Wrongful Termination Lawsuits: Race & Ethnic Origin

Last Updated on June 26, 2017

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At A Glance

This Alert Affects
Anyone who suspects they were fired because of their race or ethnic origin.

How Can I Tell If I Was Fired for My Race or Ethnicity?

Common themes exist throughout many racial and ethnic origin discrimination cases. You may have been fired for discriminatory reasons if:

  • You were fired after you complained about being harassed because of your race or ethnicity
  • Your co-workers and/or boss routinely made offensive remarks about your race or ethnicity (including the use of “code words” to “hide” their harassing comments)
  • You were fired for something employees of a different race do without getting into trouble
  • You have a history of excellent performance reviews – and were fired anyway

You may also have a case if you were forced to quit because your workplace became offensive and unbearable due to harassing and discriminatory comments.

What If My Boss Is the Same Race As Me?

It doesn’t matter. Discrimination based on race is illegal – regardless of the color or national origin of the offending party. For instance, in November 2011, the EEOC settled a case on behalf of a dark-skinned Puerto Rican man who terminated after being harassed by his Puerto Rican boss for being “so black.”

Below are examples of recent racial discrimination settlements:

  • Nearly $9 million to settle three lawsuits that alleged a grocery chain discriminated against 168 black and Hispanic workers, some of whom were fired because of their race
  • $275,000 against a company that wrongfully terminated a white district manager because he recommended that two black employees get promoted
  • $185,000 for a Native American employee who was fired after complaining that his co-workers were making insulting jokes and calling him derogatory names
  • $165,000 for a dining manager (Arab from Morocco) and waiter (Arab from Tunisia) who complained about discriminating customers and were fired for it
  • $145,000 to a black traffic clerk who was fired for his race and for complaining about discrimination in the workplace
  • $75,000 for a black professor who was fired after appealing her denial of tenure
  • $65,000 for a white manager at Burger King who was fired after he refused to comply with a black customer’s request that a “white boy” not make her sandwich
  • $60,000 for a Black Tanzanian who was fired because of her race and national origin after she left 30 minutes early from work – despite the fact that a white worker left even earlier on two other occasions
  • $30,000 for a white meat cutter who was wrongfully terminated because of his race and replaced with a less-qualified Hispanic employee
  • $30,000 for a British women who was born in Zimbabwe and fired because her employer did not realize he had hired a black person

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