The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—the federal agency born from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to shield the nation’s most historically marginalized workers—filed suit earlier this month against The New York Times, alleging the paper illegally discriminated against a white male editor who was passed over for a promotion in favor of a less-qualified candidate. EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas thinks it’s the first race and sex discrimination case the agency has brought on behalf of a white man in at least a decade.
“We should bring it on behalf of black workers, but we should bring it on behalf of white workers too,” Lucas said Wednesday at Fortune‘s Workplace Innovation Summit in Atlanta. “That’s mixed messaging that says to white men you don’t need to apply — and that is not fair.”
