Liz Griffin spent 9 months at the Washington State Patrol’s training academy in 2007.
She says, “I was told that I was too smart for my own good, and I should probably consider another profession.” (Read story here.) Like what? Medical school? Boeing’s engineering department (which isn’t so hot lately)? NASA or Space-X? Academia?
Actually, I’m not surprised she ran into that buzz saw. Smart people are resented in many workplaces; just ask members of high-IQ societies, which often function as support groups.
As it turned out, that was only half her problem. The WSP was, and still is, a white men’s club. As of last year, 86% of WSP troopers were white males, according to Seattle TV station KING 5. Griffin, a woman of color, sued the WSP for race and gender discrimination after she was kicked out of the academy. Their story doesn’t say she sued for IQ discrimination, but her experience implies that as of 2007 the WSP didn’t want recruits of her intelligence.
Griffin isn’t alone in criticizing the WSP’s intolerance of recruits who don’t “fit in,” i.e. anyone who isn’t a white male of ordinary intelligence. State Sen. John Lovick, a retired WSP trooper, called WSP’s diversity profile “horrible.” Of about 1,100 troopers, he says only 30 are black. This spring the legislature passed a bill, which Gov. Inslee signed last month, that KING 5 says “puts pressure on WSP to attract and retain cadets of color.” Hey, what about hiring smart people, too?
I realize workplace cultures are hard to change, and you can’t legislate such change. It takes smart managers, and it helps if the employees are smart, too.