Question

Executive orders for affirmative action apply to Hispanics as does Title VII of the Civil Rights ct. Title VII is relevant because of prohibitions against discrimination on the basis of race and national origin. Hispanics may be of any race, and many U.S. Hispanics are immigrants (Bell, (2012). Please discuss how the English Only Rules target Hispanics and may be discriminatory based on EEOC regulations. Are they justified in all instances?

Answer 1

The English only rules mandates that employees including those of Hispanic origins speak only English during the working hours including during lunch time. The situation is such that the employees who had been hired for their proficiency in speaking and understanding Spanish are barred from using the same language except for the time they use the language to interact with non-English speaking customers. This is a clear case of discrimination against workers based on their national origin and qualifies as being discriminatory as per EEOC regulations.

The mandate to use English only language can only be justified in conditions which requires a common language to be spoken and where communication errors may cause serious damage or risk loss of lives. Such an example is that of a team which is conducting a surgery and the team consists of doctors and medics of various ethnicity and nationalities. The common language being English has to be spoken to avoid confusion and save a life. Under such a circumstance, the practice is not discriminatory.