Despite state and federal laws that prohibit employers from racially discriminating against their workers, incidences of this deplorable behavior occur in cities across the nation, sometimes even here in our very own Indianapolis. Some people here in Indiana may have already heard about the case of racial discrimination out of Texas this month where a worker claims that he was denied a position he rightfully earned because of the color of his skin.
Although race discrimination cases can sometimes be difficult to prove, having documentation of a discriminatory incident occurring and being able to back that up with supporting statements from coworkers can often times be what is needed to win a case against a guilty employer. In the case of the Texas employee, statements and changes to an interview document are some pieces of evidence that could back up his allegations in court.
In the lawsuit, the employee states that aside from racial slurs that were directed towards him by fellow employees, his main qualm stems from earning a position he was never given. As the employee explains, he applied for a promotion in April 2011. After interviewing successfully for the position, he was told by two interviewers that he had earned the highest score and the position as well. But even after re-interviewing two months later–and being the only candidate for the job–he says that he still did not receive the job.
It wasn’t until after the job was posted in a different city and awarded to two other employees that he went to human resources and inquired about his interview. According to the lawsuit, he was told that his original interview documents had been tampered with. Upon further questioning, one of the interviewers admitted that he had been told to change his score thus preventing him from being promoted.
The allegedly tampered-with documents and the interviewer’s statement backup the employee’s claims that the attempt to prevent him from obtaining the promotion was racially motivated and directly violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The hope now is that a court judge will see the case this way and award him compensation for this wrongful act.
Source: NBC 5 News, “Forth Worth Employee Claims Racial Disrimination in Lawsuit,” Scott Gordon, June 4, 2013
