Race
Advice
This is one of the 9 protected characteristics under the Equality Act. This law protects anyone from discrimination taking place at work such as harassment or victimisation. Racial discrimination can take place because of the following:
- Colour;
- Nationality;
- Ethnic origin; or
- National origin.
Colour
Refers simply to the colour of one’s skin tone, for example, Black.
Nationality
This relates to someone’s current nationality or citizenship, for example, British. It does not, however, always translate into the place you were born.
Ethnic Origin or Ethnic Group
An ethnic group is a group with a shared history, cultural traditions or language. This group may share a religious affiliation, literature or geographical origin. Not all ethnic groups have been recognised as protected by the courts. For example, certain groups such as travellers are not protected.
National Origin
National origin usually means where someone was born or where their parents are from. It can be different to nationality, for example, someone could have Nigerian national origin and British nationality.
Racial Group
People can also be discriminated against because of their racial group. This means a group who share the same colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin. Someone can be part of more than one racial group, for example, British and Sikh.
Discrimination because more than one aspect of race
Discrimination can happen because of one or more aspects of someone's race. For example, someone born in the UK with Nigerian parents could be discriminated against because they're black, because of their British nationality or because of their Nigerian national origin.
What Does Discrimination Look Like
1 - Direct Discrimination occurs when someone treats you worse than a person in a similar situation due to your race. An example of this might be an employee refusing to employ an individual due to them being part of a particular ethnic group. For example,
2 - Indirect discrimination occurs when an organisation has a policy or particular culture of working that has adverse effects on people of a different race. One particular example might be a workplace that has policies that ban particular hairstyles or men with a certain length of hair. However, Black men who wear their hair in protective styles such as cornrows might experience discrimination for their hairstyles. Organisations are liable for indirect discrimination unless the organisation can illustrate that there’s a good reason for its use.
3 - Victimisation: This is when an individual has lodged a complaint due to a workplace’s mistreatment and then is treated far worse for it. This also includes people who have helped support the lodging of a complaint.
Harassment: This is perhaps one of the most explicit forms of discrimination. It takes place when someone is treated in such a way that makes you feel ashamed, offended or degraded. An example, of this, might be a boss using racist language when interacting with their Asian employees.
Support from charities and organisations
It is typically always best to use whatever informal routes are available within your organisation. However, if this is not possible, you can pursue the organisation’s internal complaints procedure. If you wish to seek support and advice for your complaint, Lestons can act as an advocate on your behalf. As an advocate, we can liaise with the relevant organisation and can also represent you if you choose to escalate the complaint further and take an appeal to the court. To start a case simply click on the link at the top of the page.
Several organisations provide advisory support as you go through the complaints process.
- Race Equality First works to create a world that is built on the principle of equality and justice. They aim to eventually eradicate all forms of racial discrimination.
- The Monitoring Group provides an advocacy service for victims of racism. They have over 40 years’ experience of in helping people suffering racism in the country, and are one of the leading agencies on tackling race hate crime in the UK.
How we can help
To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link.
Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our legal team and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.