posted a social media<\/a> call urging white men to come forward with complaints if they believe they have faced discrimination because of their employer\u2019s diversity policies. <\/p>\n\u201cNo one is above the law \u2014 including \u2018elite\u2019 institutions. There is no such thing as \u2018reverse discrimination;\u2019 all race or sex discrimination is equally unlawful, according to long-established civil rights principles,\u201d Lucas said in a statement. \u201cNo matter the size or power of the employer, the EEOC under my leadership will not pull punches in ensuring evenhanded, colorblind enforcement of Title VII to protect America\u2019s workers, including white males.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said the EEOC \u201cdeviated from standard practices in highly unusual ways. The allegation centers on a single personnel decision for one of over 100 deputy positions across the newsroom, yet the EEOC\u2019s filing makes sweeping claims that ignore the facts to fit a predetermined narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNeither race nor gender played a role in this decision \u2013 we hired the most qualified candidate, and she is an excellent editor,\u201d Rhoades Ha added.<\/p>\n
In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, the EEOC complaint said the complainant, who was not identified, has worked as an editor for the New York Times since 2014, mostly as a senior staff editor on the international desk with previous experience working on real estate stories. <\/p>\n
The lawsuit claims that the woman ultimately appointed deputy real estate editor \u201cdid not have experience with real estate journalism\u201d but \u201cas a multiracial female, this candidate matched the race and\/or sex characteristics NYT sought to increase in its leadership.\u201d The EEOC said one final panel interviewer described her as \u201ca bit green overall.\u201d <\/p>\n
The EEOC\u2019s lawsuit extensively cited The New York Times diversity and inclusion policies as evidence for its alleged discriminatory policies. <\/p>\n
In particularly, the lawsuit cites the organizations \u201cCall to Action\u201d plan published in February 2021 in which it set a goal of increasing the number of Black and Latino employees in leadership by 50% by 2025. The EEOC said the New York Times met that goal in 2022 but continued its commitment to diversity policies. According to reports cited in the lawsuit, white employees composed 68% of its leadership in 2024, compared to 29% people of color. <\/p>\n
Lucas has been particularly critical of representation goals that many companies have publicly announced, particularly in the wake of of the 2020 racial protests following the police killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd. <\/p>\n
In almost all cases, it is illegal under Title VII for employers to take race or gender into account when making hiring, promotion and other decisions. Lucas has taken aim at practices she claims pressure hiring managers to do just that, from certain forms of anti-bias training to ensuring a diverse slate of candidates for roles. Critics say the EEOC is attacking long held practices designed to level the playing field for workers who have traditionally faced discrimination in U.S. workplaces.<\/p>\n
In February, the EEOC revealed that it was investigating sportswear giant Nike<\/a> for racial discrimination against white employees. Unlike the New York Times lawsuit, the Nike investigation stemmed not from a worker complaint but by Lucas herself, who filed what is known as \u201ccommissioner\u2019s charge\u201d to investigate an array of diversity policies at the sneaker company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A federal civil rights agency filed a discrimination lawsuit Tuesday against the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15555,112,15556,7254,2488,38,960,68,50,6497,8,277,169,2635,2097,9,15557,67,7,54,15554],"class_list":{"0":"post-25374","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-andrea-lucas","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-danielle-rhoades-ha","11":"tag-discrimination","12":"tag-domestic-news","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-finance-business","15":"tag-gender","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-george-floyd","18":"tag-headlines","19":"tag-inc","20":"tag-lawsuits","21":"tag-legal-proceedings","22":"tag-new-york-city","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-nike","25":"tag-politics","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-u-s-news","28":"tag-workplace-culture"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116529129261382189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}