Disparate Treatment Case Study
Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act provides two primary theories of recovery for individuals--these are disparate treatment and disparate impact (sometimes labeled adverse impact). This section of the Civil Rights Code forbids job discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. Members of those "protected classes" cannot lawfully be denied employment opportunities merely because they are Native Americans, black, of Vietnamese ancestry, or white, for that matter (Paetzold, 2005, p. 330).
Title VII made obvious, deliberate employment discrimination illegal. It enforced a legal theory of disparate treatment. Disparate treatment exists if an employer gives less favorable treatment to employees …show more content…
Because perceivers can never know what another person actually thinks, the determination of intent required inferences arising from the other person 's behavior. For example, in the early case of Slack v. Havens, (1975) four Black women claimed that they were illegally discharged because of their race when they refused to perform heavy cleaning duties that were not within their job description. Another coworker, a White woman, was excused from performing these duties. Their supervisor, Pohansky, who had ordered the women to do the heavy work, was known for making statements such as "Colored people should stay in their places" and "Colored folks are hired to clean because they clean better" (pp. 1092-1093). The court noted that these statements reflected ill motives for requiring the Black plaintiffs to perform the heavy cleaning. The statements were taken as "direct evidence" of racial animus, i.e., conscious intent to discriminate on the basis of race. Under the law, "direct evidence" suggests that the commentary from Pohansky was the equivalent of Pohansky telling the women that they were discharged as a result of their being Black. In other words, he was aware of his prejudicial attitudes toward Black persons and consciously treated them differently as a result. The bad intent caused the illegal discrimination to occur, supporting a district court …show more content…
He might still have been acting out of prejudice or stereotypes, known or unknown to him, but he would not have exhibited a conscious intention to discriminate. The legal outcome would not be as straightforward. When the behaviors may reflect an unconscious or ambiguous intent to discriminate, the legal system may not recognize them as constituting illegal discrimination (Krieger,
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act provides two primary theories of recovery for individuals--these are disparate treatment and disparate impact (sometimes labeled adverse impact). This section of the Civil Rights Code forbids job discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. Members of those "protected classes" cannot lawfully be denied employment opportunities merely because they are Native Americans, black, of Vietnamese ancestry, or white, for that matter (Paetzold, 2005, p. 330).
Title VII made obvious, deliberate employment discrimination illegal. It enforced a legal theory of disparate treatment. Disparate treatment exists if an employer gives less favorable treatment to employees …show more content…
Because perceivers can never know what another person actually thinks, the determination of intent required inferences arising from the other person 's behavior. For example, in the early case of Slack v. Havens, (1975) four Black women claimed that they were illegally discharged because of their race when they refused to perform heavy cleaning duties that were not within their job description. Another coworker, a White woman, was excused from performing these duties. Their supervisor, Pohansky, who had ordered the women to do the heavy work, was known for making statements such as "Colored people should stay in their places" and "Colored folks are hired to clean because they clean better" (pp. 1092-1093). The court noted that these statements reflected ill motives for requiring the Black plaintiffs to perform the heavy cleaning. The statements were taken as "direct evidence" of racial animus, i.e., conscious intent to discriminate on the basis of race. Under the law, "direct evidence" suggests that the commentary from Pohansky was the equivalent of Pohansky telling the women that they were discharged as a result of their being Black. In other words, he was aware of his prejudicial attitudes toward Black persons and consciously treated them differently as a result. The bad intent caused the illegal discrimination to occur, supporting a district court …show more content…
He might still have been acting out of prejudice or stereotypes, known or unknown to him, but he would not have exhibited a conscious intention to discriminate. The legal outcome would not be as straightforward. When the behaviors may reflect an unconscious or ambiguous intent to discriminate, the legal system may not recognize them as constituting illegal discrimination (Krieger,