Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay A high school basketball announcer was caught on a live microphone uttering a racial slur about the girls of the Norman basketball team, who had taken a knee during the national anthem. “They’re kneeling? F*** them,” one of the men said. “I hope Norman…
CC BY-SA 3.0, Link What is a hostile work environment? We hear that phrase used a lot. But what does the law consider to be a hostile work environment? You won’t find the words “hostile work environment” anywhere in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal…
stop hand by b farias from the Noun Project One of the proudest days in an attorney’s legal career is making partner. There are two tiers of partnership in most law firms: (1) non-equity/contract partner; and (2) shareholder/equity partner. Ascending to that second shareholder tier means that you own part…
Pixabay.com A black man who was fired after recording a rap song, claims that his race — not his use of the “N”-word twice in the video — motivated his employer to end his employment. And, according to a federal judge in California, he may be right. Here are the…
U.S. Government / Public domain As Microsoft deals with a government investigation into its diversity hiring program, the rest of you federal contractors should take note of these new Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFFCP) guidelines addressing the White House “Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping.” (You…
Image by Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay Yesterday, both Law360 (here) and Bloomberg (here) reported that the U.S. Department of Labor had begun investigating whether Microsoft violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal anti-discrimination law the prohibits race bias, when Microsoft decided to double the number of…
Image by Prohibition to publish images as your work in photobanks! from Pixabay On the heels of the federal government announcing that it will change how it trains federal workers on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), thank you to the hundreds of readers that took a few minutes to respond…
\\\ This two-page memo from the Executive Office of the President made several headlines on Friday. Here’s a sampling: White House Orders End Of ‘Un-American’ Racial Sensitivity Training At Federal Agencies (Huffington Post) Trump orders stop to ‘White privilege’ diversity training in federal government (Washington Times) Trump Bans Diversity Training, Claiming…
Image by Jody Davis from Pixabay On Wednesday evening, the players on the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks shocked us all. They voted not to play their scheduled playoff game against the Orlando Magic in protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake. Mr. Blake is a 29-year-old African-American man whom a Kenosha,…
Two black employees complain to a supervisor that a white co-worker is taunting them with racial pejoratives. What do you do? Take the complaint seriously, investigate, and take other steps that are reasonably designed to end the complained-of behavior, nothing, or ignore the complaint, just like the racist graffiti of…