The Most Endangered Title VII Plaintiff?: African-American Males and Intersectionality Claims

D. Aaron Lacy, Barry University School of Law

Abstract

Despite significant academic analysis, intersectional claims have been met with mixed reviews in the courts, leaving many victims of discrimination without a remedy. This article addresses the need for recognition of an intersectional claim for African-American males. This article provides an overview of the development of the intersectional argument. It then goes on to discuss the statutory support and the progression and current status of intersectional claims within the courts. The article gives a brief history of the African-American male and their struggle with confronting discrimination in the workplace versus other groups as well as the common stereotypes and perceptions of African-American males. The article also addresses the current predicament of the African-American male and the growing need for an intersectional claim. The article concludes with a discussion of the recommended analysis of an intersectional claim.

African-American males hold fewer jobs in the professional sector than African-American females. African-American men hold fourteen percent of managerial and professional jobs as compared to eighteen percent of African-American women. African-American males also earn significantly less than African-American females with females earning, on average, twenty cents more per hour than males. One in three African American men in their 20’s are either in prison or jail, on parole, or on probation. In 2003 twelve percent of the estimated two million people in prison were black males between the ages of 20 and 34. This number was more than seven time the rate for white men of the same age. In 2005, for every three African-American men in college, four were in prison and in 2006, one-third of all African-American males were in prison. More African-American males were in prison than any form of higher education. Young African-American males are four times as likely as young white males to be incarcerated for violent offenses.

While these racial disparities in and of themselves are alarming, the even greater disparities evidenced by African-American men suggest that disadvantages above and beyond race function against them. This Article explores the legal ramifications of intersectional race and sex claims from the perspective of the African-American male. It is important for courts to recognize that because of racial stereotypes African-American men are treated worse than other groups in employment and trail African-American women in salaries and education, but lead them in incarceration rate. If intersectional claims for African-American males are not allowed, the vision of Congress goes unfulfilled and African-American males will always remain at the bottom looking up.