From killings and beatings to acts of arson and vandalism, these hate crimes injure or even kill thousands of people, terrify countless others, divide Americans against each other, and distort our entire society.
To be sure, hate crimes are symptoms of a host of social ills. For all the progress our nation has made in civil and human rights, bigotry in all its forms dies hard. And discrimination is a continuing reality in many areas of American life, including the workplace.
Among incidents that have attracted national attention:
- The bipartisan, blue-ribbon Federal Glass Ceiling Commission found that"Minorities and women are still consistently underrepresented and under utilized at the highest levels of corporate America.3 As the commission reported, 97 percent of the senior managers of Fortune 100 Industrial and Fortune 500 companies are white, and 95 to 97 percent are male.
According to the commission's findings, Americans who are not male, white, and Anglo find their pay and prospects held down. In the Fortune 2000 industrial and service companies, only 5 percent of senior managers are women, and most of them are white. In another example of apparent discrimination, African-American men with professional degrees earn 21 percent less than whites with similar jobs and credentials. And, although Hispanics comprise eight percent of our country's workforce, only 0.4 percent of managers are Hispanic.
The barriers against women and minorities often reflect the crudest and cruelest discrimination, even in major corporations.
For instance, in a plan that awaits approval by the courts and the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, Texaco has agreed to pay $115 million to some 1,400 current and former black employees, $26.1 million in pay raises over five years for black workers, and $35 million for diversity- training programs.4 This action comes in belated response to a class-action lawsuit in which the 1,400 current and former employees charged pervasive racial discrimination at Texaco. After years when Texaco dragged its feet in response to black employees' grievances, it was forced to respond when a downsized executive released a tape of top executives at the company's headquarters discussing racial issues. Among other remarks:
- An executive joked that"black jelly beans were stuck to the bottom of the bag." ["Jelly beans" apparently was a phrase used by a diversity consultant.]
- An executive vowed to "purge the s-t out of" papers involved in the discrimination case.
- And an executive expressed discomfort with African- American and Jewish holidays: "Im still struggling with Hanukkah, and now we have Kwanzaa ... Poor Saint Nicholas, they have s-tted all over his beard."
- In that discussion, executives also made fun of Kwanzaa symbols and of the African-American anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
The remarks recorded on the tape appeared to confirm longstanding contentions by black Texaco employees that they had suffered discrimination in promotions and even personal abuse:
- Some complained about being called "porch monkeys" and "orangutans" by co-workers.
- And a woman who was pregnant had her birthday cake decorated with watermelon seeds.
