Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Should the law follow the NFL?

Within the packet of cases regarding disparate impact we read for Monday's class the issue of discriminatory hiring practices (even those that may be unintentional) keep coming to my mind. I know we discussed that word-of-mouth recruiting can be a very dangerous area as an employment practice when precautions are not used to ensure a diverse applicant pool. This idea of an employer being committed to looking at a balanced group of potential employees reminded me of the "Rooney Rule" in the NFL.

The Rooney Rule requires NFL teams to interview minority applicants for available head coaching jobs. While none of the NFL teams have admitted to hiring minority head coaches because of the Rooney Rule, several have picked minorities to coach their teams since the establishment of the Rooney Rule in 2002.

An op-ed piece I found co-written by a D.C. attorney and NYU law student use the Rooney Rule as an example for the hiring practices of all companies. They make the point that while the rule is not going to eliminate discrimination completely in the employment decisions of NFL head coaches, it has created a process that helps to decrease the impact of discrimination. In the article, they state that
"the key to eliminating racism in the 21st century lies not in curbing conscious displays of bigotry, but in forcing people to deliberate carefully when making decisions."
Aside from the employment law issue, do you agree with the authors that most discrimination is not a display of deeper bigotry? If it is true that much of discrimination results from quick decisions made due to "implicit biases" of stereotypes, maybe employment law should take a hint from the NFL's Rooney Rule to slow down employment decisions in the workplace.... What do you think?
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2 comments:

  1. Professor Prenkert11:53 PM

    Thanks for bringing up this article and the issue of implicit bias, Valerie. It's a great "preview" of our upcoming class on March 7, when it will be devoted completely to the idea of implicit cognitive bias and the development of stereotypes and how (or if) the law of employment discrimination should account for it.

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  2. Anonymous2:30 PM

    I agree that this new rule does not eliminate discrimination completely but does help slow it down. I wonder if the NCAA though will start to pick up on this too in order to prevent discrimination in their hiring processes too. Because that has become a big issue now too is there are not enough minority coaches getting a chance at the NCAA level also.

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