Race-based hiring is an unacceptable practice, then and now

The Monroe City Council is refusing — flat-out refusing — to hire qualified, experienced, proven applicants for the fire chief position.

And why? Not because these candidates failed a test, lacked credentials or couldn’t handle the job. No, no, no. It’s because they happen to be white. That’s it. That’s the disqualifier: skin color.

Last fall, The Monroe Free Press reported that, “Council members had previously advised (Mayor) Ellis that with Monroe’s population being 60% minority and the city already having a white police chief, he should strongly consider a minority candidate for the position.” And so, the council promptly rejected the leading candidate for fire chief from consideration because he was white (and the Monroe police chief is already white).

It makes no sense whatsoever.

But let’s get something straight. A fire department is about one thing: saving lives. When your house is burning down, you don’t give a rip what color the fire chief is. You care whether that chief can get trucks rolling in seconds and whether they’ve competently trained their crews.

In Monroe, though, the council is seemingly saying, “Sorry, being white is a dealbreaker.” The council there appears to be willing to put political theater ahead of your life, your family’s safety and the protection of your property. That’s not leadership; that’s dereliction of duty.

And we’ve been here before in history, haven’t we? We’ve seen what happens when people are judged solely by skin color. It was evil then, and it’s evil now. The only difference is that today’s woke political class thinks it’s OK if you reverse the targets.

Newsflash: Discrimination is discrimination.

Racism is racism. It doesn’t become “progress” just because you’ve flipped the script.

The very same people who scream about “justice” are practicing injustice right in front of you — and they’re patting themselves on the back for it. This isn’t forward; this is full throttle in reverse, right back to the ugliest hiring practices of the 19th century.

And here’s the kicker: These same council members will stand up at a ribbon-cutting or a business forum and say, “We want Monroe to be a hub for 21st-century job opportunities. We want tech companies, manufacturers, logistics centers to set up shop here.”

Really? You want the 21st-century economy, but you’re still making personnel decisions with a 19th-century playbook? You want to lure billion-dollar companies, but you’re showing them your city government is more concerned with racial checklists than competence?

Are Fortune 500 executives going to risk investing in a city run by people who can’t see past someone’s skin color? In the corporate world, diversity means you hire the best, period, and you don’t care if they’re black, white, brown, green or purple with polka dots. If you’re good at the job, you get the job. That’s how you build a winning team.

Make no mistake. This isn’t just about the fire chief position. This is about the message Monroe is sending to the world. The fire chief position is a critical leadership role. If they’re willing to rig the process for that, what else are they willing to rig? City contracts? Business permits? Infrastructure priorities?

Once you prove you’re willing to use skin color as your metric, you’ve told the world you’re not trustworthy. And Fortune 500 companies don’t do business with untrustworthy partners.

This is precisely why cities like Monroe and the state of Louisiana, as a whole, get left behind. We claim to want the future, yet we govern like the past. We claim to want high-paying jobs, yet we drive away the very people and companies that could bring them here. We claim to believe in fairness, yet we practice the most blatant form of discrimination.

You can’t have a thriving 21st-century economy with 19th-century hiring practices.

You can’t attract billion-dollar companies with small-minded leadership obsessed with race. And you can’t call yourself a city on the rise when your own council is the anchor pulling you to the bottom.

Louis R. Avallone is a Shreveport businessman, attorney and author of “Bright Spots, Big Country, What Makes America Great.” He is also a former aide to U.S. Representative Jim McCrery and editor of The Caddo Republican. His columns have appeared regularly in 318 Forum since 2007. Follow him on Facebook, on Twitter @louisravallone or by e-mail at louisavallone@mac.com, and on American Ground Radio at 101.7FM and 710 AM, weeknights from 6 - 7 p.m., and streaming live on keelnews.com.