Tagged: Race Discrimination

What is the CROWN Act, what do I need to know about it, and how should employers prepare for it?

What is the CROWN Act, what do I need to know about it, and how should employers prepare for it?

On March 18, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act by way of a party line vote of 235-189. In general, the federal CROWN Act and similar state acts explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of a person’s natural hair.  More specifically, the proposed federal legislation prohibits “discrimination...

Workplace Language and Hostile Environment Claims

Workplace Language and Hostile Environment Claims

It is one of the nightmare scenarios for any HR Department or in-house employment counsel: A white employee directing crude, vicious, racially charged slurs at a coworker of color. Perhaps the most inflammatory of such racial epithets is so toxic that it is typically no longer even spelled out in judicial opinions; it is simply the “n-word.” But employees do...