Combating Racism at Work Part II

Racism is still a very real problem in the American workplace, despite the fact that it has been largely driven underground. In an effort to avoid stepping afoul of the law while still engaging in the same kind of discriminatory practices that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other legislative actions have expressly forbidden, employers and supervisors sometimes adopt a system of words that essentially function as a code of racism. Beyond that, they also may demonstrate racially-biased tendencies throughout various avenues of the company's operations.

If you suspect that your present or former employer fostered a culture in which racial discrimination was a part of how business was transacted, then you may have grounds for a legal action. To learn more about your legal rights, contact the Houston employment lawyers of the Ross Law Group at 713-482-6910.

Identifying Problematic Tendencies

The EEOC, to help ensure that the spirit of the law was being observed, issued a sweeping expansion of federal guidelines in 2006. The aim was to aid employers in their interpretation of existing legislation and to serve as an admonition that subtle racism was as intolerable as overt racism. Some possible violations may include:

• Stereotypes about ability, personality, or skills
• Educational and background requirements that are irrelevant to the job sought
• Racially-based assignments targeted at certain demographic consumer groups
• Denial of after hours networking opportunities to employees of a particular race

Contact Us

There is no excuse for employers to continue to indulge in these illegal behaviors. To ensure that your employers understand that transgressions are not to be tolerated, contact the Houston discrimination lawyers of the Ross Law Group at 713-482-6910 to begin taking the steps necessary to pursue legal action.