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An 'Egregious' Case Of Stereotyping And Bias
That
will cost you $600,000... or maybe not?
Shawn Brooks was not amused when the radio network that he worked
for distributed a book entitled New Dress for Success, by John
T Molloy.
Being mixed-race he found statements in the book that 'most blacks are
anti-establishment', advice to black salesmen to 'dress very white,'
and that 'solid-blue suits have 'a very negative association for blacks.'
to be very offensive.
After complaining to a supervisor and getting no response Shawn decided to take the matter further and in February 2005 was awarded more than $600,000 in back and front pay by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. The commission's chairman even went so far as to call it an 'egregious' case of stereotyping and bias.
Unfortunately for Shawn the case didn't end there.
A Commonwealth Court panel recently reversed the decision stating
that the allegations did not reach the standard required by the state's
anti-discrimination law.
'While there is no question that the distribution of the book at issue
here was unprofessional, insulting and insensitive, it was not severe
and pervasive' as in other court cases, Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer wrote.
It would seem that 'egregious' which means extremely and conspicuously
bad to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission is not severe and
pervasive to Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer. We wonder, was he wearing a
blue suit at the time?
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