Race Discrimination Lawyer in Bay Area

The National Human Genome Research Institute states that the term race is a social construct used to group people by generating racial classifications to identify, distinguish, and marginalize certain groups across regions of the world. Race often divides people into groups based on their physical appearance, social factors, and cultural backgrounds.

Many employers throughout California are well aware of the steep consequences of racial discrimination and take active steps to avoid this problem, but there are still instances of race discrimination that occur throughout the state all too frequently. Any person who believes that they could have a race discrimination claim will want to be sure they are working with an experienced San Francisco race discrimination attorney so they can be confident that their case is being handled by a legal professional who will know how to prove the wrongdoing and recover appropriate financial compensation.

California Race Discrimination Laws

Race discrimination involves an employer treating an applicant or employee unfavorably because they are of a certain race or because they have personal characteristics associated with a race, such as skin color or hair texture. Race discrimination can take different forms, but many cases involve the theories of disparate treatment and disparate impact.

Race discrimination based on disparate treatment involves a person being a member of a protected group based on their race or skin color, an employer taking an adverse employment action of consequence (termination, suspension, demotion, a pay decrease, or the removal of job responsibilities) against the person, and an adverse employment action being based on the person’s race. The greater idea of disparate treatment is an employer’s decision was motivated by a discriminatory reason.

Disparate treatment can include racial harassment, which is workplace conduct that communicates a hostile, intimidating, offensive, oppressive, or abusive message to an employee because of their race or skin color. Harassment can include many kinds of conduct that may be verbal, physical, or visual in nature and is severe or pervasive.

The seminal disparate impact case in the United States was Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 91 S. Ct. 849 (1971), in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that when an employment practice that operates to exclude Blacks cannot be shown to be related to job performance, the practice is prohibited. The plaintiffs in the case claimed that while the company’s overt discrimination had ended, its high school education and aptitude test requirements discriminatorily excluded black applicants and employees from the more desirable jobs. 

Disparate impact claims can often involve height or weight requirements because such requirements disproportionately impact women and certain races. Disparate impact involves policies, practices, rules, or other systems that appear to be neutral but result in a disproportionate impact on a protected group. 

Contact Our Race Discrimination Attorneys in San Francisco

Do you think that your employer subjected you to some kind of racial discrimination in California? Make sure you are working with Olivier & Schreiber, LLP, so you can get all of the legal help you will need.

Our firm can take an aggressive stance in these cases and will fight to make sure that you are able to get a measure of justice. You can contact us online to arrange a free consultation with our San Francisco race discrimination attorney.