Race Discrimination - What Does Title VII Protect?

Under Title VII, job requirements have to be equally and consistently applied to persons of all races and colors. Even assuming that a job requirement is applied consistently, if it is not important for job performance or business needs, the requirement may be considered unlawful if it excludes persons of a certain racial group or color considerably more than others. For example, requesting applications only from sources in which all or most potential workers are of the same race or color the following can be considered as a potentially unlawful practice. Or also, demanding that applicants have a particular educational background that is not important for job performance or business needs. In fact, making applicants take an exam to test their knowledge, skills or abilities that are not important or releveant for job performance or business needs can also potentiallyl be an unlawful practice under Title VII.

Note that employers may have legitimate needs for information about their employees or applicants race for purposes of affirmative action and/or to monitor applicant flow. Find out if your employer uses separate forms or otherwise keeps information about applicants' race separate from the application. You want to find out if the employer used this information in the selection decision, because if the information isn't for a legitimate purpose, pre-employment questions about race can often suggest that race was used as the basis for making selection decisions. If, for example, information was used in the selection decision and members of particular racial group(s) were excluded from employment, such pre-employment inquiries could constitute evidence of discrimination.

Title VII also prohibits such offensive conduct as racial or ethnic slurs, racial jokes, derogatory comments, or any other verbal or physical conduct that is based on a person's race or color. Not only does the offensive conduct have to be unwelcomed and offensive, but it also must be severe or pervasive. Although employers must take the appropriate steps to prevent unlawful harassment or conduct from happening in the first place, and then correct it if it happens, employees must take care to report any harassment at an early stage to keep it from escalating any further.

Title VII also forbids discrimination with regard to compensation and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. Consequently, an employer cannot use race or color as the basis for discrepencies in pay or benefits, work assignments, performance evaluations, training, discipline or discharge, or any other area of employment. Such conduct would be discrimination.

A Title VII violation also occurs when employers segregate employees who belong to a protected group by physically isolating them from other employees or from customer contact. Employers cannot designate employees according to race or color either. For example, it would be prohibited under Title VII for an employer to primarily assign African-Americans to predominantly African-American establishments or geographic areas. It is also illegal to disallow members of one group from obtaining particular positions or to group or categorize employees or jobs so that particular jobs are generally held by members of a certain protected group. Coding applications and resumes which note an applicant's race, by either an employer or employment agency, is considered evidence of discrimination where those of a particular race or color are excluded from employment or from particular positions.