Diversity Chat for the week of January 8th, 2007

Diversity Chat

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Welcome to Diversity Chat for the week of January 8th, 2007!

Hope you had teriffic holidays and that your New Year is off to a happy and prosperous start. In our first time back after a hiatus of a few weeks, Tony Wade and I discuss the political symbolism of a transfer of power involving a whip and lawmakers of different racial backgrounds, more insensitive comments from a state lawmaker, whether or not the discrimination complaint process is broken and the fine line employers walk between religious accomodiation and policies that promote diversity.

First, though, here are some of the week's top stories in human relations, equal opportunity and diversity:

A ceremony signaling the transfer of the House Majority Whip's office from that of Missouri Republican Roy Blunt to South Carolina Democrat James Clyburn got quietly changed last week. Orignally - Blunt had planned to present the actual whip that sybolizes the position to Clyburn, who will be the second African American to hold the post. Instead, the first African American to hold the post, former Congressman William Gray of Pennsylvania, presented the whip to Clyburn. No offical reason was given for the change of plans, but political analysts suggest Blunt and Clyburn wished to avoid the racially-charged symbolism of a white man handing an African American man a whip.

After 21 years - a race discrimination suit against the Alabama Department of Transportation is seeing its final resolution - two years after original plaintiff Johnny Reynolds died. The suit involved allegations of race discrimination in the state's hiring and promotion practices against African Americans - and cost Alabama more than $200 million dollars in legal fees and other expenses related to the 1994 consent decree that ulimately resulted in the resolution of the case.

Staying in Alambama - the EEOC has ordered the U.S. Justice Department to reinstate Deirdra Brown-Fleming to her former job as a federal prosecutor nearly five years after she filed a complaint of racial and gender-based discrimination. The EEOC ruled Brown-Fleming's termination constituted reprisal against her for filing the complaint - and Brown-Fleming says her total compensation in the case will probably exceed $4.4 million.

Montana State Representative Ed Butcher apologized Friday on the state House floor after referring to an American Indian lawmaker as "chief" and using other racially insensitive language. In the apology - Butcher said he meant the remark as a compliment to fellow state representative John Windy Boy. Butcher has an adopted daughter who is an American Indian. Butcher created controversy last year when he referred to severely developmentally disabled students as "vegetables."

A Rand Corporation study of the Cincinnati Police Department concluded African Americans and white drivers are treated similarly during traffic stops. At the same time - the report noted officers are more likely to end a traffic stop with whites courteously, and are more likely to end a traffic stop with African Americans by issuing a warning. The study comes in the wake of race riots in 2001 triggered by the police killing of an unarmed African American man during a traffic stop.

A survey of Virginians conducted by a local TV station finds two-thirds of respondents oppose the idea of a formal apology from the state for the institution of slavery. A handful of Virginia state legislators have propsed a resolution that would apologize for the more than two centuries of slavery in the state. A majority of African Americans surveyed, 58%, support an apology for slavery.

The case of Army Private Suzanne Swift is finally drawing to a close. You may recall we told you last year on Diversity Chat about Swift, who refused to go serve a second tour in Iraq, not because she feared combat, but because she didn't wish to again face the pervasive sexual harassment she'd experienced during her first tour of duty. Now, as the result of an agreement with the Army, swift has completed 30 days of confinement after pleading gulity to a charge of absent without leave and has been returned to duty. Swift's allegations of sexual harassment were substantiated against one soldier, who has since left the Army.

And finally, two attorneys on the web site law.com are cautioning employers to take seriously their highly religious employees who claim they must proselytize others at the workplace. They say preventing them from doing so, or disciplining the highly religious for warning other employees about behavior the highly religious deem as sinful, may run afoul of EEOC guidelines on religious tolerance. The lawyers say employers are generally permitted to ban religious proselytizing at work. But because federal discrimination law requires reasonable accommodation to religion, employers must step carefully when enforcing secular policies against those who advance religious-based objections to compliance.