New York, Aug.17 (ANI): A captain in the Fire Department City of New York (FDNY) and a former president of the Vulcan Society, has testified in a Brooklyn Federal Court that racial discrimination persists against black fire fighters.
The New York Fire Department is so racism-riddled that just weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, someone defaced a flyer honoring the black Bravest who died, Paul Washington testified earlier this week.
The flyer, announcing a memorial service for black firefighters, was posted on a bulletin board at the Ladder 131 firehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn, the New York Post reports.
Somebody scrawled, "What about the white guys?" and added a list of black entertainers, including The Jackson 5, Gary Coleman, Fat Albert, Tupac Shakur and Sean Combs.
The word "black" was written over the request that guests wear a dress uniform "with white gloves."
"It speaks for itself," said Washington, 49, former president of the Vulcan Society, a fraternal organization for black firefighters.
He said that after he intervened, a white firefighter came forward to take responsibility and was punished "in an unofficial manner."
Washington was testifying in Brooklyn Federal Court in the third week of a federal discrimination trial against the department.
The 23-year veteran recalled how, as a young firefighter in the mid-1990s, he overheard the men in an all-white firehouse use the N-word to describe whoever was assigned to do that day's menial tasks, like mopping up a spill.
He said complaining about racial incidents would lead a firefighter to be "effectively ostracized" by his colleagues.
"You're going to be shunned. Things like this can be very hurtful to your career," he said.
New York's population is 26 percent black but only three percent of firefighters are black, the plaintiffs said.
Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano testified last week that the department is working successfully to recruit more minority-group members. (ANI)
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