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No 'Reverse Discrimination'

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - According to their lawsuit, two New Jersey corrections officers faced discrimination because of their race. They were white.

A jury in Trenton, New Jersey, found that two corrections officers were harassed and faced bogus disciplinary charges because of their race. The jury awarded the officers $6.8 million for lost pay, pain and suffering, and punitive damages. But the officers aren't a member of a minority. They're white. So how can that be?

Many people refer to illegal conduct against a white person as "reverse discrimination". But there's no law against "reverse discrimination." Here's why:

There is no law that says that it is illegal to discriminate against minorities. Instead, federal and state anti-discrimination laws prevent discrimination in hiring, firing, or other terms or conditions of employment on the basis of the employee's RACE.

Since everyone - including Caucasians - has a race, anyone who has been treated unfavorably because of that race (whatever it may be) has faced not reverse discrimination but actual, direct, illegal discrimination.

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