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A factory worker sued her employer, alleging the company discriminated against her based on her race by allowing a hostile work environment to pervade its manufacturing plant. She also claimed it retaliated against her for accusing a coworker of tampering with her machine. Let’s take a look at how the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of […]
After years of dithering, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Texas) recently decided a single racial slur (one in particular) standing alone can create an unlawful hostile work environment entitling the employee to mental anguish and punitive damages and an award of fees to the person’s lawyer. Read on.
Across the globe, there has been a surge in race-related hate incidents as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such incidents include micro-aggressions, bullying, harassment, hate speech, and violence.
Seven is an important number for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). If it files seven harassment lawsuits in a week, it then bundles them up into a national press release. It has done so in June and August last year. The seven June lawsuits all involved sexual harassment, one of them same-sex and racial […]
by Barbara J. Koenig Implicit bias is an unconscious preference for or an aversion to a person or a group of people. In other words, we may have an attitude toward others or stereotype them without conscious knowledge of what we’re doing. If we act in accordance with our implicit bias, we may be discriminating […]
It’s an employer’s nightmare. An employee shows up in a video making the rounds on social media taking part in a protest that includes violent clashes and racist insults. The employer wants no association with such actions and decides to cut ties. Will there be legal trouble if the employee is fired? Possibly, according to […]
by Dinita L. James Defiant public displays of racism and bigotry have been reported around Arizona. I haven’t witnessed such brazenness since my youth in rural North Carolina in the 1960s and early 1970s. I’m not saying that hearts and minds were changed, but the racists learned to whisper among themselves to avoid overwhelming public […]
by Rick Morgan Today’s current events are rife with bad news. The despicable and senseless murders at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, do not end at the doors of this historical house of worship. The event, however, does bring into focus an issue that our country and workplaces continue to wrestle with on […]
by Dinita L. James Last July, the nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The focus rightly was on how far we have come as a society in eliminating discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. Close on the heels of that celebration, however, recent […]
by Saul Glazer The recent police shooting of Tony Robinson put Madison in the national headlines. Thankfully, unlike last year’s events in Ferguson, Missouri, the protests following Robinson’s death have been peaceful. However, the incident has once again put a spotlight on how we view race relations. This article discusses race relations in general and […]