Y’all know that colorism is illegal, right?
If you’re a business, school, organization, or other institution caught discriminating against employees because of their skin tone, you can get SUED!
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a government agency in the United States, has settled multiple cases of skin tone discrimination within the workforce, and in this article, I’m sharing examples of these lawsuits and my insights and key takeaways for business leaders. (See the EEOC case summaries)
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According to the EEOC case summaries, instances of creating an unsafe and hostile work environment on the basis of skin tone have included:
- “the transportation department engaged in race and color discrimination when it failed to select the Complainant, the Acting Division Secretary, for the position of Division Secretary. The EEOC found the Agency’s explanation to be ‘so fraught with contradiction as not to be credible,’ and thus, a pretext for discrimination.”
- “an estimator and assistant project manager was subjected to derogatory comments from his supervisors, project manager and the company’s owner on the basis of his national origin (Pakistani), religion (Islam), and color (brown). The lawsuit indicated that the comments occurred almost daily and included things like telling the estimator he was the same color as human feces.”
- “a light skinned Black female manager subjected darker skinned African American employees to a hostile and abusive work environment because of their color. The lawsuit alleged that the manager told one employee she looked as ‘Black as charcoal’ and repeatedly called her ‘charcoal’ until she quit.”
- “a Bangladeshi employee who was assigned to be store manager of a Staten Island location allegedly was told by her district supervisor that Staten Island was a predominantly White neighborhood and that she should change her dark skin color if she wanted to work in the area. EEOC asserted that the supervisor also allegedly told her that she really should be working in Harlem with her dark skin color and threatened to terminate her if she did not accept a demotion and a transfer to the Harlem store. The employee also was subjected to national origin discrimination based on her name and accent when the district supervisor allegedly excluded the employee from staff meetings because he said the other employees could not understand her accent and asked her to change her name because the customers could not pronounce it.”
- “a Black male hospital director who abused all employees was not insulated from liability for racially harassing an African American female where evidence showed that she was the target of more egregious and public abuse than other employees. Evidence revealed that the director told her he only hired because she is a Black woman, he often used profanity toward her, referred to her by race and gender slurs, singled her out for verbal abuse in front of other employees, told plaintiff to ‘get your Black ass out of here.'”
Outcomes for the companies in these cases have included payouts of as much as $150,000; consent decrees; required training; and systems for reporting, tracking, and addressing complaints.
Insights & Takeaways:
1) Companies should be proactive rather than reactive.
2) Make DEIB consciousness and skills a requirement for hiring and promotion, especially for leadership positions.
3) Many of these cases happened locally and were perpetuated by local managers, supervisors, and coworkers who interacted on a consistent basis. This means that businesses have to do better about establishing a culture of equity, inclusion, and belonging throughout all sectors of the business.
Not just at corporate headquarters, but what’s happening on the assembly line, in the plants, in the factories and warehouses, in the local branches of the company, or in field operations, etc.?
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Homework: Open a conversation with your HR departments about their level of awareness and preparedness to take action on cases of colorism, same-race discrimination, intersectional discrimination, etc. And discuss how your company can be proactive in how it writes policies, develops trainings, etc.
I had a social media follower reach out and tell me she recently had to make a report to HR. If you have to make a report, equip yourself by reviewing these EEOC case summaries and have them on hand.
Affirmation: I have recourse.