Imagine working hard, hoping your employer will act based on your work performance. However, you realize that does not happen; the employer always acts against you, making decisions that adversely affect your work. You then discover that the employer acts against you all the time because of your race. This constitutes racial discrimination.

Discrimination based on race is unfair, unethical, and illegal under both state and federal laws. Sadly, some employers are still bigoted and biased and make critical decisions contingent on a worker’s race. If you experience adverse treatment at work just because your racial identity is different, you may successfully recover damages by bringing a claim. You want to discuss your case with an experienced race discrimination attorney.

At Empower Sexual Harassment Attorney, we assist workers in San Diego in standing up for themselves and defending their rights. We can also do the same for you. Our lawyers will assist you in filing a claim against your employer and other liable parties for their discriminatory conduct. It does not matter whether you still work with the liable employer or have left the workplace. We will strive to ensure you receive the justice and compensation you deserve.

The Definition of Workplace Race Discrimination

Racial discrimination at work happens when an employer acts unfairly against a worker because of their race or racial characteristics. Racial characteristics include, without limitation, skin color, accents, facial features, eye color, and hair texture.

Workplace racial discrimination could be directed at job applicants, employees, or any racial group treated differently or unfavorably regarding their employment terms and conditions. It also constitutes workplace racial discrimination whenever coworkers or an employer perceive an employee to be of a given race. Workers could also be subject to racial discrimination due to their association with a person of a specific race. A worker could, for example, suffer racial discrimination at work because they are married to a person from a given race.

There are two kinds of workplace racial discrimination:

  1. Disparate Treatment

In this form of discrimination, an employer passes up a person from a particular race for training, promotions, or other benefits and perks. This type also involves cases where an employer targets a specific race for negative employment actions.

Disparate treatment discrimination takes many forms. Some instances can be obvious, open, and blatant, while others can be more nuanced and subtle. Various signs may indicate that your employer or prospective employer discriminates against you due to your race. These signs might include asking inappropriate questions at your interview or in the course of your employment about your:

  • Heritage
  • Nationality
  • Ancestry
  • Birthplace
  • Cultural heritage
  • Parents’ ancestry
  • Language capability, if irrelevant to the scope of your job duties
  • Background

Other signs of racial discrimination at work are when an employer or prospective employer does the following:

  • Refers to a worker derogatorily or by a color, for example, brown, black, white, red, or yellow
  • Creates a hostile workplace environment that might include bullying at the workplace
  • Harasses an employee (or lets somebody else do so) due to their race. Harassment may include making offensive jokes, racial slurs, derogatory statements, or displaying racially offensive signs.
  • Forces a worker of a certain race to quit
  • Denies a qualified worker a promotion
  • Offers a worker fewer employment benefits or pays them less
  • Discriminates against employees of a particular race with regard to employment conditions
  • Fires, demotes, or lays off mostly or only employees of a particular race, for example, Latino workers
  • Declines to retain or interview particular job applicants due to their names
  • Practices job segregation. This involves putting workers of different races into different kinds of jobs.
  • Denies the employee employment conditions, terms, or privileges accorded to other workers
  • Fails to prevent or stop jokes about race and racial traits in the workplace
  • Promotes certain workers contingent on race
  • Excludes a worker from hangouts, events, or meetings
  • Suddenly, the way they used to conduct job performance reviews changed
  • Retaliates against workers who complain about racial discrimination
  • Different rule enforcement contingent on race
  1. Disparate Impact

Disparate impact discrimination is where an employer might not mean to discriminate against workers racially, but their procedures, practices, or policies might adversely affect workers of a given race. Disparate impact is a subtler type of discrimination. If an employer intentionally hires more white workers, it is deemed intentional discrimination or disparate treatment. However, if an employer has, for example, established a practice of hiring just from Ivy League universities, that would deny minority applicants opportunities. This may constitute disparate impact.

Race discrimination differs from color, religious, and national origin discrimination. However, at times, telling the difference can be challenging. Racial discrimination at work might be difficult to demonstrate, but it is still deemed unlawful. Nowadays, unconscious prejudice and bias figure highly into workplace racism cases.

Laws Against Race Discrimination

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the federal statute prohibiting workplace race discrimination in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. This law only applies to employers with at least fifteen employees, and it caps damages. It often favors employees less than the California FEHA (Fair Employment and Housing Act).

The enactment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act happened in 1964 and was considered among the main achievements of the civil rights movement in the 60s. It aimed to ensure equality for African Americans in all areas of society. However, due to its extensive wording, it does apply to all U.S. racial minorities. These include those identifying themselves as Asian, Native American, or Latino.

As stated, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination in the work environment apply to employers with at least fifteen workers. It applies to each employment aspect, including hiring, firing, wages, promotion, and benefits. Generally, any kind of biased treatment due to race and racial traits is illegal.

The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)

Apart from the federal Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, most states have their own laws with even broader prohibitions against workplace racial discrimination. California has the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). This law regulates California employers who have no less than five workers.

According to the FEHA, it is illegal for any covered employer to discriminate against employees or job applicants because of race. It is also unlawful for any covered employer to retaliate against an employee or job applicant for complaining about racial discrimination. Unpaid interns also fall under the category of employees for purposes of workplace discrimination laws.

Consider this example: Say your employer denied you benefits due to being Black, and as a result, your supervisor sees you as not leadership material. In this case, you may successfully file a race discrimination claim with the help of your lawyer. In another example, say you are a job applicant from the Asian American race, and the prospective employer does not hire you because they have stereotyped Asian Americans as too subservient. In this case, you may successfully bring a race discrimination claim.

FEHA forbids discrimination based not just on actual race but also on perceived race. In addition, it prohibits race discrimination contingent on a worker’s relationship with a person or people in a given protected class. In general, you may recover damages contingent on associational race discrimination if you have a familial, personal, acquaintance, or friend relationship with a person of a particular race and are treated negatively due to that relationship.

On July 3, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 188, also called the Crown Act, into law. This law prohibits race discrimination, which includes discrimination contingent on texture and protective hairstyles. It specifies that race includes character traits historically linked to race, like braids, locks, and twists. This law is meant to safeguard Black employees.

Laws safeguarding against workplace racial discrimination do not apply only to employers. They also apply to labor organizations and labor unions. That means it is illegal for an employee to be expelled or excluded from membership contingent on race.

Steps to Take If You Face Workplace Racial Discrimination

If you think you have faced racial discrimination, you want to consult an employment lawyer as soon as possible. Speaking to one is ideal, as they will help you take the steps necessary to demonstrate your lawsuit. You can do various things to develop a compelling claim or lawsuit. These include the following:

  • Talk to your supervisors, human resource representative, or coworkers who perhaps heard or saw the discriminatory acts. Document all conversations you engaged in with these persons.
  • Consult a skilled employment law lawyer who can counsel you, help you defend your rights, and assist you in building a compelling case.
  • Collect evidence. It is crucial to collect all evidence suggesting workplace racial discrimination. Soon after you suspect your employer is discriminating against you due to your race, start documenting and storing related information. Store records of any incidents of discrimination, including the location, time, date, and the details of what occurred. Also, save any documentation supporting your case, such as:
  • Texts messages
  • Letters,
  • Emails,
  • Videos or photos,
  • Disciplinary forms
  • Employment contract
  • Termination, promotion, or offer documentation
  • Calendar entries
  • Pay stubs
  • Witness first-hand accounts or statements

The above will be deemed documentary evidence. Evidence could be circumstantial or direct. Direct evidence is that which proves racial discrimination without any presumptions or inferences. It directly demonstrates a fact. Presenting direct evidence is the best way to show racial discrimination. However, it is usually challenging to collect this type of evidence.

An example of direct evidence would be if you received an email or text from your employer explicitly stating they are terminating you due to your race. This would show that the employer acted adversely against you due to your race.

Circumstantial evidence proves facts indirectly. For example, a relative lack of workers from a particular race could be circumstantial evidence proving the employer discriminates against job applicants from that specific race. Other circumstantial evidence instances involve unequal discipline patterns or adverse actions towards a particular race. The patterns could circumstantially prove that the company has a racially discriminatory motive. Workplace racial discrimination cases primarily comprise circumstantial evidence.

Collecting as much evidence as possible is essential to strengthen your case. A skilled lawyer can assess the evidence you have gathered and assist in determining whether you have enough to substantiate your claim or lawsuit.

Suing for Racial Discrimination at Work

If you reasonably believe you are a workplace racial discrimination victim, you undoubtedly deserve justice. One of the ways to obtain that justice is to file a lawsuit against your employer or any other liable party for damages. However, before you sue, there are agencies you should file your complaint with or contact.

First, you should report the matter to your human resource representative or department in writing. This would alert your employer to the possible unlawful conduct. The employer can probe the matter and address it. If they fail to do so, you could use that detail later in the case. You can present it as substantiation that the employer knew about the discriminatory conduct and took no action to remedy it.

If reporting the discrimination case to human resources is not fruitful, you can bring your complaint to the California CRD (Civil Rights Department). The CRD is the California state agency handling workplace racial discrimination complaints and other workplace discrimination cases.

You can simultaneously bring your complaint to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). The EEOC is the federal agency handling workplace racial discrimination cases and other forms of workplace discrimination.

Compared to federal protections against workplace discrimination, California offers more extensive protection. Therefore, most workers bring their complaints to the CRD, not the EEOC.

After filing your complaint with these agencies, they will investigate it to determine whether action should be taken. If they find any reason to believe the employer committed racial discrimination, they can try settling the complaint with the employer. And if they do not see any wrongdoing or decide against pursuing further action, they might issue you a right-to-sue letter. At this point, you can then file a civil lawsuit.

The bottom line is that filing a lawsuit is usually the last legal recourse after you have exhausted all other legal channels.

However, you could skip the EEOC or CRD investigations and bring a suit yourself. In this case, the EEOC or CRD will issue you a right-to-sue letter without investigating the matter. You should pursue this channel only when you have a lawyer. Your lawyer would then seek an immediate right-to-sue letter from the EEOC or CRD without waiting for the administrative process to conclude. Should you skip the initial investigation, you cannot have the EEOC or CRD conduct one later.

The statute of limitations for workplace racial discrimination cases is three years from the last racial discrimination incident. That means you generally have three years from the date you experienced the previous racially discriminatory act to bring your formal complaint to the CRD or EEOC.

Proving Workplace Racial Discrimination

Even though every situation and case differs, there are specific elements you must prove for your workplace racial discrimination claim or lawsuit to be successful. You must prove that:

  • You belonged to a certain race, for example, Latino
  • You received unfair treatment at the workplace because you are from that race, for example, you were demoted or terminated unfairly.
  • The circumstances surrounding the unfair treatment implied racial discrimination.
  • You suffered damages due to the employer’s unfair treatment

Workplace racial discrimination cases are civil matters. That said, the standard of proof is lower than in criminal cases. The standard of proof in these cases is a preponderance of the evidence as opposed to beyond a reasonable doubt. That means you must show that the employer was more likely than not liable for racial discrimination.

So, to prove workplace racial discrimination, you must establish a causal link. This entails showing that the employer’s discriminatory conduct against you was due to your belonging to a particular race. Unfortunately, it is difficult to prove so. Companies can be extremely good at concealing their intentions and motives.

They may even avoid putting things in writing to conceal the truth. A company will, for example, rarely write a letter saying it has decided to lay off a person because they have a particular accent and need a worker who does not have one. Instead, the employer may claim they fired the employee for poor performance.

The employer’s intention might not be apparent, but you may still have evidence to show the discrimination. Maybe the employer retained an employee without an accent after firing you, or someone overheard them talking down on your race. You can also argue that you have all the incredible performance reviews. Evidence such as this can assist in proving a racially discriminatory intent.

You also must establish that you belong to a particular race, that you satisfy the requisite basic job expectations, and that the racial discrimination adversely impacted your job.

Tips for a Compelling Lawsuit

There are various things you can do to ensure your claim is successful. These include the following:

  • Being vigilant. Workplace racial discrimination cases can be intricate. You need not assume your boss will assist you in navigating your complaints. At times, people will try to sweep your complaints under the carpet. They will claim it is simpler for them not to take action regarding your case. It is up to you to reiterate to them that your matter deserves attention. Talking to an employment discrimination attorney is one of the ways of doing it.
  • Read the employee handbook. Ensure you know precisely what your employee handbook states. Be deliberate and thorough about whatever you do. You may have several legal channels to explore as far as dealing with discrimination is concerned. Ensure you use all of the options. You could bring your complaint to the CRD, EEOC, or both if you have exhausted all your options and your employer has done nothing to remedy the situation. There is your one option. Alternatively, you can consult a lawyer and initiate the lawsuit against your employer.
  • Being aggressive. You want people to take you seriously, be it your supervisor, employer, the CRD, or the EEOC. You should bring your matter to their attention without letting them forget it. Retain an attorney to assist you in asserting yourself.

Damages Recoverable in Workplace Racial Discrimination Claims

If you can prove liability for racial discrimination, you might recover compensation. The specific compensation you might recover is based on the facts surrounding your claim or lawsuit. However, they usually include damages for non-economic and economic losses, collectively called compensatory damages. Examples of compensatory damages you may recover include the following:

  • Front pay. These damages compensate for any future lost income and benefits.
  • Back pay. These damages compensate for lost benefits or income you would have earned had the liable party not discriminated against you due to your race.
  • Court charges and attorney’s fees. Should you prevail in your discrimination case, the court may order the liable party to reimburse any court charges and attorney’s fees you paid
  • Pain and suffering caused by racial discrimination
  • The emotional distress you suffered due to the discrimination
  • Mental anguish because of the racial discrimination you experienced

You may pursue punitive damages if your employer’s behavior was genuinely egregious. Unlike non-economic and economic damages, punitive damages usually punish the liable party for their racially discriminatory behavior and discourage future discrimination from them or any other party.

You want to work closely with your attorney to know the specific types of damages you could recover from your case. Also, let them represent you in your case to stand a chance of recovering the maximum possible compensation.

Contact An Experienced Workplace Racial Discrimination Attorney Near Me

Racial discrimination in the workplace can impede a worker’s professional milestones and thwart their career. Whereas most companies will abstain from openly practicing racial discrimination, it might still occur subtly. If you reasonably believe your employer or colleague subjected you to racial discrimination at work, you want to consult a racial discrimination defense lawyer as soon as possible.

At Empower Sexual Harassment Attorneys, we represent employees in San Diego who are victims of workplace racial discrimination or any other form of workplace discrimination. Contact us at 619-604-3027 to schedule a free consultation and speak to one of our skilled lawyers about your case.