United States. Managerial and decision economics, 26 (5).

[Ben017]

London School of Economics' Dr Satoshi Kanazawa has taken a look at the allegation of discrimination in the US over the past 30 years. The claims don't stack up.

Comparing NLSY Scores and Income shows that discrimination is a myth.

Kanazawa, Satoshi (2005) The myth of racial discrimination in pay in the United States. Managerial and decision economics, 26 (5).

http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Kanazawa/pdfs/MDE2005.pdf

[HNWBanker]

You just destroyed your own argument by making an example of the Asian immigrant attorney. You see, hard work and determination coupled with an appreciation for education can overcome socio-economic issues. Distance traveled? Are you serious? How about all the ‘distance traveled’ med students who later become surgeons work at your local hospital? Deal?

Side point: I see ‘children of color’ wearing 200 dollar shoes all the time…a Kaplan guide is 30 bucks. Sometimes it about priorities. Save your race-baiting rhetoric. It’s tired and weak.

[k1dork]

Does anyone know if fire departments in predominantly black cities give written exams for firemen looking to advance to leadership positions?

If so, are those tests "flawed and discriminatory" as well?

[TimetoReconsider]

It is time to reconsider the notion that a written test is inherently biased, especially where it references language. Firefighting is a science, as much as an art. As with any science, it has its own language, a language that should be common to all firefighters. No one individual of any race enters the profession with a command of the language of firefighting. It takes time, study, reading and use of the language to excel. It is the career that was chosen. The language of the profession should never be at issue. It is incumbent on all who wish to advance that they increase their professional acumen. If one does not understand a firefighting term of art or science while another does, that suggests to me that one member may have prepared better over the life of their career as opposed to studying for a brief period time with the expectation that tht is all that is required to pass. I prefer, irrespective to race, the candidate who accepts his career as one of ongoing professional development rather than the person who feels that they are qualified because of political affiliations, time on the job, or racial identity based consideration.

For the record, as a fire officer, I know what a gazebo is because it is a structure. Any firefighter or fire officer, if he is well versed in fire service construction, should know what it is as well.

[slb83]

And then ask yourself this question: What does knowing what the segment addition postulate is have to do with knowing what are the favorable conditions in terms of planning a rescue operation for an apartment complex? The person who can answer the second question may be able to describe a scenario in full detail and demonstrate it if required, however they can't be considered for a promotion because they didn't have the monetary resources or the social capital to be able to answer a question that they hadn't seen since high school which is an experience they are far removed from. That is what makes this test a form of screening discrimination.

[slb83]

I just wanted to say that discriminatory testing (screening discrimination) has been apart of this country's history. Poll taxing was an example. Yes, people should be familiar with 50 states, however do you require someone to answer that question on a test before they could vote by pulling a lever or casting a ballot? There are differences since it was blacks that were administered that test. Let's say that everyone (every color) was administered that test today. First, you would have Kaplan and all of the test taking companies charging hundreds of dollars for books and thousands to take classes. Given that we know race is highly correlated with class and educational attainment, those who are more able to take advantage of those opportunities clearly would fall at the top end of that race, class, and educational attainment hierarchy (White people, because Blacks and Latinos have some catching up to do primarily after centuries of discrimination and oppression). So with this, which group do you think would be most likely to be able to vote for the next President? Everyone has to take the test right? Everyone has to work hard right? Given the disparities in education across this country, what makes this test a strong predictor of someone's ability to pull a lever or caste a ballot?

[Slingo]

I can't believe there is a need to taylor the test to fit every person. I personally believe that anyone who is willing to study can pass any test. Why does everyone think that the minorities are so dumb they need help to pass a test or get a job. There are to many successful miniority people in the country for that theory to hold up.

[k1dork]

I think it is best put in perspective by asking yourself, if YOUR family was trapped in a burning building, would you want qualified firemen on the scene, or firemen who got their jobs so the fire department could meet their racial quota?

[Squaker]

If it were my family I would not want the sole basis for promotion for firefighters to be a written exam.

But as far as the racial aspect
What happens when two parts of town are on fire? The white part of town and the black part of town
In that scenario, would you comfortable if all the firefighters in the city are the same race? Do you think that racial (and geographic) bias would play no part in where the resources go? Despite progress most of our cities remain quite segregated.

[noudidnt]

Thank you.

[k1dork]

Do you know if fire departments in predominantly black cities give written exams for firemen looking to advance to leadership positions?

If so, are those tests "flawed and discriminatory" as well?

[HR44]

"Polarization rather than greater fairness will rule the day"

Shouldn't "greater fairness" include an attempt to find actual bias, blatant or nuanced, within the metrics rather than assuming bias based on racial disparity within results?

As it relates to Ricci, is greater fairness assuming a racial bias based on the scores of a very small sample size of minorities as opposed to the scores of a very small sample size of white male test takes?

If so, then perhaps greater fairness did take the day in this particular case. The lower court ruling included an extended segment on the process of attempting to find an explicable bias in this test and came away with very little facts save poor test results of a very small number of minority applicants.

I've been fascinated with this case for quite some time and as a result I've read the lower court ruling, the precedent cases that the lower court leaned on and other Title VII precedent, and it seems to me that some practices stemming from the law fly in the face of "greater fairness".

[Cliff Albright]

It's clear that many folks who are taking a stand in favor of the white firefighters have read neither the majority opinion nor Justice Ginsberg's dissent. The truth is that the test scores were NOT the only evidence looked at. The courts (lower and Supreme) had to consider whether the difference in scores was justified by job performance and they had to consider if there was an alternate form of testing that was just reliable. There is evidence, from other cities that place less weight on written tests and more on oral exams and other methods to measure the qualities needed for the job (such as leadership, community knowledge, etc), that there are different testing techniques that minimize the bias AND STILL produce highly qualified firefighters.

What's lost in alot of these comments is the fact that this case and New Haven's issues are not in isolation. There is a legacy of racism in the New Haven fire department. While this is a case about officers, the reality is that New Haven would not even have Black firefighters today if the city had not been sued years ago. And at the time, most of the supporters of the status quo made the same arguments that you see in these comments ("they're not qualified", "houses will burn down", etc). And yet, the Black firefighters have proven themselves just as effective as the White ones, much the way the Tuskegee Airmen and others have had to prove themselves...

[terramartom]

Every child, from every family learns in a different and unique environment, even within the same economic levels. A test of skill should be colorless, unless you also want to also accept inferiority as well. Stop making excuses, study and learn, pass the test on merit, not on the Color of your skin!
Choice, consequence and responsibility.
Your life is in your hands, and you are responsible for your life and your Happiness.
The past is about excuse making, move forward and be responsible.
You get to where you are going by putting in effort, not by whinning.

[sbrown80]

These test r just like the justice system. On it's face it appears fair but in practice it's far from fair

[AppalacianDream]

The bit about a student not knowing what a Gazebo is doesn't fly in my opinion. Wouldn't the student simply ask the teacher what a Gazebo is?

[noudidnt]

When you take the SAT, you can't ask the proctor about a gazebo. Come on.