Author: Dr. Mandeep Virk-Baker

National Origin Alliance stands in solidarity with the black community for the peaceful protest in the events following police brutality causing Mr. George Floyd’s death. We join and stand beside communities across the US peacefully protesting to end injustice. Diversity and inclusion thrive and reach their purest forms when diverse communities unite and support each other. We believe that moving forward, together, towards an inclusive society is paramount to finding effective solutions to the most pressing issues we face in the 21st century.

These are unprecedented times and we mourn more than 100,000 lives lost to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic, and economic hardship caused by millions of people losing their jobs and struggling to keep food on the table. For those who find this unrest an opportunistic moment to riot and flame violence, such criminal acts are not only un-American but also dilute the impact and derails the focus of the fight against injustice. As an organization, we denounce violence, rioting, and destruction.

As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, we are committed to eradicating national origin discrimination in the workplace. According to the EEOC, national origin discrimination involves treating people (applicants or employees) unfavorably because they are from a particular country or part of the world, because of ethnicity or accent, or because they appear to be part of a certain ethnic background (even if they are not). It can also involve treating people unfavorably because they are married to or associated with a person of a certain national origin. Furthermore, the discrimination can occur when the victim and the perpetrator are the same national origin (1). Additionally, discrimination can also take place because an individual’s name or spouse’s name is associated with a national origin group (2). The impact of workplace harassment, hostile work environment and discrimination on job satisfaction, employee productivity, as well as on mental and physical health are well documented. However, the victims are largely invisible to society and they often feel isolated and boxed in. Furthermore, the economic implications arising from discriminatory employment actions create disparities and inequities that go beyond the victim and the ripple effects impact the livelihood of their immediate families and dependents. On the employer side of the picture, these are very costly missteps not only in terms of money, but misused resources, and lost productivity with potential loss of reputation and federal funding. According to the most recent data, there were 7,009 national origin workplace discrimination charges filed to the EEOC in 2019 (3). Of these, a small 5.1% complaints with reasonable cause received $37.5 million in monetary benefit not including monetary benefits obtained from litigation and out of court settlements.

We are utilizing a research-proven multi-sectorial novel approach to eradicate national origin discrimination in the workplace. We have created an open forum, bringing like-minded stakeholders, individuals, institutes of higher education, public and private employers together for collective impact to champion diversity and inclusion in recruitment and retention and eradicate national origin discrimination. We are leading collaborations and partnerships with institutes of higher education and creating professional development opportunities and collaborating on research opportunities to understand the unique challenges and promote equitable opportunities for underserved people of diverse backgrounds. We are strengthening the social fabric of our country by sharing inspirational stories and examples of those who rose above the discrimination and reached unimaginable success and laid an inspirational path for others to follow. We are also working with our legislators at the local, state, and national levels to continue to advocate and lobby to eradicate national origin discrimination and champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are looking into adding an important component to our multi-sectorial and comprehensive approach by providing mental health programs and resources for people battling national origin discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

We are providing education, leadership, open forum, mental health services, and amplifying the collective impact via coalition, and advocating to law makers for effective policy measures to end and prevent national origin discrimination. Please explore our website and social media platforms to learn more about our work and our vision and mission statements. We welcome you to join us in this important journey and our vision of a society that we are humans first and together we are much stronger than the descriptors that divide and categorize us. Your donations are highly appreciated and are 100% tax deductible (IRC section 170).

References:

1. https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/nationalorigin.cfm
2. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/1606.1
3. https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/enforcement/charges.cfm

National origin refers to the country a person was born in or where their ancestors lived. National origin examples include Filipino, Mexican, Chinese, Nigerian, Indian, and American Indian, and all other national origins have equal access to employment.

The United States federal laws (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) prohibit discrimination based on a person’s national origin. These federal laws make it illegal to discriminate because of a person’s birthplace, ancestry, culture or linguistic characteristics (common to a specific group). This means people cannot be denied equal opportunity because they or their family are from another country, because they have a name or accent associated with a national origin group because they participate in certain customs associated with a national origin group, or because they are married to or associated with people of a certain national origin (1). The law prohibits national origin discrimination in employment decisions, including those involving recruitment, hiring, promotion, segregation, and firing or layoffs. The federal law also prohibits offensive conduct including ethnic slurs, that create a hostile work environment for the victims (2).

Additionally, the law requires employers to take appropriate steps to prevent and correct unlawful harassment (2). However, there is a growing concern that the national origin discrimination is largely unreported in the United States because victims of discrimination may not know their legal rights, they may be afraid to speak-up, and fearful of repercussions and retaliation from filing complaints or taking appropriate measures. According to the federal laws, filing national origin discrimination complaint is considered protected activity, and as such retaliation against victims for exercising their constitutional rights is illegal.

As a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, we are committed to working with our communities, stakeholders, and coalition members to educate, promote the protection of civil rights, provide leadership, as well as advocate to our law makers for effective policies that support equitable recruitment, retention and career progression to end and prevent national origin discrimination in the workplace. Our leadership platform and open forum invites you as an individual, institutions, public or private employers, and other like-minded non-profit organizations to come together (join us) to create and foster an inclusive society where everyone has an opportunity to pursue their dreams regardless of their place or country origin. We believe that moving forward, together, towards an inclusive society is paramount to finding effective solutions to the most pressing issues we face in the 21 st century.

References:

1. https://www.justice.gov/crt/federal-protections-against-national-origin-discrimination-1
2. https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/fs-nator.cfm