Workplace
discrimination is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk
about. After all, the civil rights movement was a long time ago and we
have an African American president. These matters surely cannot exist
in today’s workplace. Or can they? Shockingly, the issues of workplace
discrimination are still making headlines.

Take
the case of Michelle London-Marble, the former Boeing employee from
Mesa Arizona. London-Marable claims that she was discriminated by the
company because of her race, wrongly denied disability benefits after
an on the job injury, and forced to resign because she could no longer
perform because of her injuries. After years of denials and dismissals,
London-Marable is now hoping to take her discrimination case against
Boeing all the way to the Supreme Court, as reported this past week.

Also last week, MALDEF, the country’s leading Latino legal organization has joined as co-council in the case of Moreno v. AARP. The
case alleges that the AARP, the nation’s largest membership program for
older Americans, discriminated against former employee Michael Moreno
citing wrongful termination and retaliation. Moreno claims he was
denied promotion opportunities based on his nationality and he claims
that he was a victim of retaliation after he assisted other AARP
employees in filing a sexual harassment suit.  And then he was fired. 

The
story that really brought the topic of workplace discrimination to the
forefront came out of the state of Virginia.  Governor Bob McDonnell
shocked human rights groups as he removed homosexuals from workplace
protection from the states discrimination policy. The newly elected
governor reissued the state’s policy on discrimination with two groups
newly and suspiciously absent: gays and lesbians. Although McDonnell
promises to be fair to all groups of people, gay and lesbian rights
groups are concerned. Eliminating any group of people from workplace
protection is a dangerous prospect and rights groups from around the
globe are watching Virginia and hoping that this decision is not a
trend.