So Called "Reverse Discrimination"

[Ginson]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California

I'll try to keep this as clear and concise as possible, and thank you in advance to everyone. I've worked for a large company (20,000+ employees) in the IT field for seven years. I have never had any sort of disciplinary action taken against me, my performance is exceptional, and my performance reviews have always been highly favorable. Recently the company had a lawsuit filed against them for discrimination on behalf of women and minorities and was settled out of court. Within the last few months a "diversity council" was formed with the self-declared purpose of 'empowering minorities and women and facilitating hiring and promotion of such parties'.

My previous manager (male) was fired for religious and sexual harassment of the employees. A female with no IT experience was put into the role (additionally, 92% of promotions in the last four months have been women and minorities--I keep track.) The new manager brought in several women to the department who are woefully (in my opinion)unqualified. I was set to the task of training these new employees and did so. I also have far more responsibility than any of my peers, which I happily do.

Due to the nature of the work, we require personnel present 24 hours a day. The new female employees were granted the more favorable hours I was working, while I was relegated to far less favorable conditions. Additionally, a coworker of mine (white male) applied for promotion and was passed up in favor of a less qualified female from outside the company. Curious about this, I applied for a promotion with two resumes, my own and one created with an 'African sounding' female name using a number linked to a skype account I created. I used nearly identical qualifications for both, both have bachelors and masters degrees, the same years of service doing identical jobs, etc. I just changed it enough to not raise suspicion. I received no phone call for interview while my Skype account did.

Long story short, do I have a case?

Thanks again ladies and gents.

[jk]

If the company had improperly refused employment or promotions to females or minorities, once that is realized, there is a period of playing catch up and trying to get the personnel mix in line with the legal requirements. While it does in effect cause a time of actual discrimination, the company doesn't actually have much they can do about it. They must reach a level of mix of females and minorities as the law requires. This is exactly what happened when the Civil Rights laws in the '60's came about. There was a long period of time that minorities were hired at a hugely disproportionate level as compared to the societal mix.

as well, although you used an "African sounding female name", there is no way to prove HR did believe it was in fact an African american female.

I'm curious; what if they checked references, work history, and education records?

[Ginson]

Thanks for the response and I understand.

I assumed they would not check, seeing as it was just an initial interview, but you never know.

The lawsuit was specifically pertaining to promotions, rather than actual hiring practices. The company is about 80% female/minority with the remaining 20% white males. Non-corporate employees are largely retail-esque, low-wage earners. The suit alleged they were passed up for promotions to 'assistant manager' and the likes (which is going from 8.75 to 10.00/hour or something around there). Thanks for clearing that up though, I had read a lot of times there's a sort of 'catching up' that's done, however I was uncertain of the legal specifics.