Forum: Minority job fairs for all
The Washington Times
Roger Clegg
Over the last several months, the Center for Equal Opportunity has written letters to sponsors of a wide variety of “minority job fairs.” These have included universities, law schools, school districts, bar associations, trade associations, employment agencies, private law firms, corporations and various combinations of the above.
Job fairs typically bring together prospective employers in a particular profession or industry with prospective employees who are interested in that field.
In our letters, we have noted that excluding individuals on the basis of race or ethnicity from employment-related opportunities like job fairs violates a number of civil rights laws, including: Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (for recipients of federal money, which include nearly all universities, law schools and school districts), Title VII (for private and government employers and those acting as employment agencies, which is defined broadly enough by the statute to include placement offices and anyone else who sponsors a job fair), and the U.S. Constitution (for government actors, including public schools, colleges and universities). We also point out it is illegal to advertise a preference for employees of a particular skin color or national origin.