Tag Archives | race

Banana-based racial harassment claim goes to trial

By on June 25, 2012 in Our Blog

In Jones v. UPS Group Freight, decided by the Eleventh Circuit earlier this month, the court reversed a grant of summary judgment, allowing the plaintiff’s racial harassment claim to proceed to a jury trial.  In Jones, an African American truck driver alleged he was harassed based on his race when co-workers left banana peels in and near his truck and wore shirts with Confederate flags.  These acts were severe and pervasive enough — the linchpin of any hostile work environment claim — to defeat summary judgment.  The court noted the significance of the bananas:

“[A] discriminator may conjure up images of monkeys by using items associated with monkeys, such as their stereotypical food of choice, the banana. When a race claim is premised upon the presence of bananas, which requires us to infer that the person who placed the bananas was evoking a racial slur, we must, of course, be cognizant of the surrounding circumstances. People commonly eat and discard bananas, in the workplace and elsewhere, without any racial motivation . . . Unfortunately, some people do use bananas to communicate racial slurs.”

As an employer, you don’t want to be in the position of arguing the harassment was not  severe or pervasive enough.  It’s a gray area to be sure and thus very hard to predict which way a court will go.  Train all employees to be respectful and to avoid race-related (or any other protected category) comments or conduct.  And if you catch wind of it, take action.

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The debate over Arizona’s controversial immigration law migrates to Ohio

By on August 3, 2010 in Our Blog

At a City Club of Cleveland forum a couple of weeks ago, State Representative Courtney Combs called for an Arizona-style crackdown on illegal immigration.  The Arizona law, which we blogged about last month, contains sweeping measures critics have labeled as inviting racial profiling, including requiring police officers to stop anyone they believe might be in the state illegally.  Representative Combs has launched a similar campaign in Ohio, where he hopes to garner enough support to get a similar law on the Ohio ballot next year.  Combs’s views upset the other panel members of the forum, including local immigration lawyers and the executive director of the local NAACP.  They opined that Ohio should welcome, not scare away, people of all national origins and races.

In the meantime, it is worth noting that a federal judge struck down some of the most controversial provisions of the Arizona law, deeming it unconstitutional.  Fierce public debate, including the arrest of peaceful demonstrators who oppose the law, ensued.  No doubt the controversy will continue to swirl.  And Combs’s stated efforts will ensure that debate occurs here in Ohio, too.

Employers should continue to follow the Arizona law’s progression, as well as efforts to enact a similar law in Ohio.  Keep your ears close to the ground to make sure the controversy is not affecting the workplace.  If it is, remind employees of your commitment to a discrimination-free workplace, and take steps to ensure that commitment is being honored.

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Assigning black staff to black clients = discrimination

By on March 22, 2010 in Our Blog

Suppose you have an employee who belongs to a protected class (such as race), and you also have clients who belong to that same protected class.  Before you assume that your employee can better relate to your clients based on similar backgrounds, etc., think again (or call your lawyer).  A 2009 case illustrates the danger in making such race-based assumptions.  

Pamela Altman, a black employee of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services worked as a child-protection investigator.  She sued her employer for race discrimination, claiming she was repeatedly assigned to investigate cases in predominantly black inner-city areas (the “projects”).  The court agreed, and the case is now headed to a jury trial.

This is just the kind of “subtle” discrimination plaintiffs (and the EEOC) are increasingly pursuing.  And the courts are receptive.  When you train your managers on the anti-discrimination laws, make sure to include the law’s expanding and less-obvious forms of bias, such as this one.

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College-educated white men fare far better in the job market than their African-American counterparts

By on December 9, 2009 in Our Blog

The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released figures demonstrating that college-educated black men have struggled nearly twice as much as their white counterparts in terms of finding jobs in the economic downturn.  On December 1, 2009, New York Times reporter Michael Luo wrote about this troubling trend in an article entitled In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap.  On December 7, NPR aired a segment on Talk of the Nation called Unemployment and African-Employment Men.  Both pieces contain anecdotal evidence from college-educated black men, including some from prestigious institutions such as Yale University, describing how the application process seemed to turn south the moment the hiring managers realized they were black.    

In recent times, various academic studies have made clear that racism is alive and well when it comes to the job market.  For example, a 2003 American Economic Review study called “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” found that applicants with “white-sounding” names received twice as many employer responses as did those with “black-sounding” names.  But what accounts for the 2009 trend specifically?  Theories abound.  Some speculate that the election of President Obama has actually created a backlash against blacks.  Others surmise the stereotypes about affirmative action programs negatively impact highly-educated blacks, who would-be employers might assume they only got as far as they did because of affirmative action.  Still others claim informal networking programs that largely influence hiring decisions have a disparate impact on black males.  (See our September 16, 2009 blog on this topic).

Whatever the reason, the fact that black male college graduates have an unemployment rate nearly twice that of their white counterparts (8.4% compared to 4.4%) is cause for concern.  For proactive employers, awareness may be the best defense to falling prey to this trend (and thereby avoiding unnecessary and costly litigation as a result).  Have your hiring managers received training on the discrimination laws?  Have you invested in sensitivity sessions, whether in a group or one-on-one, aimed at raising awareness of subtle, even unconscious bias (dubbed “neo-racism” in Luo’s NY Times article)?  If not, now is as good a time as any.

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Unconscious bias: it can affect our actions more than we may think

By on October 22, 2009 in Our Blog

This week I have been listening to Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink in the car.  For those of you who have not yet read it, it is basically about rapid cognition – or the kind of thinking we do in the blink of an eye.  Sometimes rapid cognition, or “thin-slicing,” as Gladwell refers to it, can lead us to great results that could not be obtained through a more deliberative process.  

The book begins with a poignant example involving the Getty Museum’s acquisition of what appeared to be a genuine kouros, or statue of a standing nude young man meant to represent the ideal of youth.  The museum spent over fourteen months researching the “artifact,” hired expert after expert to validate its authenticity, and spent approximately $7 million to acquire it.  Subsequently, several world-renowned experts on ancient sculptures had literally visceral reactions when they saw the kouros.  One felt revulsion.  Another imagined the word “fresh” (i.e., not ancient).  Something about it just seemed wrong.  It turns out, the nay-sayers were right.  How did the Getty — with its painstaking research and careful analysis — get it wrong?  According to Gladwell, the deliberative process simply failed, while rapid cognition worked.  But, Gladwell warns, this is not always the case.

When it comes to assumptions about protected categories such as race and gender, thin-slicing actually leads us astray.  In Blink, Gladwell discussed the Implicit Association Test, or “IAT.”  The test was created by Harvard psychologists and is based on word association.  It is performed online at high speeds and is said to measure unconscious attitudes as opposed to deliberative thought.  You can try it yourself at the Project Implicit website.  Gladwell, who is half-African American, took the test and it revealed his own (heretofore unknown) racial biases.  I took one of the tests (it takes about 10 minutes), and was surprised to learn I have a moderate association with women and home, and men and work.  ”Not me,” I thought, “I’m a working woman!”  Gladwell’s point is not that he is a racist (or that I am a sexist), but rather that our unconscious thoughts are affected by the culture in which we live and the stereotypes that abound.  

Do these unconscious biases affect the way we act?  Of course.  (Jon Hyman makes this point nicely in a June 15, 2009 blog, Examining our prejudices).  So when you sit down to interview that minority applicant, slow down, examine your own possible biases, and double check your actions to make sure you are not letting them seep into your behavior.

Workplace training is a good, proactive way to address this issue of unconscious bias.

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Community’s swift response to racism sends the right message

By on September 14, 2009 in Our Blog

On September 8, a black family living in Fairview Park, Ohio found a noose in their front yard, along with a note demanding they leave the city.  Residents reacted quickly and unanimously: this kind of racism has no place here.  A message stating “Everyone Is Our Neighbor” went up all over town: on the high school marquee, at city hall, at churches, and even at private businesses.  The collective outrage mobilized a solidarity campaign, which will hopefully put an end to such acts in the future.  

Employers would do well to take a page out of the Fairview Park playbook.  Quick action, a strong anti-racism response, and a collective voice can be the best tools to rid an organization (or a city) of the pernicious effects of racial hatred.  Better still, train your workforces on your culture and values, and managers in particular about the anti-discrimination laws.

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