Illinois Civil Rights News

Eeoc Takes New Approach To Fighting Racism And Colorism In The 21st Century Workplace

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today launched a national initiative to bring a fresh, 21st century approach to combating racism, which remains the most frequent claim filed with the agency. EEOC Chair Naomi C. Earp unveiled the initiative, E-RACE (Eradicating Racism And Colorism from Employment), during a public meeting at agency headquarters that featured panels of experts and victims.

E-RACE is an outreach, education, and enforcement campaign to advance the statutory right to a workplace free of race and color discrimination. Under E-RACE, the EEOC will identify specific issues, criteria and barriers that contribute to race and color discrimination; explore strategies to improve the administrative processing and litigation of race and color cases; and enhance public awareness of race and color discrimination in employment.

“By rolling out the E-RACE Initiative, the Commission is taking a new approach to eradicating racism and colorism in the workplace,” Chair Earp said. “New times demand new strategies to stay ahead of the curve. These old evils are still around in new forms and we intend to act vigorously to eradicate them.”

The EEOC will combine the objectives of E-RACE with existing Commission initiatives. For example, the agency will integrate the goals of the Systemic Initiative by addressing race and color issues with class and systemic implications; incorporate the principles of the Youth@Work Initiative by combating disparate treatment of youth based on race and color; and complement the outreach and enforcement efforts of the LEAD Initiative by challenging exclusionary employment policies that target certain disabilities and may adversely impact people of color. The Commission will also strengthen partnerships with employee advocates, state and local human rights commissions, human resource professionals, and employer groups to address race and color discrimination in the workplace.Read more at eeoc.gov.

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	Did You Know?
	A target number of qualified women, minorities or persons with disabilities hired and advanced within a given period of time through an Affirmative Employment Program.