James Finberg, an attorney representing the class, said FedEx normally promotes from within, yet three times the number of package handlers and loaders are minorities compared to drivers, who earn more. Twice the number of minorities fail promotional tests than do whites, Finberg added.

"FedEx knows that black and Hispanics fail at a much higher rate, but yet has not changed the test," Finberg said. from this story.I'm sure we'll hear from ignorant whites about how that's not equal, blah blah, waaaaah. But I'm sure they'll be happy to have their jobs dependant on a test that I make that measures their merit. All you have to do is pass a test based on historical knowledge that I knew before I was menstruating. What was the Harlem Renaiscance? What did it mean to be sold down river? What was the grandfather clause, and what was it used for? What were the vagrancy laws in the Jim Crow South used for? Who was Harriet Tubman? What was the Great Migration? I bet 99% of these people wouldn't know. Hey, it's easy to talk about merit when it doesn't have to be conected to anything.

Did you know that you can bias a test? An easy way to bias a test is to do item selection. You can do this intentionally by simply selecting the items that whites tend to do well on, or unintentionally by merely following tests normed on whites, and thus that they tend to do well on. You could also bias a test by selecting for a certain educational level. For example, if someone goes to a shitty ass school, they may know the concept of a synonym, such as “happy” and “glad” means the same thing, but they might not know the meaning of the word. Also, do we know if this test actually has anything to do with what they are doing? For example, for a job as a waitress, they could give me a test on calculus. I’d fail(I got a C in calculus) but does that disqualify me from being a waitress? No, but white people would say I was unqualified even though that has nothing to do with anything. I also question the assumption that all tests magically pick the right person for the job and are the best tests we could ever create. Every human enterprise has flaws, even the ones created by the most well meaning people. It is always important to review our criteria and to improve things.

Not to mention, there may be other bottlenecks blocking promotion that people who have no knowledge of the situation may not know about. The facts on the ground are always the key. The white way of thinking is not very effective in questions of equality, in my opinion. Saying everyone gets the same test, so it is fair, leaves out so many details of real life as to be meaningless. Of course, by equality, I mean actual equality, not the kind where there’s not actual equality of outcome, but we get to be told we are stupid. Of course I have a different idea of what qualified means. Basically to me, it’s if you’re able to do your job. I don’t think for example that Mike Brown is qualified, although to the white mindset he is. A white CEO who runs his company into the ground is apparently qualified according to white people. I’m not sure what qualified means in white speak, but I think it means the same thing as ‘merit’ i.e. being white.