Race Is Not A Social Construct Under Title VII

What is race and how do we as a society define it? That is a question recently addressed in a case called EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions. The defendant company extended a job offer to an applicant which it then revoked when the applicant refused to cut her dreadlocks pursuant to a corporate race-neutral grooming policy. Ultimately, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") brought suit on behalf of the applicant, alleging that the revocation of her job offer was race discrimination in violation of Title VII. Specifically, the EEOC argued that dreadlocks are a hairstyle culturally associated with race. The EEOC also argued that if a white employee chose to wear dreadlocks "as a sign of racial support for her black colleagues," the white employee could also bring a race-based disparate treatment claim.