TheLoop21.com

By: devona walker (follow this member)
Fri, 01/08/2010 - 15:15

 Here’s a little nugget for those of you who think this country has moved beyond its racist past.

A recent suit brought against US Airways by the NAACP on behalf of several black employees, claims the company forced them to work at less desirable gates. Mid-level managers and white employees, the suit claims, called these less desirable gates "Compton," "Camden," and "The Ghetto."

The suit was filed late Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. One of the company’s employees, Tiffany Salters, a customer-service manager, said she was even told she would have to stop working with the NAACP or lose her job. Managers, Salters said, would refer to individual African American employees as being "ghetto" or "hood." She said she was praised for her ability to get along with all sorts of customers. A manager told her she had the "complexion for the connection."

The complexion for the connection? That’s classic. And it sounds just like the crap a white person who thought they were “cool” with their black fellow workers would put out there without even realizing they offended anyone. 

This suit, though it fails to rise to the level of another one in the process of unraveling, -- the Wells Fargo v. Baltimore predatory loan suit -- is important. It sheds light on two very important things: It’s one major cost of doing business for companies who have downsized their HR departments, and it also illuminates another problem companies face when it comes to race: follow through. American companies have gotten better at hiring minorities, but they have not followed through on educating their employees, and even senior management.

Getting more color into the workplace is only half the problem. Once they get there, management must be prepared to treat them equitably and they must also be ready to play referee when the old “race” monster rears its head. And it always does. This country has issues when it comes to race. Many spend the majority of their lives surrounded by folks who look like them and are fundamentally ignorant when it comes to issues of race, gender and religion bias. Yet, companies have essentially thrown them all into the mix and then forgets about them.

This is further complicated by the shrinking number of human resource professionals in the workplace. This trend has been most pronounced in the last 10 years. Some companies, as a cost-saving measure, have chosen to automate human resource functions. Some companies outsource it. In doing so, they have abdicated responsibility for how an employee is treated and respected. 

Consequently folks down in the trenches have no where to go to voice their concerns. Middle managers minimize issues as it reflects badly on them. And the senior managers remain conveniently ignorant. That is until someone says screw it and files a lawsuit.

Research by Rutgers University Law School back in 2002 found then that workplace racial discirmination, not only still existed, but was in fact getting worse. Black, Hispanic and Asian-Pacific workers with education, skills and experience similar to that of their white male counterparts face intentional discrimination between one-quarter and one-third of the time - in hiring, promotions, assignments, layoffs and discharges. Blacks, in particular, are vulnerable.

Roughly 28 percent of Blacks, 22% of Latinos reported to have endured unfair treatment at work because of race. About 28 percent of all minority workers claimed to have been passed over for promotions, 21 percent said they were assigned undesirable duties because of their race and 16 percen said they were subjected to racist remarks. In 2007, workplace racial discrimination claims were nearly doube what they were in 1999.

In response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson from US Airways said the company takes discrimination very seriously, has a strong commitment to diversity and nondiscrimination and was completely unaware of the “ghetto” gate references. 

And I am pretty damned sure she’s telling the truth. But the point is she should have known, they all should have known. Ignorance won’t save their ass in court.