Published: May 29, 2008 10:15 pm            

HAMILTON: Wouldn't that be a great day?

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, under the Civil rights Act of 1866, employees may sue both government and private employers who retaliate against them for filing discrimination suits, surprising both employers and employees and extending the time employees have to file cases.

Alas, race, gender and age discrimination remains America's “Supreme” issue. The presidential primaries, where a black man, a white woman and a senior citizen are running, who themselves may name a high court jurist, demonstrate that there are still many hurdles to jump. To see those hurdles, let’s look into our own backyards.

Here, in Niagara Falls, the city has had ongoing litigation concerning the unfair treatment of its employees, with more likely to come. In early June, six black public works employees are scheduled to go to court with yet another discrimination case.

The local, private sector has not fared much better. Women file more discrimination complaints against employers than any other group, resulting in their increased placement in decision-making positions. One local manufacturer has instituted a suspension policy for employees; and though their employment ratio falls far short of a city-based demographically diverse workforce, in a department of nearly sixty people, both of its African-American employees have suffered under the newly instituted policy.

While some 86 percent of New York state human rights complaints deal with employment, charity still begins at home. It has been nearly 50 years since four students from North Carolina A&T College sat at a lunch counter at a Woolworth’s store and waited for service in what was then “Jim Crow” Greensboro, North Carolina. Forty-eight years have passed and the test now is, “When was the last time that you have had someone who looked like Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, David Richmond or Ezell Blair Jr. sit at the dinner table in your home?”

Many of my readers have minority employees under their supervision but have chosen to live far away from them. They also have many close friends who they know are bigots and with whom they often share meals and yet they still claim to be above bigotry themselves. Still they fight employees who file rather than fighting the discrimination itself.

While much has been done in this great country of ours to erase the last vestiges of discrimination, the Supreme Court has shown that there is even more to be done. As most Americans run this race towards the fulfillment of our great Constitution, we must realize that it is, indeed, a team relay race. One where, though our skins, genders and ages are different, the entire team will lose when one of us fail to make a hurdle or are otherwise discouraged in our run.

None of us will hear the sweet victory bells of liberty ring until the very last maliciously placed and self-imposed hurdles are covered with the dust of our strides and the last disparaging echo of bigotry falls in a final, faint pant from the lips of all who want America to be her best.

One day, in the near future, a black, a woman and a senior citizen will again all run for the presidency of the United States and the only questions will concern only their qualifications and records. Perhaps the one who wins will, indeed, be all three of them in one.

E Pluribus Unum: Wouldn’t that be a great day?



Ken Hamilton is a Niagara Falls resident. Contact him at Kenhamilton930@aol.com.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.