White frustrations embodied by fireman at hearing

WASHINGTON — He spoke, this 35-year-old firefighter, to frustrations that still ripple in an undercurrent across the nation.

Frank Ricci, who is white, sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday and spoke in a steady, deliberate voice about how he studied hard, played by the rules, and was denied a promotion because of the color of his skin. His made no mention of Sonia Sotomayor, who had ruled against a discrimination claim by Ricci and fellow firefighters, and now is on track to become the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court.

Everyman firefighter and Hispanic role model, these two are among the newest faces in an enduring American debate over how to do right by long-disadvantaged minorities and still give the majority a fair shake.

Had Sotomayor not been nominated for the Supreme Court just as the Ricci case was unfolding, the Connecticut firefighters' lawsuit might have been nothing more than a fairly significant employment case that went largely unremarked upon in public. Instead, Ricci found himself telling his story before U.S. senators and on national television after Sotomayor herself repeatedly was called upon to answer for her ruling in the case during four days of testimony before the committee.

People shouldn't be reduced to "racial statistics," Ricci told the senators. They "don't wish to be divided along racial lines." His message was seconded by fellow firefighter Ben Vargas, who is Hispanic.

"You put a face on the issues," Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told the firefighters.

Sotomayor, for her part, held out her ruling in the case as evidence that she hews to the law and precedent, not emotion or sympathies.

Ricci, whose lawsuit ultimately was upheld by the Supreme Court, called the whole ordeal "an unbelievable civics lesson."

To Ronald Walters, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, it was a lesson in the enduring potency of racial politics.

For Republicans, Walters said, "it's an issue that plays well with their constituency and they're drumming it. ... Basically this is a narrow pitch toward the white community and the elections in the fall."

It's not a new strategy.