Race Discrimination

Race and national origin discrimination involves differential treatment or harassment of an employee on the basis of their race or national origin (the country where they or their families come from).

Race or national origin discrimination can occur either because an employee is of a certain race or because an employee is seen as being of a certain race or coming from a certain country. Race discrimination can occur if an employee is seen as showing the stereotypes or characteristics of a certain race or even is seen as not showing the characteristics that are expected of a certain race.

While many people think of race discrimination as occuring between a white superior and a subordinate or co-worker who is a person of color, race and national origin discrimination can occur between any individuals. Race discrimination can happen against people of any race by people of any race, including within a single race.  Policies that favor any race or national origin may be discriminatory.

While workplace discrimination usually occurs between an employer and employee, employees with levels of seniority (superior and subordinate), or co-workers, in some instances an employee can experience race or national origin discrimination by a client or vendor, particularly if an employer knows about the discrimination and has not taken action to prevent it from recurring.

There are many forms of race and national origin discrimination. It can be different, less favorable treatment at any stage in the employment process, including help-wanted ads, interviews, pre-employment testing, hiring, job assignments, shift assignments, promotions, compensation, benefits, job training, layoffs or termination.

This kind of discrimination may be very direct, such as when an employee is not hired or is fired because of race or racial characteristics/stereotypes. It can also be more subtle, such as an employer’s policy that inherently discriminates against members of a certain race without a real business need. For example, if the employer requires all employees to meet certain height or weight requirements, people of certain races who statistically have lower heights and weights than people of other races may be affected by this rule. For an employer to legally maintain such a policy, the height and weight requirements must be clearly related to the legitimate demands of that particular job.

Other examples include requirements that employees speak only English or rules about what kind of food employees can bring in to eat at the office. These kinds of rules may be illegal unless they are clearly related to acceptable, legitimate business needs.

Race discrimination may come from supervisors, co-workers or in limited circumstances from other individuals, such as vendors or clients. If your employer is creating or allowing an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment to exist, these practices are also against the law.

Discrimination can also be harassment experienced by an employee because of their race, traits that are seen of being due to their race, or even not showing the traits expected of their race or the race they are seen as being. Harassment can include “jokes” or comments about a particular race, derogatory comments about an employee’s race or racial traits or country of origin, hostile comments or actions toward the employee based on his race or national origin, the display of drawings or pictures that negatively portray people of a particular race, or any other action that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment, or interferes with the employee’s work performance. To be considered discrimination, harassing actions must be “severe and pervasive.” In other words, an isolated incident or “offhand teasing” would probably not be enough for a lawsuit.

It is illegal for an employer to take any adverse or punitive actions against an employee for complaining about race discrimination or other employment law violations. “Adverse actions” include termination, demotion, discipline, reduction of pay, or any other actions that would cause the average person to avoid making such a complaint. Adverse actions may occur outside the context of work and include threats, including threats of deportation or reporting a person to government authorities.

It is important to note that the discrimination does not have to be proven for the complaining employee to be protected against retaliation. In other words, if an employee makes a complaint about race discrimination and is fired a few days later, the employer may be liable for retaliation even if no court or government agency finds that the underlying race discrimination actually occurred.