Discrimination

NJ employees who are disabled sometimes hit stone walls when they ask their employer for a disability accommodation that will allow them to keep working.   Some employers either deliberately or unknowingly do not understand the law and the standards to be applied.

First, in New Jersey, all employers, public and private, under the NJ Law Against Discrimination (LAD) are required by law to provide reasonable accommodations for an employee’s disability to allow them to keep working. This is true whether the disability is temporary or permanent. These cases frequently turn on what is considerable to be “reasonable” accommodation standards for an employee’s disability accommodation.

In what is not good news for employees working for religious organizations, a Federal agency, the EEOC, in November issued proposed updated guidelines for its Compliance Manual on Religious Discrimination. These proposed revisions to the Compliance Manual follow case law on religious discrimination, including US Supreme Court opinions such as those issued in the Court’s July 8, 2020 ruling in Our Lady of Guadalupe Sch. v. Morrissey-Berru.

In this

After the Civil War ended in 1865, some states passed harsh laws that severely limited the rights of black people, segregated them, restricted the kind of property black people could own, including restricting them to only own property within a city limit to prevent them from earning money through farming on their own, forced them into involuntary servitude, and if they escaped they would be arrested. It was not until 1868 that the 14^th Amendment attempted to halt the states’ statutes restrictions of rights of  blacks to give them equal protection under the law. However,  it wasn't until the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, that states were specifically prohibited from restricting the rights of voters based on race.

The 15th Amendment

The 15th Amendment states:

“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

The Post Civil war period of Reconstruction ended seven years subsequent to the 15th Amendment in 1877.

Jim Crow laws and the rise of the KKK in the beginning of the 20^th century made any stepping out of Jim Crow culture dangerous. Well into the 20^th century, it was dangerous to violate Jim Crow when shopping, traveling or walking in states that had government mandated apartheid.  Even in the North where there was not official government mandated apartheid, Blacks were not spared the discrimination of oppressive Jim Crow culture and faced much discrimination when traveling. Apartheid and Jim Culture flourished in many states well into the 20^th century, making a dangerous passage for blacks who veered outside of its neighborhoods and cultural sociological boundaries.

The 1936 Green Book: The Black Travelers’ Guide to Jim Crow America

For three decades, a guide called The Negro Motorist Green Book first published in 1936, provided Blacks with advice on safe places to eat and sleep when they traveled through the  United States.

The roots of government ordered apartheid in the United States was not just during slavery but continued beyond the passage of the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery, and apartheid and Jim Crow continued into the 20^th century.

Apartheid is a government law, policy, or legal system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. Post the 13^th Amendment in 1865, apartheid in the US became legally enacted through harsh black codes, Jim Crow laws. 

Three years later, in 1868 after the passage of the 14^th Amendment which attempted to stop states’ restrictions of rights of Blacks, apartheid, euphemistically known as “Jim Crow”  nevertheless continued. This government ordered strict-segregation-by-race was established by statutes and ordinances that detailed and limited every aspect of a black person’s life, restricted their civil rights, limited their freedom of movement, where they could walk, prohibited their use of parks and from entering other places.

It was not until the 1954 that the Supreme Court overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson 1896 decision and the "separate but equal" doctrine, yet government mandated apartheid continued in many states.

Brown v. Board of Education

In Brown v. Bd.

For continuity,  you may read about the history of apartheid and Jim Crow laws in the September 22^th and October 6^th articles.

The 13^th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States in 1865. However, government mandated apartheid continued in many states through Jim Crow laws.

The 14^th Amendment to the Constitution

Legally enforced segregation by race restricting every aspect of a Black person’s life relegating them to  inferior conditions, education, services and restrictions of their rights, including where to live and their voting rights, continued in many states.

For continuity,  Part I of this article may be reviewed here.

Post-Civil War: Jim Crow

Following the abolition of slavery, there still existed government mandated segregation by race and oppression due to race across the board. Apartheid, euphemistically known as “Jim Crow” in the United States, began in the 1870's post slavery at the end of the period of Reconstruction. “Jim Crow” laws were government mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the states of the former Confederate States of America and in some border states and other states. Jim Crow laws were outlawed, theoretically in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act, although some still were in effect.

Centuries of racial oppression and strife unfortunately have not been eliminated within this 21^st century. Persisting cultural racism exists in many of this country’s institutional and business practices including in high-end professional occupations. There is a close proximity in time to the institution of slavery to persons living today. There is an even closer temporal proximity to the the time of “Jim Crow” or government mandated apartheid. Unfortunately, deeply ingrained cultural racial ideology, has a persisting existence in present time despite the passage of Civil Rights Statutes.

https://www.eeoc.gov/reports/state-age-discrimination-and-older-workers-us-50-years-after-age-discrimination-employment.

Older women may experience more age discrimination in the workplace than men. Sex discrimination and age discrimination go hand-in-hand and are a workplace reality for many older female workers.