Cultural IQ

Got Racism? Find Likeable People to Lead Workplace Change!

Life doesn't always give us a chance to practice for a role before the curtain opens. We have to say yes first, and learn our lines later.

This is especially true for individuals listening, learning and leading change in their communities. Research indicates that friendliness and democratic values are useful tools for challenging racism but how often do we use them? 

 Brian Lowery, an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, goes so far as to suggest that racial stereotypes that are subconscious may be reversible. He suggests that people may change feelings toward another ethnic group following  brief  interactions with likeable role models who promote egalitarian or democratic values.

Subconscious or hidden biases toward other racial groups often surface without our knowledge, Lowery's research suggests. While conducting word-association exercises, he found that research subjects more quickly associated the faces of African-Americans with negative words, and the faces of whites with positive words.

However, if he exposed the participants to appealing African-Americans or white Americans who displayed democratic attitudes, such as an anti-racism T-shirt, these associations or hidden biases began to shift. The groups' associations about blacks were then less negative. In an interesting twist, Lowery tried the experiment again using an unfriendly, though egalitarian, role model. This time the participants did not experience the same shift in attitudes.

What might we conclude from this fascinating research?

Well, it certainly seems to suggest that the messenger matters when it comes to delivering anti-racism messages. I have said often in this column that sarcasm and angry voices seldom persuade others to adopt our views. Instead, we need to wear our best smiles and exhibit compassionate attitudes.

We might also conclude that likable people can be effective communicators when it comes to promoting justice and inclusiveness in the workplace. CEOs contemplating new diversity initiatives should file away this fact. "When we like or identify with people, we're more likely to emulate their attitudes and behaviors," Lowery explains.

Lowery also has found that many research subjects are not aware of their own racial biases. They are often uncomfortable when confronted with results that suggest that code words may prompt them to respond negatively to a racial group. In another study, he examined the subtle effects of racial stereotypes upon the penal system. He asked Los Angeles police and probation officers to make judgments about a hypothetical adolescent of unknown race who had allegedly either shoplifted or assaulted a peer.

Some officers were subliminally exposed to words associated with African-Americans: ghetto, homeboy, dreadlocks. These messages were flashed on a rapidly flashing computer screen so that the officers took in the information subliminally. The remainder of the group did not receive this "priming."

Officers absorbing the subliminal messages attributed more negative traits and greater culpability to the hypothetical offenders, and they endorsed harsher punishments. Lowery theorizes that the racial priming beforehand may have prompted them to begin seeing a neutral situation in racial terms.

So there's a caution here, as well as a lesson.

Be mindful of the movies you watch and the people you choose as friends. Priming  affects us more than we might think. It can lead us down under into the land of bias-based decision-making.

The lesson? It is not often we think of likability as a quality required for diversity training and change leadership.  Perhaps, we should.

If you want to influence your workplace, change starts with you.

 

Photo Credit and Caption: Jellybean people at the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia

Friday, April 27th is Stand Against Racism Day. Will you take a stand or exercise your American right to remain silent?

The Stand Against Racism is a movement of theYWCA that aims to eliminate racism by raising awareness through its annual event.

Organizations across the United States are invited to become Participating Sites by hosting their own "Stand." Individuals are then invited to join any of the "Stands", where hundreds of thousands of people will take a Stand Against Racism. What will you do?

 

 

Healing Words Lead to Resolution

The skill with which we use language ultimately determines whether freedom's song is sung in perfect harmony.

Healing words can create openings for real dialogue, but hurtful words can close down a dialogue. In the global economy, citizenship carries with it a new responsibility: We must build strategic vocabularies and create purposeful action plans. We need to do more than vote. Each of us must help manage political conflicts, challenge biases and constantly seek the higher ground.

Below are a few ideas to ponder in this election season:

• Choose words wisely: Use a vocabulary that can create conversational openings. For example, say, "Help me to explore this issue through your cultural lens." Use polite, affirming and inclusive language. Look for an opportunity to say, "I see your point" or "That's an interesting perspective." In crucial dialogues, replace the word "you" and "them" with the words "we" and "us." Let go of loaded language that shuts down meaningful dialogue. Avoid words such as "racists" and "bigots."

• Challenge your biases: Seek out positive information about groups that you may view in a negative light. For example, if you think women are catty, then make a mental note every time you see women demonstrating supportive and nurturing behaviors. Unless you consciously look for behaviors or facts that contradict your beliefs, your blind spots might keep you from seeing the world as it is. 

• Accept disagreement: If you believe your views are the only ones with legitimacy, then you restrict growth for yourself and your community. A diversity of views is problematic only when individuals have a skills gap. We should handle tensions so they do not impair our ability to make evidence-based decisions. We must accept that there are many ways to view issues, and each perspective may offer a hidden path to collaboration and knowledge.

• Be a team player: Hard work and good intentions will not bridge political and cultural divisions. Each of us needs to develop new competencies to support diverse views. We must audit our actions, language, and beliefs and then make regular adjustments. We must empathize with the plight of others and respond accordingly. We must be patient with those who were taught to be prejudiced. We must become culturally agile and able to see through one another's eyes.  We must monitor and control our emotions so we can effectively participate in crucial conversations.

• Let go: The anger, hatred and prejudices that reside within us can destroy us over time. When we let go of them, we free ourselves from a prison that restricts our creativity and keeps us locked up in the past.

 

www.theculturalcoach.com

Behavior Lessons for Leadership and Teamwork

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS — Before a critical meeting with your boss, an important customer, or your teenage son or daughter, do you spend time mentally roughing out and revising what you are going to say?  If so, social psychologist Deborah Gruenfeld has a message for you: You are misdirecting your energy. Spend time instead practicing how to walk, stand, sit, and quickly grasp how other people are moving their bodies.

Gruenfeld, an experimental social psychologist on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, gives this advice standing in the front of a full classroom, her weight planted firmly and evenly on both high-heeled feet, looking straight at her audience, speaking in complete sentences. She is demonstrating what acting coaches sometimes call “playing high.” That means she is making sure everybody in the room knows she is in charge in this time and place. 

As someone who has researched power for two decades, Gruenfeld has plenty of evidence of the importance of body posture and tone of voice. She pulls bits and pieces from her brain in order to persuade her audience with rational arguments. Yet that research tells her — and you — that it isn’t the quality of her argument that will persuade people. It is rather how she conveys it. “Your status,” she says, “is determined by physical attributes and nonverbal cues. People decide if you are competent in less than 100 milliseconds.”

Intelligence, she reports, is not a strong predictor of leadership. Other research indicates the pitch, volume, and pace of your voice affect what people think you said about five times as much as the actual words you used. Other studies show, however, that we are impressed with our own arguments. So it sometimes pays to repeat back to someone you are trying to impress what he or she said. Others present in the room may not be impressed with you, but the person you are parroting will be.

About five years ago, Gruenfeld decided on a new approach to help her MBA students deal with what she calls their "authority issues.” Some, she discovered, get into professional or personal trouble because they don’t know how to be deferential to other people when it is appropriate. Others don’t know how to take charge and be the authority when that is called for. Because most business students will have to be both team followers and leaders within hierarchies, she wanted to teach them the basics and decided the best way might be to team up with a drama teacher who could help them practice. Actors, she discovered, are exceptionally good at paying attention to other actors. If they aren’t, they will not only miss cues but also appear unconvincing to the audience. (For more details on her Acting with Power classes, see a journal following one such class.) 

Some of what Gruenfeld teaches comes from research by colleagues, including Professor Larissa Tiedens, codirector of the business school’s Center on Leadership Research and Development, who also has studied how the language of body movement influences perceptions. (See  story) 

There are times, Gruenfeld tells her class, which on this recent day is comprised of university employees, when you want to “play low” status. "You are making the relationship work and not necessarily giving anything important away,” she says. “Playing low can lift others up and make them feel good about themselves. "

For high-status people in an organization, she says, telling a self-deprecating joke can make you more approachable. Many of us know the boss who says “My door is always open,” but their body language adds “but really, don’t come in here.”

In facing a subordinate who doesn’t know he or she is a subordinate, she suggests a few extra moments of silence can send the right signal.

And don’t forget, Gruenfeld says, that your posture affects you as well as other people. She asks her seated audience to press their knees together, hold their elbows close to their sides, and lean forward. While in that position, she has them say "I am totally in charge." They laugh because they didn't believe their own words. Then she instructs them to lower their shoulders, drape an outstretched arm over the back of their chair, and spread their legs wide, taking up more space. High-status people, she says, generally let their bodies take more space than low-status people. That alone makes them both appear and feel relaxed.

Like others, you probably know this on your gut level, Gruenfeld says. "There is a body language of power, and we know it.  But we don't know we know it."

-- 

Kathleen O’Toole

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/gruenfeld-power-2012.html

Can A Heart Drug Curb Racism?

 

Dose of propranolol 'alters subconscious attitudes,' say researchers

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

 

Posted Mar 8, 2012 12:44 AM CST | Updated Mar 8, 2012 3:23 AM CST

Could popping pills make racists change their ways? British researchers claim that a common heart drug significantly reduces racist attitudes. White volunteers given small doses of the beta blocker propranolol scored lower than a control group on a test designed to measure subconscious racist attitudes, the Telegraph reports. The Oxford University team believes the change in attitude was caused by the drug's effect on the parts of the brain and nervous system that regulate fear.

http://www.newser.com/story/141309/heart-drug-curbs-racism.html

 

EEOC's Anti-Discrimination Efforts Benefit Many Races of Americans

 

The EEOC typically is thought of as an agency that benefits protected classes such as minorities, women and the disabled.

 This year's report shows the extent to which the work of this office benefits all classes and races of Americans. A record 99,947 charges of employment discrimination were filed  in Fiscal Year 2011, and the EEOC obtained $455.6 million in relief - a new record.

 Once again, charges alleging retaliation under all the statutes the EEOC enforces were the most numerous at 37,334 charges received, or 37.4 percent of all charges, closely followed by charges involving claims of race discrimination at 35,395 charges or 35.4 percent.

 While the numbers of charges with race and sex discrimination allegations declined from the previous year, charges with the two other most frequently-cited allegations increased:

 

•     Disability discrimination--25,742
•     Age discrimination—23,465

 The agency’s enforcement of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) produced the highest increase in monetary relief among all of the statutes: the administrative relief obtained for disability discrimination charges increased by almost 35.9 percent to $103.4 million compared to $76.1 million in the previous fiscal year. Back impairments were the most frequently cited impairment under the ADA, followed by other orthopedic impairments, depression, anxiety disorder and diabetes.

 For the first full fiscal year of enforcement, the EEOC received 245 charges under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of genetic information, including family medical history.  So far, none of these charges has proceeded to litigation.

 “For the second year in a row, the EEOC received a record number of new charges of discrimination,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien. “Nevertheless, the hard work of our employees, combined with increased investments in training, technology and staffing in 2009 and 2010, and strategic management of existing resources made 2011 a year of extraordinary achievements for the EEOC.”

 Due to EEOC’s enforcement programs in both the private and federal sectors, 5.4 million individuals benefitted from changes in employment policies or practices in their workplace during the past fiscal year.

 EEOC’s public outreach and education programs reached approximately 540,000 persons.

The EEOC is typically thought of as an agency that benefits protected classes such as minorities, women and the disabled.

This year's report shows the extent to which the work of this office benefits all Americans. A record 99,947 charges of employment discrimination were filed  in Fiscal Year 2011, and the EEOC obtained $455.6 million in relief - a new record.

Once again, charges alleging retaliation under all the statutes the EEOC enforces were the most numerous at 37,334 charges received, or 37.4 percent of all charges, closely followed by charges involving claims of race discrimination at 35,395 charges or 35.4 percent. 

While the numbers of charges with race and sex discrimination allegations declined from the previous year, charges with the two other most frequently-cited allegations increased:

• Disability discrimination--25,742
• Age discrimination—23,465

 

The agency’s enforcement of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) produced the highest increase in monetary relief among all of the statutes: the administrative relief obtained for disability discrimination charges increased by almost 35.9 percent to $103.4 million compared to $76.1 million in the previous fiscal year. Back impairments were the most frequently cited impairment under the ADA, followed by other orthopedic impairments, depression, anxiety disorder and diabetes.

For the first full fiscal year of enforcement, the EEOC received 245 charges under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of genetic information, including family medical history.  So far, none of these charges has proceeded to litigation.

“For the second year in a row, the EEOC received a record number of new charges of discrimination,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien. “Nevertheless, the hard work of our employees, combined with increased investments in training, technology and staffing in 2009 and 2010, and strategic management of existing resources made 2011 a year of extraordinary achievements for the EEOC.”

Due to EEOC’s enforcement programs in both the private and federal sectors, 5.4 million individuals benefitted from changes in employment policies or practices in their workplace during the past fiscal year.

EEOC’s public outreach and education programs reached approximately 540,000 persons.

Restaurant Tipping: Is There a Reason Many Blacks Tip Less?

Posted by Linda S. Wallace  

Diversity classes haven’t actually prepared us to talk about the really scary stuff: the issues that make us squirm, glance down at the floor and hope for a fire drill.

Let’s consider the racial disparities in tipping at fine restaurants. Pity the fine-dining manager who has to explain to a waiter why he or she must provide quality service to customers who aren’t likely to leave a tip.

Pity the poor CEO who must explain in court why a group of African-American customers had to wait 30 minutes longer to get a table than white diners.

It is easier on us to avoid these dialogs, and settle the racial and gender discrimination lawsuits as they arise (Denny’s Corp., $54.4 million settlement; Cracker Barrel, $2 million consent decree resolving a sexual discrimination lawsuit; and Shoney’s Inc. $132 million).

The facts are indisputable: African Americans, as a group, tend to leave smaller tips at full-service restaurants and that may lead to unenthusiastic service by blacks and whites.  It is indisputable that the restaurant industry’s practices – and the racial biases that shape and influence management’s decisions and customer tipping practices – are costly for heavily minority communities such as Memphis,  investors and ultimately, diners.

The tense love-hate relationship developing between African Americans and Hispanics (who also tip less, according to surveys) and the restaurant industry doesn’t bode well for a $604 billion economic sector that employs more than 12.8 million.

Is gender or racial discrimination a sound practice in a nation where whites are projected to be the minority (47 percent) by 2050?

The pipeline of talent that might do the most to connect the industry with fast-growing, culturally diverse cultures are being discouraged from contributing their knowledge, wisdom and culinary tastes.

The Restaurant Opportunities Center, founded in New York to provide support to restaurant workers displaced from the World Trade Center by the events of September 11, has documented the extent to which gender and racial biases factor into decisions made by restaurant managers and executives.

It sent testers, both people of color and whites, to apply for jobs and found, not surprisingly, that whites were more likely to get call back interviews and get hired.

“Employers and several white workers agreed that workers of color lacked the skills, ‘table talk’ (the ability to converse easily and relate to a wealthy white clientele), and/or appearance to succeed as fine-dining waiters and bartenders,” the center said in a release.

“Interviews with workers of color, however, revealed that many were training less-experienced white workers who then immediately surpassed them into wait staff and bartending positions that paid up to five times more than what they were earning as bussers.”

While I was in journalism school, I was hired by the Alumni Office at the University of Missouri to do a surprisingly honest story for the magazine that asked, “Are the Tigers’ stripes white? The story explored the love-hate relationship between the university and the influential black high school coaches in Kansas City and St. Louis.  Mizzou was slow to knock on the door of these inner-city incubators for athletic talent, but  rivals, Nebraska and Oklahoma, were not so shy.

 George Flippin, Nebraska's first black football player joined the team in 1891. In 1892, the University of Missouri refused to play against him, and demanded that Nebraska leave him at home. Nebraska refused, and Missouri forfeited rather than take the field.

By the time Mizzou warmed up to the idea of racial integration, black students in St. Louis and KC - athletes and scholars alike - were warned not to enroll in-state. In the intervening years, Mizzou has struggled to assemble championship teams, while Nebraska and Oklahoma have built competitive sports dynasties.

Restaurant executives, are you listening? Missouri fans - black, white and other - have paid a price for their forefathers' decisions.

“We’re not taught to talk about race and culture,” Gerry Fernandez, head of the Multicultural Foodservice and Hospital Alliance, told a restaurant industry publication.

“We don’t do it well. We don’t like to do it. We’re going to have to get more savvy on cultural communications, cultural competencies, and understanding nuances. If we don’t do that well, we’re going to lose the talent war. They’ll go to other industries who manage the conflict better.”

(Linda S. Wallace, a social entrepreneur and highly experienced organizational trainer, specializes in developing powerful message strategies that resonate with multicultural markets. Contact her at theculturalcoach@aol.com or www.theculturalcoach.com.)

When Visiting the Doctor, Should You Mention Racism as a Health Issue?

The next time you visit your doctor, you might not want to hold back on sharing that story about the  black guy who called you a honkie or the white insurance agent that unjustly refused you a policy.

Discrimination, it appears, can adversely affect your health. That is the conclusion reached by Rice University sociologists Jenifer Bratter and Bridget Gorman in their study, "Is Discrimination an Equal Opportunity Risk? Racial Experiences, Socio-economic Status and Health Status Among Black and White Adults,"

The authors examined data containing measures of social class, race and perceived discriminatory behavior and found that approximately 18 percent of blacks and 4 percent of whites reported higher levels of emotional upset and/or physical symptoms due to race-based treatment. 

"Discriminatory behavior very well may be a 'missing link' in the analysis of racial and ethnic health disparities," Bratter said. "It's important to acknowledge and study its impact on long-term health. 

Given these findings, here's two questions cultural learners might ask: If communities successfully reduce discrimination, might they also bring down  healthcare costs? If companies eliminate racial, religious and gender biases, might their increase workforce wellness and boost productivity?

Unlike most of the research on this topic, Bratter and Gorman's study examines the health risks of discrimination among both whites and blacks, as opposed to just blacks. Their analysis was based on data from the 2004 wave of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an ongoing collaborative project between U.S. states and territories and the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This racially comparative focus is important because we examine whether discrimination is equally harmful to the health status of black and white adults – or whether experiencing discrimination is disproportionately harmful to either black or white adults," Gorman said. "For example, since, on average, black adults typically experience more health risks in their social and personal environment than white adults (including higher poverty and lower-quality medical insurance), they may be especially vulnerable to negative health effects as a result of racial discrimination."

Both Bratter and Gorman hope that their research will raise awareness about the impact racial discrimination has on health and wellness. "Ultimately we hope that practitioners and researchers in the medical field recognize the dual contribution of social class and interpersonal treatment in shaping health outcomes among persons of all racial populations," Bratter said. 

This study appeared in the September 2011 edition of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior and was funded by Rice University.

So here's the question we might ask: If we reduce discrimination, might we also bring down  healthcare costs? Should companies consider making diversity part of their wellness programs?

African Americans Leave Smaller Tips: Does It Matter?

By Linda S. Wallace | Published  01/20/2012

For years, waiters and waitresses have taken to the Internet to complain about tips left by African-American customers and their discontent has been widely reported.

Now, after years of independent research, academics have reached the same conclusion: African Americans tend to leave smaller tips at restaurants than whites.

The answer that has eluded them is why? Do blacks tip less because wait staff discriminate against them and provide inferior service? Or do they tip less because they simply are not familiar with the tipping norms in their community?

Dr. Michael Lynn, a professor at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, recently designed a new online survey to put these and other popular theories to the test. The idea is to use research-based tools to determine cause and effect rather than rely on anecdotal personal opinions and experiences.

Finally, African Americans have a chance to weigh in and contribute to the industry understanding of this issue by visiting http://bit.ly/xq1h5b and filling out the survey.

“The purpose is to help me understand why blacks tip less than whites,” Dr. Lynn told The New Tri-State Defender (TSD). “I have tested a bunch of different explanations.”

In 2008, the TSD wrote an award-winning series on tipping that explained the connection between minority tipping practices and jobs. If customers tip less at sit-down restaurants, then these chains will likely have higher staff turnover. In May 2008, median hourly wages (including tips) of waiters and waitresses was only $8.01. Many servers rely on good tips to make ends meet.

If wait staff tips are too low, the chain experiences higher operational costs, which may then reduce profits. Thus, some industry insiders have reported that major restaurant chains have been reluctant to locate in African-American communities for fear that the below-normal tipping levels will hurt profits.

This situation closes off a key gateway into the workforce for many unskilled African-American youth – including those trying to get through college. The $604 billion restaurant industry employs more than 12.8 million, and is among the largest private-sector employers in the United States. If chains don’t locate in minority neighborhoods, many youth lose access to job opportunities. According to the National Restaurant Industry, the industry is expected to add jobs at a rate of 2.4 percent, compared with the 1.8 percent expected for the national economy. In the next decade, the industry expects to add 1.3 million positions.

If the underlying cultural differences surrounding tipping could be understood, Lynn said that he, and other industry experts, could develop suitable programs. But first, they have to know which issues to tackle!

In the survey, responders are asked questions about how much they regularly tip as well as those that measure cultural attitudes and beliefs. For instance: If you leave a small tip do you think that is likely to reduce the quality of service during a future dining experience?

It takes only a few minutes to complete the survey. Try to answer the questions honestly. Industry experts such as Lynn say they need an accurate snapshot of the complex issues connected to tipping practices to help restaurants respond in a manner that benefits their customers, their staffs and their investors.

 

 Related Stories:

Tri-State Defender's Award-Winning Tipping Education Campaign

NY Times: Harder for Americans to Rise from Lower Rungs

By JASON DePARLE

WASHINGTON — Benjamin Franklin did it. Henry Ford did it. And American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. “Movin’ on up,” George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion.

Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a Republican candidate for president, warned this fall that movement “up into the middle income is actually greater, the mobility in Europe, than it is in America.” National Review, a conservative thought leader, wrote that “most Western European and English-speaking nations have higher rates of mobility.” Even Representative Paul D. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who argues that overall mobility remains high, recently wrote that “mobility from the very bottom up” is “where the United States lags behind.”

Liberal commentators have long emphasized class, but the attention on the right is largely new. Is it harder today for Americans to go from poverty to prosperity?

Record-High Number of Discrimination Charges filed in 2011

 

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received a record 99,947 charges of discrimination in fiscal year 2011, which ended Sept. 30, the highest number of charges in the agency’s 46-year history. 

EEOC staff also delivered historic relief—more than $364.6 million in monetary benefits for victims of workplace discrimination.  This is also the highest level obtained in the Commission’s history.  The fiscal year ended with 78,136 pending charges—a decrease of 8,202 charges, or ten percent. In previous years, the pending inventory had increased as staffing declined 30 percent between fiscal years 2000 and 2008.

“I am proud of the work of our employees and believe this demonstrates what can be achieved when we are given resources to enforce the nation’s laws prohibiting employment discrimination,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien. “The EEOC was able to strategically manage existing resources and take full advantage of increased resources in the past two fiscal years to make significant progress towards effective enforcement of the nation’s civil rights laws.”

Due to EEOC’s enforcement programs in both the private and federal sectors, 5.4 million individuals benefitted from changes in employment policies or practices in their workplace during the past fiscal year.  Additionally, EEOC’s public outreach and education programs reached approximately 540,000 persons directly.

The agency continued to build a strong national systemic enforcement program. At the end of the fiscal year, there were 580 systemic investigations involving more than 2,000 charges under way.  EEOC field legal units filed 261 lawsuits—23 of which involved systemic allegations affecting large numbers of people; 61 had multiple victims (less than 20); and 177 were individual lawsuits.   

The EEOC’s private sector national mediation program also achieved historic highs, obtaining more than $170 million in monetary benefits for complainants, and securing the highest number of resolutions in the history of the program—9,831.  This is five percent more than the number of resolutions reported in fiscal year 2010.

In the federal sector, where the EEOC has different enforcement obligations, the Commission resolved a total of 7,672 requests for hearings, securing more than $58 million in relief for parties who requested hearings.  It also resolved 4,510 appeals from final agency determinations.

The EEOC’s FY 2011 PAR is posted on the agency’s web site at http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/plan/index.cfm. Comprehensive enforcement and litigation statistics for fiscal year 2011 will be available in early 2012.

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the Commission is available on its web site www.eeoc.gov.