Tagged: second class citizens

“Had such a racial land reform taken place in the United States during the late 1860s, it is easy to envision that the vast current differences in wealth between blacks and nonblacks would not exist. Although the black-white per-capita income ratio is in the upper 50 percent range, the highest estimates of the racial wealth ratio run in the 15–25 percent range (Chiteji, 1999). Since the major sources of wealth for most persons today are inheritance and in vivo transfers (Darity and Nicholson, 2005), a past history of wealth deprivation has dramatic intergenerational effects.”

Source: William Darity, Jr. Forty Acres and a Mule in the 21st Century. Social Science Quarterly, Volume 89, No. 3, September 2008.

“In Nassar, the Supreme Court determined the causal standard that a plaintiff is required to establish in Title VII retaliation cases. Nassar required the Court to make a choice between three possible interpretations of Title VII, each reflecting a different choice about Title VII’s text, Court precedent, and the effects of the 1991 amendments to Title VII’s retaliation provisions. The Court held that plaintiffs in Title VII retaliation cases were required to establish ‘but for’ cause. This choice favors employers because it requires the plaintiff to bear the burden of persuasion related to causation and makes that causal burden a ‘but for’ standard, rather than the less onerous ‘motivating factor’ standard. Indeed, in an earlier Title VII case, the Court noted that to require the plaintiff to establish ‘but for’ cause would mean that many plaintiffs would be unable to prevail, even though their protected traits played a role in an employment outcome.”

Source: Sandra F. Sperino and Suja A. Thomas. Fakers and Floodgates. Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties. pg. 226-227. June 2014.