We have all witnessed how public activity throughout U.S. history has led to fundamental changes in public policy. Whether it’s Rosa Parks refusing to go to the back of the bus, or parents descending on school boards to bring about curriculum change, people in motion make a difference.
Class actions: a group of people banding together against a common opponent for a shared injustice. For instance, when a company continually fails to give its workers the appropriate wages and hours, those workers might come together and decide to file a class action lawsuit against their employer.
Our laws against discrimination were written when racial discrimination was obvious and out in the open. When bigots used racial epithets, loud and proud. When the government enforced business segregation. When the law itself was discriminatory.
What is racism? The word is so much a part of the daily news and daily conversation that it deserves careful consideration. Let’s unpack it. I heard a speaker recently say racism is “a system of advantage based on race.” True, but does that definition explain and clarify?
Too many initial consults start like this: “I feel like I’ve been discriminated against, but I can’t prove it.” Or, “It seems like I’m being retaliated against, but I can’t prove it.” My response is, “You don’t have to: that’s my job.”
The law compensates for lost wages and lost future wages. But your life is more than your paycheck. It’s your life. It’s satisfaction and joy when it’s good. And it’s an embarrassment, humiliation, and emotional distress when your life on the job goes bad. Embarrassment, humiliation and emotional distress are damages (for compensation) under federal and state law.
People ask me, is racial harassment real? I mean, we're long past Jim Crow. This isn't the fifties and sundown towns. It's 2019. Do people call you with overt, out-and-out racial harassment and discrimination?
In September, hundreds of black and white Christians came together in Louisville to work on racial justice. Yes, Christian people, church people, across the racial divide. America often thinks that Christians are troublesome, hateful and partisan. True, but only sometimes. There is another side. On this occasion, brought together by love in a very large black church, the walls came down and the mountains moved. We call it The Angela Project.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted in 1990 with the goal of, “equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency” for people with disabilities. An Amendment to the Act was passed in 2008 to reaffirm the core mission of the ADA.
According to the annually completed Seyfarth Workplace Class Action Blog, 2017 had the highest monetary amount of class action workplace settlements in history.
