In January, representatives of the Guardian Knights, the Baltimore County affiliate of the International Association of Black Fire Fighters, wrote me to complain of "racism and discrimination" within the county fire department. But I found that the issue is more complex than that.
The group said that blacks make up 12 percent of the county population but account for only 6 percent of the 1,092-member force. The Guardian Knights charged that black firefighters sometimes hear racial slurs from their colleagues and may be punished more harshly by their superiors for departmental infractions. Though Baltimore County adopted an affirmative action plan nearly two decades ago, the Guardian Knights claimed that the fire department never implemented it.
The group had aired its complaints before Acting Fire Chief James H. Barnes Jr. last May and asked him to put the long-dormant affirmative action plan into effect. Chief Barnes agreed. Recently, Mark Garrett became the first black captain in fire department history.
But affirmative action has come under considerable fire recently. Many people question whether such remedies remain necessary. And so, I met with representatives of the Guardian Knights yesterday.
"Do you really feel that you do not have the same opportunities for advancement as your white colleagues?" I asked James W. Artis Jr., president of the Guardian Knights, and Vernon Adams, secretary.
I had expected the question to be an easy one. But both men fell silent. They stroked their chins and sat with wrinkled brows. An office clock ticked away the seconds.
"That's not an easy question to answer," Mr. Artis answered at last. He is 28 years old, a four-year veteran, and an instructor with the fire academy. "I guess I would have to say my opportunities are the same."
Mr. Adams agreed. He is 38, has been with the department five years, and is assigned to the headquarters staff.
Both men say they took a promotions exam last year and were promoted to fire specialist in January.
"OK," I said. "What about other blacks -- are their opportunities the same as whites?"
"I would have to say, all in all, they are," answered Mr. Artis.
"So why then must the county follow an affirmative action plan?"
The question may cut to the heart of the current national debate over civil rights, liberal values vs. conservative values, and the Republican revolution in Congress: Do we really need affirmative action?
Republicans have threatened to throw out all affirmative action plans. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld some forms of affirmative action as long as they do not involve quotas. President Clinton is reviewing the federal effort to determine which specific programs, if any, have become outdated or counter-productive.
But Ralph Neas, executive director of the Washington-based Leadership Council on Civil Rights -- the umbrella civil rights lobbying organization -- told me yesterday that affirmative action has not outlived its need.
"There has been so much rhetoric about people not wanting to pay for the sins and mistakes of their fathers and grandfathers, but regretfully there is still serious racial and gender discrimination today," he said. "Certainly we have come a long way in 30 years, but we have a long way to go."
Perhaps proponents of civil rights have taken the justness of their cause for granted. Equality can be achieved in many ways. Means can evolve as institutions evolve. No single approach is sacrosanct.
In Baltimore County, for instance, black firefighters described a number of incidents that served to make some of them feel uncomfortable in the department. They produced evidence that
the fire department has not been as successful as other county agencies at achieving diversity. But they attributed a lot of the problems to ignorance or a lack of awareness of minority concerns, rather than to racism.
The Guardian Knights do not want racial quotas, Mr. Adams declared. "We just want the same opportunities to achieve everyone else has."
Now is not the time to ease the pressure for progress -- either in Baltimore County or anywhere else.