Long Island Race Discrimination Lawyer

Long Island Lawyers for Victims of Workplace Misconduct

Long Island is a densely populated region. As of 2010, Caucasian people comprised the largest racial group on Long Island. In 2002, unfortunately, Nassau and Suffolk Counties were reported to be the most racially segregated suburbs in the country. Workplace race discrimination happens when an employer makes unfavorable decisions with regard to a job applicant or employee because they are of a particularrace or have characteristics that are connected to a particular race. Color discrimination is closely related and involves unfavorable treatment of a worker due to skin color. At Phillips & Associates, our Long Island race discrimination lawyers may be able to help you recover damages if you have been harmed by this type of misconduct. 

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Situations Involving Race Discrimination

Race discrimination can happen if a job applicant or employee is treated unfavorably due to their actual or perceived race, or even when unfavorable treatment on the job occurs due to the race of the applicant or employee's spouse. Disparate treatment lawsuits are brought most often. They involve an employer's refusal to hire, refusal to promote, decision to terminate, or failure to offer privileges of employment based on an employee's race.

Sometimes race discrimination lawsuits involve racial harassment, in which an employee is harassed by coworkers or supervisors due to their race. For example, if a worker is called racial slurs by coworkers supposedly in jest, on a regular basis, this is racial harassment, and a supervisor who knows or is informed about it should do something to stop it. Employers are supposed to take reasonable steps to discourage employees' racial harassment of another employee. A supervisor or manager's misconduct in terms of racial discrimination or harassment may be imputed to a company.

An employer's failure to address racial harassment by coworkers, customers, and others in the workplace can also result in a lawsuit for damages. Our race discrimination attorneys can help Long Island employees bring this type of claim. Employers are obligated to take appropriate steps to stop racial discrimination and harassment that takes place among their employees, including using racial jokes, spreading racial cartoons, relying on racial stereotypes, and making verbal comments about racial characteristics. Trivial incidents may not rise to the level of actionable racial harassment. Generally, if it’s a co-worker who is discrimination, an employer must know about the racial harassment in order to be liable for a failure to address it. Our employment attorneys can help you draft a letter explaining the racial discrimination that is taking place. If you are terminated after making a complaint of racial discrimination, you may have an additional claim for retaliation. If a supervisor or owner of the company is making racial slurs, jokes or other racist symbols the company may be liable. The use of a hangman’s noose in the workplace is also a sign of race discrimination which can lead to a hostile work environment.

Our employment attorneys can help you understand your rights and help you fit back against race discrimination.

However, indirect and unintentional discrimination is also actionable if it counts as "disparate impact." Disparate impact lawsuits are based on a seemingly neutral policy or practice that has an outsized impact on people of a particular race.

Federal, state, and local laws allow you to bring a race discrimination lawsuit. As our Long Island race discrimination attorneys understand, each law has its boundaries and its own nuances. The primary federal law prohibiting race discrimination is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.