Avoiding Discrimination Based on Race and National Origin
You may not make job decisions based on an employee's race, ethnicity, or national origin.
Employment discrimination on the basis or race or national origin still happens more often than anyone wants to believe -- and it's against the law. It exacts a very high price, both from its victims and from the companies where it occurs. Recent lawsuits prove the point: Large companies have paid millions of dollars to compensate victims of race and national origin discrimination and to pay for their own complicity in encouraging or allowing a discriminatory atmosphere to flourish in the workplace.
What Is Race Discrimination?
An employer commits racial discrimination when it makes job decisions on the basis of race, or even when it adopts neutral job policies that disproportionately affect members of a particular race.
Federal and state laws forbid race discrimination in every aspect of the employment relationship, including hiring, firing, promotions, compensation, job training, or any other term or condition of employment. For example, an employer discriminates when it refuses to hire Latinos, promotes only white employees to supervisory positions, requires only African-American job applicants to take a drug test, or refuses to allow Asian-American employees to deal with customers. An employer that discriminates on the basis of physical characteristics associated with a particular race -- such as hair texture or color, skin color, or facial features -- also commits race discrimination.
Even employment policies or criteria that seem neutral may be discriminatory if they have a disproportionate impact on members of a particular race. For example, a height requirement may screen out disproportionate numbers of Asian-American and Latino job applicants. Or an employment policy requiring men to be clean-shaven may discriminate against African-American men, who are more likely to suffer from Pseudofolliculitis barbae (a painful skin condition caused and exacerbated by shaving).
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