Equal Employment Opportunity Office
Race & Color Discrimination Definition
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Equal Employment Opportunity Office |
Race - A typical definition of race is a local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics or any group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographical distribution.
The U.S. Government currently recognizes five minimum race categories: American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; and White. Hispanic/Latino origin is characterized by the government as an ethnicity, because people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race.
Color - There is no accepted definition of the term color. Color has frequently been viewed as synonymous with race or as a basis for defining a subclass within a race subjected to disparate treatment.
Color discrimination can occur because of a White person's preference for, or aversion to, persons whose skin color differs from his own. It can also occur within the same racial group, as members of the group may have biases against those whose skin is lighter or darker than their own. If race or color enters into an employment decision, Title VII is implicated, even if the discrimination involves a distinction among or by members of a particular racial group.