

Moreover, racial and ethnic disparities still exist in the labor market.

(6) And, a 2002 study in Boston and Chicago found that résumés of persons with names common among Whites were 50 percent more likely to generate a request for an interview than equally impressive résumés of persons with names common among Blacks. (5) A 2003 study in California found that temporary agencies preferred White applicants three to one over African American applicants. A 2003 study in Milwaukee found that Whites with a criminal record received job call-backs at a rate more than three times that of Blacks with the same criminal record, and even at a rate higher than Blacks without a criminal record.

(4) In addition, several private studies conducted in the early 2000s provide telling evidence that race discrimination in employment persists. Charges alleging race discrimination in employment accounted for 35.5 percent of the Commission’s 2005 charge receipts, making race still the most-alleged basis of employment discrimination under federal law. Blacks and other people of color now work in virtually every field, and opportunities are increasing at every level. (3) In addition, it generally is agreed that equal opportunity has increased dramatically in America, including in employment. Today, the national policy of nondiscrimination is firmly rooted in the law. Title VII’s prohibitions against race and color discrimination were aimed at ending a system in which Blacks were “largely relegated to unskilled and semi-skilled jobs.” (1) However, Congress drafted the statute broadly to cover race or color discrimination against anyone – Whites, Blacks, Asians, Latinos, Arabs, American Indians and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, persons of more than one race, and all other persons. The employment title of the Act - Title VII - covers employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or protected activity. The impetus for the Act was the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which challenged the denial of the right of Blacks to participate equally in society. With the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Congress sought to eliminate the problems of segregation and discrimination in the United States. RACIAL BIAS IN OTHER EMPLOYMENT TERMS AND CONDITIONS.Conduct of Co-workers and Non-employees.Conduct of Owner, President, Partners, or Officers.Job-Related Standards, Consistent with Business Necessity.

