New York State, New York City and Federal law prohibit race discrimination in employment, which includes hiring, promotions and termination. Nonetheless, race discrimination continues to be prevalent in companies, which in recent years, has even included some very big employers.
Race discrimination, of course, is wrong. Most employers recognize the illegality of race discrimination; but when it occurs they will often seek to hide their actions, which makes it very important to consult with an experienced practitioner of employment law to determine if such detestable actions have occurred.
Overt Race Discrimination
Overt race discrimination can take many forms, including:
- Wrongful treatment of employees based upon their race, which could include statements or the creation or existence of a hostile workplace
- The refusal of the organization to give fair consideration to certain races in the hiring process (typically by refusing to hire those of certain races)
- The refusal to promote or otherwise treat equally those of certain races
- The termination of those of certain races based upon pretextual reasons that do not apply to other workers.
Instances of overt race discrimination can often be proven by facts and circumstances. This can include comments and statements that managers or supervisors make concerning race, emails and memoranda that they may write concerning race, or the prevalence of what might be considered a hostile workplace (such as the allowance of racial comments and jokes). Our firm will carefully review all the facts and circumstances in your case to determine if there is a claim for such improper race discrimination.
Less Obvious forms of Race Discrimination
Not all employers who may engage in race discrimination do so openly (such as allowing racial jokes and specifically denying those of certain races to be hired or promoted). Instead, some employers simply have a practice of discriminating against those of certain races in a less obvious manner.
As an example, a company may not have a policy of discriminating against hiring those of certain races, but race–based hiring may in fact be the case. To understand more about these matters, it is again important to have our firm review all the facts and circumstances in your case to determine the viability of your claim
For instance, while a company may interview minority candidates for a particular position, if the person who ultimately selected is not a minority and in fact does not have comparable or superior qualifications to that of a minority candidate, that can be an example of possible race discrimination. Again, a consultation with our firm is important to explore all of the relevant facts and circumstances.
Proving Race Discrimination
A consultation with experienced employment counsel, such as our firm, is therefore enormously important to determining the ability to prove such prohibited racial discrimination. With our experience we can review these relevant fact and circumstances with you to determinate the strengths of such claims and to discuss appropriate actions in accordance with the needs of individual clients.