Race Discrimination at a Private College
Carol was an African American woman who worked in human resources for a private educational institution. She received exceptional performance ratings for the majority of her time there.
For the first part of her tenure, her supervisor was also a woman of color. During that time, the human resources department was the only department at the college that had multiple people of color on the team, and as a group they were frequently subject to criticism and negative comments from people in other departments. When Carol's first supervisor left, in part because of the pervasive negative treatment of people of color in human resources, she faced increasingly hostile treatment from new management. She raised concerns about that hostile treatment. She also raised concerns with management about hostile treatment of other African American employees. After conducting an investigation that revealed that, in fact, there was a hostile work environment based on race, management terminated her employment. Discrimination Law SolutionCarol felt that she had been doubly targeted- first because of her race, and second, because of her efforts to advocate against racially biased conduct on behalf of not just herself but her colleagues who were also people of color.
We reviewed Carol's personnel file and the incidents she reported, and spoke to her prior supervisor. Based on that information, we put together a demand letter and sent it to the college, articulating her claims of discrimination and retaliation. Ultimately we were able to negotiate a severance for Carol without the need to file a public complaint in court. |
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Postscript
After resolving her dispute with the college, Carol was able to find another human resources position in a better environment. If you are in a similar situation, remember that you have the right to object to racial discrimination in your workplace, and any action taken against you in retaliation for doing so is very likely unlawful.
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