Race Discrimination in the Workplace: An Ongoing Labor Issue

race discrimination
Race Discrimination in the Workplace

Discrimination in the workplace has long been prohibited in the United States. In fact since 1964, civil rights laws have made all sorts of discrimination in the workplace including color, religion, sex, national origin, or race illegal. However, despite the creation and implementation of these laws, there are still a lot of cases of race discrimination recorded over the years. To make sure that the rights of every American employee are protected, amendments to these civil rights laws to make sure that these stay relevant with the times, preventing the chance of instances of discrimination from happening.

What is Race Discrimination?

As defined by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), race discrimination is any act where one treats another individual unfavorably on the basis of race or color. Moreover, making employment decisions such as hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other condition of employment based of one’s race is strictly prohibited. However, despite these protections, thousands of workers still get subjected to various forms of discrimination in the workplace every year.

Discrimination on the Rise

According to the EEOC, more than 33,500 cases of race discrimination charges in were filed in 2012 alone. This is equivalent to an increase of around 4,500 cases from the 29,000 in 1997 record. What is bothering though is that African-Americans are two time more likely to not have a job and earn up to 25 percent lower than White Americans. Moreover, White-sounding names were given 50 percent more callbacks than those with African-American-sounding names. Also a survey has revealed that one-third of the African-Americans, as well as Hispanics and Asians were denied of possible promotions because of their race. Worst, White Americans with felony convictions were able to get jobs while African-Americans with clean records are struggling to get hired.

Intentional or Unintentional Discrimination: One and the Same

An employee can be treated unfairly by his or her employer because of race. There are times when an employer discriminates against employees because of their color, looks, and race. This, or called disparate treatment discrimination is a clear violation of the country’s anti-discrimination laws. On the other hand, there are times though when an employer who’s implementing an anti-discrimination police in the workplace fail to protect someone from one or several acts of race discrimination. The employers’ inability to prevent such discriminatory practice from happening and failure to address such situation makes them equally liable from according to the anti-discrimination laws implemented. Such is no excuse for failing to uphold the law and letting workers be subjected to it.

What Can You Do to Fight Racism?

Discrimination is real and something must be done against it. As an individual, you can prevent these things from happening to you by keeping yourself aware of the many laws and regulations that prevent this and many other acts of discrimination. However, according to a California-based employment law firm, Mesriani Law Group, knowing your rights as an employee is just half of the battle. To win in your race discrimination case, you need a good employment law attorney that can best represent you for your claims and invoke your rights as a worker.

Hiring a Los Angeles racial discrimination attorney can be an easy task if you want to. Just hire one from a law firm that has the most experience in handling and winning such cases of race discrimination in the workplace.


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