color and gender, does that mean race and sex should no
longer be protected?
Where does religion – another protected category – fit into
the question of immutability? See if you can come up with
an interpretation that justifies the use of “immutability” in
some cases and not others, and decide where language
features fit into the bigger picture.
Of the cases presented in this chapter, which is most
reminiscent of the language subordination model? Which is
least?Notes
1 As will become clear, there are exceptions. For example, if the
employer could show that the environment poses a physical danger to
someone wearing a headscarf, the court would likely agree with the
employer. In addition, companies employing less than 15 workers are
not bound by these statutes.
2 Discrimination is a matter of law: “the effect of a statute or established
practice which confers particular privileges on a class arbitrarily
selected from a large number of persons, all of whom stand in the
same relation to the privileges granted and between whom and those
not favored no reasonable distinction can be found” (Black’s Law
Dictionary 1991: 323).
3 Some courts have ruled that the customer-preference argument does
not apply to language-focused Title VII discrimination. This is a
matter of some debate, and Smith argues persuasively that customer
preference should be excluded in these cases as they are in other
protected categories.
4 See also Cutler (1985).
5 You will find flow charts for the court system and the progression of
civil actions in the Appendix at the end of this chapter.
6 The EEOC reviews complaints and if they find a violation has taken
place, they may take on the case and file suit for the employee against
the employer. Raj Gupta, formerly of the EEOC, estimates that the