Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit handed down a good decision, reinstating the racial discrimination claim of a white male who was laid off, he said, because his company wanted to get its numbers right. For example, the plaintiff asserted that, when asked the reason for his termination, his supervisor explained, “My minority numbers aren’t right. I’m supposed to have 13.9 percent minorities on this job and I’ve only got 8 percent.” Hmmm, that does sound a little suspicious. The court of appeals said it was “puzzled” that the district court didn’t think there was any evidence of racial discrimination in light of this and other statements in the record. Indeed.

By the way, these quotas – I mean goals – came from the federal government. And those goals themselves should be challenged, along with the federal government and its regulations, as I discuss here.