Race Discrimination Lawyer in New York

You should never have to choose between your livelihood and your dignity. But if you have been passed over for promotions, subjected to racial slurs, held to different standards than your colleagues, or pushed out of a job because of your race, color, or ethnicity — that is exactly the choice your employer has forced on you.

Race discrimination in the workplace is illegal. It is also more common than many people realize. At Joya Law Firm, we represent employees across New York City who have experienced racial discrimination, racial harassment, and racially motivated retaliation at work. Founded by attorney Kamran Joya, our firm fights to hold employers accountable under some of the strongest anti-discrimination laws in the country.

What Constitutes Race Discrimination at Work in New York

Race discrimination occurs when an employer treats you differently — or less favorably — because of your race, color, ethnicity, or national origin. It can be blatant or subtle, intentional or systemic. Under the law, it does not matter whether your employer admits to racial bias. What matters is whether the evidence demonstrates that race was a motivating factor in the employer’s actions.

Race discrimination at work can take many forms:

• Hiring and recruitment — refusing to hire qualified candidates because of their race, or steering applicants of certain races toward lower-paying roles
• Promotions and advancement — passing over employees of color for promotions while advancing less qualified white colleagues
• Compensation — paying employees of one race less than others in similar roles with comparable experience
• Discipline and termination — enforcing workplace rules selectively, writing up employees of color for conduct that white employees engage in without consequence, or terminating employees based on pretextual reasons that mask racial animus
• Job assignments — relegating employees of certain races to less desirable tasks, shifts, or locations
• Terms and conditions of employment — providing unequal access to training, mentoring, resources, or workplace benefits

If your employer’s actions have negatively affected your job because of your race, you may have a claim — even if no one used a racial slur or made an overtly racist statement.

Disparate Treatment vs. Disparate Impact — Two Paths to Proving Race Discrimination

New York race discrimination claims generally fall into two legal theories. Understanding the difference matters because each requires different evidence.

Disparate Treatment

Disparate treatment is intentional discrimination. Your employer treated you differently because of your race. You were fired, demoted, disciplined, denied a promotion, or subjected to inferior working conditions — and the reason, directly or indirectly, was race.

To establish disparate treatment, you typically need to show:

1. You belong to a protected racial group
2. You were qualified for the position or performing your job satisfactorily
3. You suffered an adverse employment action (termination, demotion, denial of promotion, etc.)
4. The circumstances give rise to an inference of discrimination — for example, a similarly situated employee outside your racial group was treated more favorably

Your employer will then offer a non-discriminatory reason for the action. Your attorney’s job is to demonstrate that the stated reason is pretextual — a cover for the real, discriminatory motive.

Disparate Impact

Disparate impact does not require proof of intent. Instead, it targets facially neutral policies or practices that disproportionately harm employees of a particular race — even if the employer did not design them to be discriminatory.

Examples of disparate impact include:

• Hiring tests that disproportionately screen out candidates of a particular race without being job-related or consistent with business necessity
• Grooming and appearance policies that penalize natural hairstyles associated with certain racial or ethnic groups
• Credential requirements that are not genuinely necessary for the role but exclude a disproportionate number of applicants of color
• Criminal background check policies applied broadly without individualized assessment

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000e), if a plaintiff shows that a policy has a disparate impact on a racial group, the burden shifts to the employer to prove the policy is job-related and consistent with business necessity.

Racial Harassment and Hostile Work Environment Claims

Racial harassment is a form of race discrimination. When race-based conduct in the workplace becomes severe or pervasive enough to alter the conditions of your employment, it creates a hostile work environment — and that is actionable under the law.

Racial harassment includes:

• Racial slurs, epithets, and derogatory comments directed at you or used in your presence
• Racist jokes, cartoons, images, or memes shared in the workplace, on company platforms, or in group chats
• Stereotyping — comments or assumptions about your abilities, work ethic, temperament, or character based on your race
• Physical intimidation or threats motivated by race
• Exclusion and isolation — being deliberately left out of meetings, projects, social events, or communications because of your race

Microaggressions and the NYCHRL Standard

Under the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL, NYC Admin. Code § 8-107), you do not need to prove that racial harassment was “severe or pervasive” in the traditional federal sense. The NYCHRL applies a broader, more protective standard: you only need to show that you were treated less well than other employees because of your race.

This means that conduct that federal courts might dismiss as “isolated incidents” or “petty slights” can support a claim under the NYCHRL. Microaggressions — subtle but persistent acts of bias — are actionable in New York City when they are motivated by race. Examples include:

• Repeatedly mispronouncing or refusing to learn an employee’s name
• Expressing surprise at an employee of color’s qualifications or articulateness
• Asking “where are you really from?” in a professional context
• Touching a Black employee’s hair without consent
• Consistently crediting a white colleague for work done by an employee of color

The NYCHRL was designed to be the broadest anti-discrimination law in the country, and New York City courts interpret it that way. If you have experienced a pattern of race-based microaggressions at work, you may have a claim even if no single incident seems extreme on its own.