EEOC Chair Trumpets NYT White Male Bias Case as a 10-Year First

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas touted the agency’s discrimination lawsuit alleging The New York Times’ hiring and promotion practices are discriminatory as the first race and sex bias case the agency has brought on behalf of a White man in at least the last decade.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s case filed in New York federal court earlier this week challenged the newspaper’s diversity plans and reports, and brought claims on behalf of a White male editor who alleged his race and sex factored into the decisions not to give him serious consideration for promotion.

The lawsuit is in line with the Republican-appointed chair’s stated priorities to investigate diversity initiatives the agency deems discriminatory, following a public message she posted to encourage White men to file EEOC charges if believe they’ve experienced bias at work.

“If you’re a White man sitting there seeing this commission that is designed to protect all Americans and you see absolutely zero lawsuits brought, absolutely zero public resolutions brought on the basis of race and sex, you think, ‘It’s not actually for me.’ And that’s not fair and not right,” Lucas said Thursday during a summit hosted by the Institute for Workplace Equality.

A New York Times spokesperson previously said in a statement the company “categorically rejects the politically motivated allegations brought by the Trump administration’s EEOC,” and the “neither race nor gender played a role” in the hiring decision cited in the lawsuit.

Lucas’ remarks came during a discussion with DCI Consulting founder David Cohen and Fortney Scott co-founder David Fortney.

The chair said the agency’s goal is “to go back to neutral” on enforcement, and not focus on any specific group. However, that could include focusing on groups she said were less focused on in the past.

In February, the EEOC sued a Coca-Cola distributor in a sex bias case saying it discriminated against men by hosting a women’s retreat.

The agency is also investigating diversity initiatives at Nike Inc. and Northwestern Mutual.

It is not clear how many race and sex bias charges are filed to the EEOC on behalf of White men. The EEOC doesn’t publicly report the data broken down by race and sex, and has declined to share it in response to previous requests.