ABSTRACT
As these recent headlines imply, race-based conflict continues to occur in the workplace, despite significant progress toward racial equality in the United States. Large corporations such as Coca Cola, Eastman Kodak, Texaco, FedEx, and Sara Lee Foods have faced class action lawsuits due to formal complaints of racial discrimination, resulting in payouts of billions of dollars. In 2006, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC, 2006b) received over 27,000 charges of racial discrimination, maintaining the longstanding record of race as the most-alleged claim filed with the agency. During that year, the EEOC resolved 25,992 race charges, and recovered $61.4 million in monetary benefits for charging parties and other aggrieved individuals (not counting litigation payouts).
