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The ' usual suspects ' issue: Lessons from World War II Morocco about downsizing in the new millennium
Posted by: William Amlong
June 02, 2008

"Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects."

- Capt. Renault in Casablanca (Warner Bros. Pictures 1942)

"There are no Jews, only Moroccans."

- King Mohammed V to the Vichy French governor

There were two views of how to run Morocco during World War II. There are two views about how to approach necessary downsizing in the current economic climate.

Now, as then, one is right, one is not.

Times were tough for the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy French in Casablanca, the Moroccan capital, when someone from the Resistance shot the oppressive German officer. So, what to do?  Easy. Mistreat "the usual suspects," i.e., those whom the Vichy French/Nazis did not like to begin with.

Times are tough now for American businesses. And those workers who may have generally walked around the office or the factory with a vague sense that there historically had been bulls eyes on their backs may be experiencing heightened anxiety. As people from the 1960s anti-war movement used to say...

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More than one way to skin a bigot: How to prove discrimination
Posted by: William Amlong
May 01, 2008

     The Jim Crow era is over, and with it the flagrant bigotry that emboldened segregationist employers to post job notices that included the advice that "No coloreds need apply."

     Unfortunately, the "no-coloreds" mindset not only lingers as the Ghost of Discrimination Past, but has morphed into strains that include "no women," "no Muslims," "no Cubans," "no etc."

     Discrimination in the 21st Century workplace, however, is generally a lot more subtle, even though there are still managers who are crude (and stupid) enough to engage in racial and sexual slurs - or who, even if they would not make such racist or sexist statements, seem to think nothing about referring to older workers as "Gramps."

     Courts, however, realized early on that passage of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 would cause anyone other the most legally-suicidal bigots to at least appear to clean up his or her act. Thus, direct evidence - evidence that, if believed, compels the conclusion that unlawful discrimination was at play in the employer's decision-making - is only one of three ways of proving discrimination.

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