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Full-Text Articles in Law
Another Hair Piece: Exploring New Strands Of Analysis Under Title Vii, Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Another Hair Piece: Exploring New Strands Of Analysis Under Title Vii, Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Faculty Scholarship
This Essay re-examines antidiscrimination case law that allows employers to enforce hair grooming policies that prohibit natural hairstyles for black women, such as braids, locks, and twists. In so doing, this Essay sets forth an intersectional, biological - as opposed to cultural - argument for why such bans are discriminatory under Title VII. Specifically, this Essay argues that antidiscrimination law fails to address intersectional race and gender discrimination against black women through such grooming restrictions because it does not recognize braided, twisted, and locked hairstyles as black-female equivalents of Afros, which are protected as racial characteristics under existing law. The …
Teaching Employment Discrimination, Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Teaching Employment Discrimination, Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Faculty Scholarship
In this Essay, I explore and discuss various methods for effectively teaching civil rights to this "post-racial" generation. Specifically, I examine the following four classroom challenges: (1) this generation's general lack of understanding about the historical context in which many civil rights laws-for purposes of this Essay, Title VII-arose; (2) the general lack of real-life work experience among many law students; (3) a growing decline in the racial and ethnic diversity of law school classes; and (4) the increasing complexities of discrimination in the workplace, including forms of discrimination such as proxy discrimination and demands for covering. 11 I analyze …
The Causation Standard In Federal Employment Law: Gross V. Fbl Financial Services, Inc., And The Unfulfilled Promise Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1991, Michael C. Harper
The Causation Standard In Federal Employment Law: Gross V. Fbl Financial Services, Inc., And The Unfulfilled Promise Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1991, Michael C. Harper
Faculty Scholarship
This article analyzes and recommends a Congressional response to the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc.. The article places the Gross decision’s choice of a causation standard for disparate treatment causes of action in historical context by comparing that choice with that made by Congress for Title VII in § 107 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, and criticizes the Court’s activist refusal to follow its own Title VII precedent. Stressing the lower courts’ misinterpretation of § 107, both before and after the Court’s own interpretation of this section in 2003 in Desert Palace, …
Complimentary And Complementary Discrimination In Faculty Hiring, Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Complimentary And Complementary Discrimination In Faculty Hiring, Angela Onwuachi-Willig
Faculty Scholarship
This Article focuses on one form of discrimination in faculty hiring. Specifically, this Article concentrates on discrimination against the "overqualified" minority faculty candidate, the candidate who is presumed to have too many opportunities and thus gets excluded from faculty interview lists and consideration. In so doing, this Article poses and answers the question: "Can exclusion from interviewing pools and selection based upon the notion that one is just 'too good' to recruit to a particular department constitute an actionable form of discrimination?" Part I of this Article begins by briefly reviewing the changes in faculty diversity and inclusion at colleges …