What Evidence Do I Need to File a Valid Race Discrimination Case?
Posted January 10th, 2024.
Categories: Blog.
In the United States, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has provided employees with discrimination protection for just over half a century, but often, accessing the remedies that exist becomes excessively burdensome. Sometimes those remedies end up protecting less than they ought, given some of the dominant prejudices when the legislation was enacted. If you’ve been discriminated against, your indignation is justified. This article will discuss what workplace race discrimination is and what evidence you will need. But most importantly, this never should have been done to you. You deserve an experienced and compassionate attorney who will fight against those who tried to take away your rights. Call a Camden County employment law attorney and we will support you.
What Is Workplace Race Discrimination?
Workplace discrimination, more generally, refers to unfair treatment because of specific categories protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This may include: race, age, religion, sex, color, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation
Although there are racial justice statutes in U.S. law, it is important to point out that the nature of racism is twofold. Systematic racism is comparatively easier to prove given the overall statistical trends one might reference. However, when it comes to racism on the personal level, that plays out through interactions with other people.
BIPOC have to confront these moments often and as a consequence identify them as such promptly. White people, men, cisgender individuals—people in socially dominant groups, who don’t experience discrimination in the same direct way as members of different marginalized populations, may see uncertainty and fuzziness when racism occurs, and so offer the benefit of the doubt to the perpetrator. This can make proving discrimination to the satisfaction of the court a complicated matter.
What Evidence Will I Need?
There are two kinds of evidence relevant to racial discrimination, direct and circumstantial.
Direct evidence is nowadays a more difficult kind of proof to obtain. Direct evidence would link you to an instance of suffering unfair, racially biased treatment, such as discriminatory comments from your managers and supervisors.
After so much hard work by activists and the community, even those in socially dominant groups are more aware of how racist societal dynamics and how these play out. If you have a racist manager, supervisor, or employer, it’s unlikely they’ll verbalize it in the direct way some courts want to hear it. Nevertheless, it is important to discuss with your lawyer any concerning interactions with others at work.
By comparison, circumstantial evidence is more indirect proof that leads to a presumption by the court of discrimination. Instead of direct observation, circumstantial evidence makes an informed supposition based on our knowledge of the social relationships at play.
