History Of Workplace Discrimination

In 1964, Congress and President Johnson addressed the rampant discrimination that was occurring in the workplace against African-Americans as well as other people of color by passing the Civil Rights Act. In addition to addressing discrimination based on color, they also addressed other forms of workplace discrimination that had historically been a problem. Title VII of the act applies to employers who employee 15 or more employees and prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Further, Congress also enshrined a prohibition on discrimination based on an employee’s or potential employee’s association with another person that fit into any of those categories. As with anything else, …show more content…
One example of such an exception would be a company that manufactures men’s clothes only wanting to hire men to model those clothes for an advertising campaign. There is a direct relationship between needing to have a male model clothes that are made for males. Clearly, this is directly related to the mission of the business which is to produce male clothing and there is no real alternative that can achieve the same goal. As a result, the employer is permitted to discriminate against females when hiring the models. The sex of the model is therefore a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) and thus the discrimination is permitted and legal. When these type of exceptions are carved out, however, there will always be companies that attempt to justify their discrimination by using these BFOQ exceptions. One example of this is found in the case Breiner v. Nevada Department of Corrections. With the expanding incarceration rate in the U.S., some states have found that to keep up they need to outsource the warehousing of these people …show more content…
It seemed that the department had a reasonable position to maintain order in the prison, but when broken down against the tenants of the law, it was clearly not legal. Title VII is an important and necessary part of civil rights legislation that can help to level the playing field for all applicants or employees. It should be expanded to include all businesses, regardless of the number of employees. It would seem that the nation’s interest in maintain a sense of fair play and equality vastly outweighs any cost or trouble on the part of small companies to follow this provision of the law. The discrimination of any applicant or worker based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin or based on their association with another individual that falls into these categories is not proper, not right, and should not be lawful. Further, Title VII should be expanded with legislation to prevent the discrimination of folks based on their perceived sexual