Tagged: discriminatory work culture

“We need the law to pressure organizations to pay more attention to their structures, systems, and work cultures — to the context of the workplace over which they already exert substantial control — than to individuals and discrete moments of interaction or decision.”

Source: Tristin K. Green. Discrimination Laundering: The Rise of Organizational Innocence and and the Crisis of Equal Opportunity Law. pg. 5. 2016.

The Case of Monopolies and the Act of 21 James I (Statute of Monopolies) “form one of the constitutional landmarks of British liberty, like the Petition of Right, the Habeas Corpus act and other great constitutional acts of Parliament. They established and declared one of the inalienable rights of freemen which our ancestors brought with them to this country. The right to follow any of the common occupations of life is an inalienable right; it was formulated as such under the phrase ‘pursuit of happiness’ in the Declaration of Independence, which commenced with the fundamental proposition that, ‘all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ This right is a large ingredient in the civil liberty of the citizen. To deny it to all but a few favored individuals by investing the latter with a monopoly is to invade one of the fundamental privileges of the citizen, contrary not only to common right, but, as I think, to the express words of the Constitution.”

Source: Butchers’ Union Co. v. Crescent City Co., 111  U.S. 746, 762 (1884).

earlier this year, Geraldo Rivera won a lawsuit filed against him by “sleazy Hollywood agenc[y]” William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.

geraldoriverawmetweetsSource: http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/geraldo-rivera-wins-suit-rips-under-handed-back-stabbing-bullying-agents_b219320.

the operation of [un]conscious racial biases in the legal profession.

A legal memo drafted with the help of five law firm partners helped a leadership consulting firm demonstrate unconscious biases in the workplace.

The experiment was conducted by leadership consulting firm Nextion, according to the Forbes blog She Negotiates. Above the Law commented on the findings.

Nextion inserted 22 errors in the memo. Seven were minor spelling or grammar errors, six were substantive technical writing errors, five were errors in fact, and four were errors in the analysis of the facts, according to this summary (PDF) of the study.

Sixty partners from 22 law firms who agreed to participate in a “writing analysis study” received copies of the memo. Half were told the memo was written by an African-American man named Thomas Meyer, and half were told the writer was a Caucasian man named Thomas Meyer. Fifty-three partners completed the task. Of those, 29 received the memo supposedly by a white man and 24 received the memo supposedly by a black man.

The reviewers gave the memo supposedly written by a white man a rating of 4.1 out of 5, while they gave the memo supposedly written by a black man a rating of 3.2 out of 5. The white Thomas Meyer was praised for his potential and good analytical skills, while the black Thomas Meyer was criticized as average at best and needing a lot of work.

Reviewers found an average of 2.9 out of seven spelling and grammar errors in the memo by the white Thomas Meyer and 5.8 out of seven errors in the memo by the African-American Thomas Meyer. Fewer technical writing and factual errors were also found in the memo by the supposedly white writer, though the disparity wasn’t as great.

This isn’t really anything new….but it just further confirms the number of “obstacles” or “headwinds” qualified African Americans and people of color have to deal with in order to be hired and/or promoted, especially to higher-status, higher-paying positions in America. Based on the law firms I’ve dealt with over the last four years, it appears that similar to William Morris and the other agencies, studios, networks, etc. in Hollywood, majority of the firms are also overrepresented by Whites/”Jews.” Clearly, it’s not in their interest to comply with and/or make sure their clients are complying with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 either….

Source: http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/hypothetical_legal_memo_demonstrates_unconscious_biases.

LA Times: “Even if Hollywood likes to present itself as magnanimous and liberal, its hiring decisions — including jobs handed to women — continue to be demographically constricted, with most work still going to white men.”

Source: John Horn. “Hollywood Is Losing the Race For Ethnic and Gender Inclusion.” LA Times. December 26, 2013. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-backstage-black-filmmakers-20131226-story.html#axzz2obL44haU.

the New York City Human Rights Law seeks to “eliminate and prevent discrimination from playing ANY ROLE in actions relating to employment.”

In the City of New York, with its great cosmopolitan population, there is no greater danger to the health, morals, safety and welfare of the city and its inhabitants than the existence of groups prejudiced against one another and antagonistic to each other because of their actual or perceived differences, including those based on race, color, creed, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status, partnership status, any lawful source of income, status as a victim of domestic violence or status as a victim of sex offenses or stalking, lawful occupation, whether children are, may be or would be residing with a person or conviction or arrest record. The council hereby finds and declares that prejudice, intolerance, bigotry, and discrimination and disorder occasioned thereby threaten the rights and proper privileges of its inhabitants and menace the institutions and foundation of a free democratic state. A city agency is hereby created with power to eliminate and prevent discrimination from playing any role in actions relating to employment, public accommodations and housing and other real estate, and to take other actions against prejudice, intolerance, bigotry, discrimination and bias related violence or harassment as herein provided; and the commission established hereunder is hereby given general jurisdiction and power for such purposes.

Source: N.Y.C. ADMIN. CODE § 8-101.

“Washington cannot cite to a stack of studies on discrimination that have nothing to do with WME and rely exclusively on them in claiming that WME has been engaged in a 100-year-old conspiracy to maintain white/Jewish dominance of the entertainment industry. To accept Washington’’s argument would be to endorse his racial and ethnic stereotyping and to permit a claimant to evade summary judgment based simply upon a generalized and inaccurate view of the entertainment industry and the talent agency workplace. Washington has admitted that WME never treated him differently because of his race; and his claim of disparate treatment fails for that reason alone.” — Michael Zweig of Loeb & Loeb LLP, November 20, 2013

If William Morris were truly innocent of Michael P. Zweig, Christian Carbone and Loeb & Loeb LLP’s criminal and unethical conduct, I think they would have a pretty strong claim for malpractice….

It’s funny to note that this statement was made in direct response to my following statement, in which they quote me in their Final Position Statement [pg. 8]:

Mr. Washington is not alleging that William Morris discriminated against him due to his race, color and/or perceived national origin. Based on the federal, state and city civil and human rights laws, the overwhelming amount of sociological and organizational research on the topic of discrimination in the workplace, and numerous articles published over the decades chronicling this issue of racism in Hollywood in magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly and others, this is fact.

I said this in paragraph 172 of my COMPLAINT that was filed with the Southern District of New York on DECEMBER 21, 2010!! I knew then — “based on the federal, state and city civil and human rights laws, the overwhelming amount of sociological and organizational research on the topic of discrimination in the workplace, and numerous articles published over the decades chronicling this issue of racism in Hollywood….” that I uncovered between June and December 2010 — that my claims of pre and post-hiring individual disparate treatment due to my “race, color and/or perceived national origin” were a “fact.” I was not making an “alleg[ation]” against William Morris any longer (e.g. trying to discuss the issue with former COO Cara Stein and HR’s Carole Katz while employed, filing complaint with EEOC, etc.) and the additional evidence I’ve uncovered over the last three years since filing my complaint (e.g. “Exhibit 31” and the “on-going” conspiracy to conceal these “nigger” e-mails) further proves this is a fact — no matter what conclusion Gregory reaches on December 23, 2013.