SOUTH DAKOTA
The Justice Department announced Thursday that the South Dakota Department of Social Services or DSS agreed to no longer discriminate against Native American job applicants at its Pine Ridge Reservation Office.
Also the federal government agree to pay applicants $350,000 in back pay and other benefits to about 60 Native American job applicants. The federal government also stated that it will comply with reporting requirements in its hiring of employees at the Pine Ridge Office, according to officials.
“The Civil Rights Division is committed to enforcing the nation’s anti-discrimination laws on behalf of all Americans, including Native Americans, to make sure they are—as the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King challenged 56 years ago—judged by the ‘content of their character’ and not the ‘color of their skin,’” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division. “This settlement helps move our nation towards Dr. King’s dream of making opportunity available to all unfettered by unlawful discrimination. It provides monetary relief for Native American applicants, ensures equal opportunity to compete for jobs, and establishes a reporting and oversight process to guard against racial discrimination in the future.”
The lawsuit filed in 2016 alleges that the Pine Ridge Office engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination that violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, and religion.
According to court papers, in October 2010, Cedric Goodman, a Native American job candidate, applied for a Specialist position at DSS’s Pine Ridge Office.
DSS determined that Goodman was qualified for the position and offered him an interview.
After interviewing Goodman and other qualified Native American candidates, DSS removed the job posting and hired no one, DOJ alleges.
The next business day, however, DSS re-posted the position and ultimately selected a white applicant with qualifications inferior to Goodman’s.
In addition to the intentional discrimination claim involving Goodman, the federal government also alleged that denying Goodman’s application was part of an intentional pattern or practice of race discrimination by DSS, where the Pine Ridge Office repeatedly removed job postings and used subjective, arbitrary hiring practices to disfavor qualified Native American applicants for Specialist positions.