Racial Discrimination Based on Association With People of a Certain Race

What Is Racial Discrimination by Association?

Your employer should not evaluate you based on either your race or the race of your spouse or friends.

Racial discrimination by association is adverse treatment at work because of the race of the people you are connected to: your spouse or partner, your children, your friends, or the coworkers you spend time with. It is prohibited under federal, New York State, and New York City law. If you are white and married to a Black person, and after a company party you both attended, you were denied a promotion you had been promised, you may have a claim for racial discrimination.

Call (866) 229-9441 or contact us online for a free and confidential consultation. We represent employees only and work on contingency, with no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you.

Federal Law: Title VII Protects Interracial Association

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes race discrimination illegal at employers with at least 15 employees, and it caps some damages by employer size. Federal courts have held that Title VII protects employees who are targets of discriminatory animus directed at third parties with whom they associate. 

In Holcomb v. Iona College, the Second Circuit considered an employee who was terminated and believed the reason was his marriage to a Black woman. The court held that an employer can violate Title VII by acting adversely against an employee because of an interracial association, reasoning that when an employee suffers an adverse action because the employer disapproves of an interracial relationship, the employee is discriminated against because of the employee's own race.

How Comments Become Evidence in Association Cases

Proving that the association caused the adverse action can be the hardest part of these cases, and verbal comments often supply the proof when a nexus can be shown between the remarks and the employment decision. 

Courts weigh four factors: who made the comment and whether that person is a decision maker, how close in time the remark was to the adverse decision, whether a reasonable juror could interpret the comment as discriminatory, and the context in which it was made. Even stray comments by someone who is not a decision maker can help present a prima facie case when they reveal invidious discrimination. Write comments down when they happen, with dates, speakers, and witnesses.

Beyond comments themselves, several other kinds of evidence tend to matter:

New York State Law: Known Relationship or Association

The New York State Human Rights Law reaches further than federal law: it covers employers of all sizes, and damages are not capped. The State law prohibits discrimination not only against people who belong to a protected class but also against people who have a known relationship or association with a member of a protected class. To prevail on an associational claim based on race, you show that you sustained an adverse employment action because of your relationship or association with someone in the protected class.

The New York City Human Rights Law

The New York City Human Rights Law prohibits race discrimination based on actual or perceived race, and it is a particularly protective anti-discrimination law. Courts are required to construe it liberally, with an eye toward its remedial purposes, and federal and state law operate as floors below which the City law cannot sink. Association-based race discrimination is protected under the City law as well, with its broad treated-less-well standard.

Who Counts as an Association?

A spouse or partner in an interracial marriage or relationship. A biracial or multiracial child. Friends of another race who visit, appear in photographs, or come up in conversation. The coworkers you eat lunch with and defend. Courts have not limited the doctrine to family: what matters is that the employer treated you worse because of the race of someone connected to you.

What If I Was Retaliated Against for the Association Itself, or for Defending Someone?

Retaliation is a separate, distinct claim from associational discrimination itself. An employee punished for objecting to racism aimed at a spouse, a friend, or a coworker is protected by retaliation law, whether or not the underlying association claim succeeds on its own. 

Some situations support both theories at once: an adverse action tied to your interracial marriage, followed by further retaliation once you object to it, can give rise to two separate claims. A lawyer can help you determine which theory fits your facts, or whether to plead both.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Be Fired Because of My Spouse's Race?

Not lawfully. Firing or otherwise punishing you because your spouse or partner is of another race is race discrimination under federal law per the Second Circuit, and under the New York State and City laws. Comments about your marriage, your family photographs, or events your spouse attended often become the key evidence.

Does the Law Protect Friendships With People of Another Race?

Yes. The New York State law protects known relationships and associations with members of a protected class, and courts have not limited association to marriage or family. Being treated worse because of who your friends are, at work or outside it, can support a claim.

I Am White. Can I Really Bring a Race Discrimination Claim?

Yes. The reasoning of the association cases is that discrimination over an interracial relationship is discrimination based on your own race. The laws protect every employee from race-based treatment, whatever their race, and association cases are one of the clearest examples.

How Do I Prove the Association Was the Reason?

Through what changed and what was said: comments about your relationship, timing between the employer learning of the association and the adverse action, shifting explanations, and how similarly situated employees without the association were treated. The four-factor comment analysis courts apply makes contemporaneous notes especially valuable.

Call For a FREE Consultation: (866) 229-9441

If you have experienced racial discrimination based on association with people of a certain race, you don't have to navigate it alone. We've handled more than 600 race discrimination matters and are recognized as a Chambers-ranked, employee-side employment litigation firm.

Call (866) 229-9441 or contact us online. Consultations are free and confidential, and there are no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you.