Seeking anonymity out of fear of professional repercussions, the current and former staff members say they are concerned about the agency’s future as the practice of upholding the nation’s civil rights laws has been abandoned.
Staff of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claim to be under pressure to prioritize job discrimination cases of “racism against white men” to match the agenda of President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported.
Agency investigators and lawyers are being forced to pursue and put some cases on the fast track with little evidence and major legal battles. More than a dozen current and former employees, identifying as Republicans and Democrats, blamed EEOC GOP chair Andrea Lucas, who is committed to carrying out some of Trump’s controversial executive orders.
Seeking anonymity out of fear of professional repercussions, the current and former staff members say they are concerned about the agency’s future as the practice of upholding the nation’s civil rights laws has been abandoned.
But former EEOC general counsel under President Barack Obama, David Lopez, called Lucas’s bold outreach to white men and behind-the-scenes reports of expedited discrimination cases against white people troubling. “It’s a head scratcher why the E.E.O.C.’s prioritization of limited resources based on race, both overtly and in practice, does not raise constitutional questions,” he said.
In a letter to CEOs, general counsels, and board chairs of America’s leading companies, she warned DEI policies or practices may be deemed illegal if employment decisions are based even just in part on a person’s race, sex, or other protected characteristic. “The EEOC stands ready to combat such discrimination,” she wrote, according to NPR, adding, “We are the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, not the Equitable Employment Outcomes Commission.”
To date, the EEOC has gone after companies and organizations like Nike and Planned Parenthood in discrimination probes. They investigated the athletic wear company’s hiring goals and career development practices to determine whether they disadvantage white people.
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Source: Black Enterprise
