Did Shaun King pad his r茅sum茅? If so, was it illegal?
The racial appropriation cases of Rachel Dolezal and now possibly Shaun King raise a labor-law question: Is there a way for black civil rights groups to ensure that their employment are, in fact, black?
As conservative bloggers use these cases to question the credibility of civil rights organizations, those employers are left defenseless by employment regulations that will not allow them to resort to asking people of color to verify their race in order to get a job.
In June Ms. Dolezal resigned her position as president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington after admitting to聽falsely portraying herself聽as black.
Wednesday, Mr. King, an activist with the "Black Lives Matter" movement, denied claims made by聽聽that he lied about being biracial in order to gain audience, credibility, and a scholarship to Morehouse,聽a historically black college. He is also accused of falsely claiming to have been the victim of a racially motivated attack.
King gained a large Twitter following in 2014 as part of the Black Lives Matter movement when he became outspoken about the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri.
Unlike Dolezal, King was not primarily employed by a black civil rights organization. But what if he had been? According to Carol Miaschoff, assistant legal council, for the聽聽(EEOC) says in an interview of any employer that wants to ensure that the employee is a person of color, 鈥淭hey are kinda stuck.鈥�
鈥淟egally under Title 7 there is a defense for discrimination under the bona fide occupational qualification, or BFOQ, which allows an employer to choose someone based on their religion, sex or national origin. Like having a woman sales person in a store that sold [women's] underwear,鈥� Ms. Miaskoff says. 鈥淗owever, race is never a BFOQ. I think that speaks to the unwiseness of asking straight out 鈥楢re you black or white鈥� in a hiring situation. There would be no defense. There鈥檚 no good way to do this.鈥�
, certified master resume writer, job search strategist, and career coach, in the New York City area says in an interview that it never pays to fake your credentials in any circumstance.
鈥淔udging race is in the news because it鈥檚 so new, but I think that if they鈥檙e fudging their race you鈥檒l probably find they fudged a number of other things as well,鈥� Mr. Goodman says. 鈥淚n a digital world you鈥檙e just not going to get away with anything.鈥�
Goodman adds that most companies check with past employers to verify employment dates and in the case of those seeking sales positions may even check candidate鈥檚 tax forms 鈥渢o see if they really got the commissions they are claiming for sales figures.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檝e never heard for somebody checking if somebody鈥檚 race is correct,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat would be tricky. The woman [Dolzeal] was the head of the NAACP so it was critical to her job function, but otherwise I don鈥檛 know why anybody would bother to check.鈥�
Nevertheless, Goodman points out, 鈥淟arger companies generally have a diversity initiative where they鈥檙e looking to increase the number of minorities in the company and I guess somebody could play to that. I don鈥檛 know that it鈥檚 prevalent.鈥�
Director of the Racial Justice Program at the ACLU, Dennis Parker, gave his personal opinion as聽聽a civil rights attorney of 35 years. 鈥淭here are serious issues of race in the United States, issues involving the improper use of force against people of color, the failure of law enforcement to protect communities of color, enormous wealth disparities between whites and people of color, questions of the adequacy of education and huge differences between opportunities that are afforded children of color and white color鈥isparities in employment," he said. "All of these are extremely serious issues that we, as a nation need to confront. The issue about a particular individual with Black Lives Matter is not a significant issue. It is a diversion from the serious problems we have as a nation.鈥�
鈥淚n my opinion any time spent worrying about this is a diversion from the issues that need our attention,鈥� he says.
Mr. Parker adds that 鈥淔air hiring should not involve hiring someone because of their race,鈥� and that traditionally 鈥渇or the most part in most areas the determination of race is made by self-identification.鈥�
鈥淚f someone took the position that, 鈥業鈥檓 not hiring you because I don鈥檛 believe you鈥檙e really black,鈥� then they are violating fair employment laws by doing that,鈥� Parker says. 鈥淯nlike educational credentials or work experience, race is almost never a bona fide occupational qualification and so there are virtually no legitimate reasons for taking action against someone because of their own racial identification.鈥�
