Obama Ignores Shocking Racism In Capital Transit System

While the Obama Justice Department works to bring racial diversity to the nation’s workforce and education system, the administration ignores the perplexing homogeneity at on at one of the largest employers in the capital region, the taxpayer-funded Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

This may seem ironic considering the administration, mostly via the Department of Justice (DOJ), has implemented a variety of controversial programs to promote and protect blacks and Latinos in the name of diversity. Examples will be listed below, but first let’s check out the outrageous lack of racial diversity at the sprawling transit system that serves the area surrounding the White House.  

Nearly all of the bus and train operators in the system are black, according to an investigation conducted by a local newspaper. This week the paper is publishing a three-part series outlining the findings, which are downright astounding. The first article reveals that 97% of the bus and train operators in the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority are black, with only six white women out of more than 3,000 drivers.

This unbelievable lack of diversity has led to a series of lawsuits, the story reveals, and a culture of corruption in which favoritism—rather than merit—plays a role in promotions. Here is a typical example straight from court and transit records; a black man who served an eight-year prison sentence for dealing drugs was promoted to a high-level management job after his release while whites in the same positions as blacks with far less seniority are inexplicably paid less.

Even in entry-level occupations typically dominated by Hispanics, there are virtually none in the system, the records show. Only one laborer out of 67 is Hispanic; of 540 landscapers, carpenters and cleaners, only 22 are Hispanic. An attorney representing a dozen white women in a lawsuit against the metro system says “the odds of such a disparity occurring by chance are statistically infinitesimal. There appears to be an entrenched network of African-American employees at WMATA that is able to steer jobs, promotion, training and other career enhancing benefit to persons of their own racial or ethnic group.”

The system does have a “civil rights” office that hears discrimination complaints, but it too lacks racial diversity because all 17 employees running it are black. White and Hispanic transit workers who have reported discrimination have encountered a “deaf ear at Metro’s civil rights office,” the article states.

All this is occurring in the president’s back yard, indicating that he cares only about selective affirmative action. In the last few years the administration has implemented a number of measures to shield and promote minorities in the workforce as well as public education. The movement started with a new Office of Diversity and Inclusion to help build a “diverse and inclusive workforce” at all federal government agencies.

The DOJ’s bloated civil rights division has committed to eliminating workplace tests that may be viewed as discriminatory against minorities. Known as “disparate impact,” the racial discrimination created by written exams is especially rampant in the nation’s police and fire departments, according to Thomas Perez, the Assistant Attorney General who heads the DOJ’s civil rights division. In the name of diversity, he has vowed to do away with the racist exams.  

A few months ago the administration issued official government guidelines to promote diversity in the nation’s public education system. The joint venture between the DOJ and the Department of Education (DOE) aims to “reduce racial isolation among students,” by, among other things, blending the rich with the poor. The guidelines are expected to be implemented by the nation’s elementary and secondary schools as well as colleges and universities that receive taxpayer dollars.

The administration has even proposed a special plan to make the airwaves more ethnically diverse by holding broadcasting rights hostage for those who don’t pass a “public value” test. Under that brilliant Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposal broadcasters would be required to reflect ethnic diversity and a commitment to public affairs programming to keep their license.