Immigration Law and Workplace Anti-Discrimination Law have a relationship status: "It's Complicated."

David Littlefield is an adjunct law professor for
the University of Utah. He has specialized in
Immigration Law for over 30 years.

"I'm gonna talk about everything you ever wanted to know about immigration law in the workplace--then, I'm gonna tell you some things you didn't want to know." That was David Littlefield's opening statement. The event was the Salt Lake City Mayor's Anti-discrimination Seminar, September 27, 2011 at the State Bar Association building. Dave, a white gentleman with an impressive beard, was comfortable behind the podium, as if he'd given this presentation many times before. 

the audience, all 32 of us

I surmised that the group was mostly made up of lawyers--many said they were legal advisers for small businesses or locally headquartered corporations. The lady behind the meeting registration desk had asked me if I was

NAACP Conference: What everyone needs to know about employment rights

I attended the Saturday morning and afternoon portions of the three-day NAACP Tri-State Conference here in Salt Lake City at the Little America Hotel on September 24th, 2011. The group of conference attendees was much smaller than I anticipated. Although KSL advertised the conference as open to anyone, I gathered that most of the people there were those in leadership positions representing their NAACP branches.

Image taken from the web page advertising the NAACP Tri-State
Conference.

Some details.

The workshops were conducted in a room I estimated to be about 30x40 feet. Attendees came and went throughout the day, but there were usually about 35 people seated in the conference room at once. I observed that there was an equal number of men and women. Attendees and presenters varied in age, anywhere from 20 to 80 years old. Although the NAACP is historically an African American civil rights organization, they are interested in a wide variety of civil rights causes, and

Does making racist jokes mean you're racist?

Salt Lake Community College Writing Center's group-think writing
project, Utah Freedom Writers, had advertisements invoking the
1960's civil rights era with a "Get on the bus!" slogan.

(I've reproduced below a modified version of the paper I submitted to the SLCC  Community Writing Center's 2011 Utah Freedom Writers project. The other submissions on the writing center publications page are written in varying styles and by authors of all ages. Take some time to check out what Utahans are saying.)

Does making racist jokes mean you're racist?

(This is my take on what journalists are calling the "Marilyn Davenport email scandal." I previously titled this paper, "Removing the Screen: Turning Civil Rights Debate into Dialogue") 

First, let's get on the same page about