Question 1

What Should I Do If I Was Taken Off A Job Because The Customer Does Not Like Black People? Can An Employer Make Employment Decisions Based On The Racial Preference Of Its Clients?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely not. Any employment decisions that are made based on the racial preferences of clients, customers, or coworkers will be deemed intentional race discrimination. Employers cannot point the finger at their clients or customers in order to avoid liability for making a decision to fire, suspend, lay off, or transfer a Black worker. Moreover, employers cannot place all of their Black employees in stores that mostly service Black customers while placing all the White employees in stores that have mostly White customers.

Question 2

Can I Be Fired For Reporting Race Discrimination Or Racial Harassment? What Should I Do If I Was Fired Today Right After I Reported Racism At Work BY My Boss To HR?

Accepted Answer

Both Ohio and Federal law prohibit an employer from retaliating against an employee that has engaged in protected activity, including opposing a racially motivated practice that the employee reasonably believes is made unlawful by one of the employment discrimination statutes or of filing a charge, testifying, assisting, or participating in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under the statute. Thus, an employer cannot fire, demote, discipline or take other adverse actions against any employee from complaining about the infringement of their or any other employees’ rights to be free from racial discrimination. Given this, it becomes extremely important for you to document your complaints of racial discrimination or race harassment in writing – be it by note, fax, email or even text message. If need be, our employment law lawyers can assist you in drafting a complaint to submit to your job, boss, manager, supervisor, or HR.

Question 3

How Do I Prove Race Discrimination?

Accepted Answer

A lot will depend on how your job or boss perpetrated the race discrimination. Obviously, the best and easiest was to prove race discrimination is if your manager said “I’m not promoting you because I don’t want any Blacks in this job;” repeatedly used the n-word; or said, “I cannot trust black people with keys.” Such statements are direct evidence of race discrimination. If there is no direct evidence of discrimination, race discrimination can be proven by presenting a “prima facie case” through circumstantial evidence.

Taking this approach, the employee or worker has to present evidence of four things: (1) you are minority race; (2) the company that you work or applied to work for took adverse employment action against you (this would include being terminated, demoted, passed over for a promotion, or not even hired for the job); (3) you are qualified for the job or position in dispute; and (4) you were treated differently or replaced by a person that is outside of the protected class (a White employee was promoted over an African American worker). If the employee can do this, the employer has the easy burden to simply state its legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for the adverse action taken against you (“We fired you for poor attendance.”) At that point, the employee has the opportunity to prove that the reason given for the employer’s adverse action is simply not true (I am supposed to get a warning for being late, but have never been written up before being fired for my first tardy, and Caucasian employees have been late several times without any discipline).

Question 4

Do Race Discrimination Laws Also Cover White Workers? As A White Employee, Can I File A Race Discrimination Claim?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Ohio’s R.C. § 4112.99, which are the federal and state laws prohibiting race discrimination, do not even mention a specific race. Therefore, any employee who is fired, demoted, or denied a promotion or benefits because of his or her race would have a valid claim for sex discrimination. In so-called “reverse discrimination” cases, proving the case changes a little to take into account the fact that the employee or worker is not part of a minority class. While several federal circuit courts require the employee to demonstrate that “background circumstances support the suspicion that the defendant is that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority,” others use a different test. For example, in Iadimarco v. Runyon, the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that “a plaintiff who brings a ‘reverse discrimination’ suit under Title VII should be able to establish a prima facie case in the absence of direct evidence of discrimination by presenting sufficient evidence to allow a reasonable fact finder to conclude (given the totality of the circumstances) that the defendant treated plaintiff ‘less favorably than others because of [his or her] race, color, religion, sex or national origin.’” (quoting Furnco Constr. Corp. v. Waters). Under this test, the employee is not required to present direct evidence, but only enough evidence to create an inference of discrimination. See Pivirotto v. Innovative Systems, Inc.

Question 5

Can My Job Have A So-Called Neutral Policy That Is Still Racially Discriminatory?

Accepted Answer

Yes. This is what Ohio race discrimination lawyers call disparate impact claims. To that end, your company’s purportedly race-neutral employment practices are illegal if those policies have the effect, whether intentional or unintentional, of discriminating based on race. Thus, your boss’s intentions and motives are not relevant to employment practices, rules, and/or policies that create a disparate impact on particular races. To establish a disparate impact claim, an employee must establish show that the facially neutral practices, rules, and/or policies have caused a significantly discriminatory hiring, promotion, or termination pattern by demonstrating a significant statistical disparity created by that policy. Your company can only defend a disparate impact claim by proving that the challenged practice, rule, and/or policy is job-related for the particular job at issue and consistent with real business necessity. This means that employers may not use practices, rules, and/or policies that create a discriminatory effect except if they truly reflect the minimum qualifications need to do the job at issue.

Question 6

I Was Fired Today Because I’m Black; Can I Sue? Do I Have A Claim For Race Discrimination Or Wrongful Termination?

Accepted Answer

Our racial discrimination lawyers have filled this employment law website with as much law as we possibly could. However, an interactive evaluation of your individual rights and claims for race discrimination and wrongful termination cannot be performed online without direct conversations with one of our lawyers, who will need to talk to you about your particular situation and what happen on your job.

Race Discrimination FAQs

A Few Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Racial Discrimination