Harvard Biz Review Complains that Only White Males Interested in Risking Their Lives as Firefighters

  |  
Dec 18, 2018

In Tuesday’s episode of “social justice gone awry,” Harvard Business Review complained about the lack of diversity in the firefighting business.

“U.S. firefighters are overwhelmingly white and male. Here’s why that needs to change,” the publication said in a Tweet linking a to story.

Harvard Business Review is complaining that only white men are interested in risking life and limb in service to their community. Of course, they did not frame their story that way because, as we know, white men are the devil in this culture war.

“Many fire departments recognize that their lack of diversity as a problem and say they’re committed to increasing racial and gender diversity,” the article said. “But what’s the actual path for departments achieving more diversity? And if they do so, will their members embrace how it improves their organization?”

The article explained that the physical aspects of the job, “climbing ladders, hauling hoses, and carrying victims from burning buildings” is only a “small subset” of the job. In essence, the author of the piece tried to preempt any counterargument about the differences in physical stature between men and women by claiming that firefighters don’t spend a lot of time fighting fires. Of course, this is a stupid line of argumentation because when firefighters are called upon to fight fires – regardless of how often it may be – they still must be physically prepared, otherwise they will be far less effective.

The article said:

To succeed as a firefighter, stereotypically masculine traits like brawn and courage are simply not enough. Firefighters also need the intellectual, social, and emotional skills required to deliver medical emergency aid, support each other through traumatic experiences, and engage intimately with the communities they serve. In short, successful firefighters embody a complex mix of skills and traits. And yet, in my research on reducing gender bias and my work conducting training on general diversity and inclusion with fire departments, I find that, when evaluating fit and competence, firefighters tend to default to a reductive set of traits (physical strength evaluated through strict fitness tests, for example) that serve to maintain white men’s dominance in the fire service.

In other words, most firefighters are physically capable of doing the job (and that’s great) but they are still too white and male.

Just another day in a world where the left demonizes white men for immutable characteristics with which they were born.

Follow Peter D’Abrosca on Twitter: @pdabrosca

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