EthnicMajority

(Business Insider) Teen clothing brand Wet Seal has reached a $7.5 million settlement over allegations that it horrendously discriminated against employees of color, because they didn't have the "white," "blue eye," "thin and blond" look the brand wanted, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Three former managers filed the lawsuit last year, accusing the nationwide retail chain of actively firing and denying raises and promotions to black workers. One plaintiff, former manager Kai Hawkins, said that her boss threatened to fire her unless she hired more white employees. Another, Nicole Codgell, claimed that she was fired the day after the company's senior vice president for store operations toured several outlets and sent an email to lower managers, "African American dominate — huge issue." 

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(Huffington Post) Offensive posts and comments are rampant on the internet, but they don't make for particularly good business when associated with a restaurant. A Delaware eatery is learning this after derogatory comments and inappropriate photos popped up on its social media accounts earlier this month.

The News Journal reports that someone recently posted racial slurs and photos of receipts with low tips on Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with Padi Restaurant in Hockessin. The accounts have since been removed, but Daily Mail posted screen captures of the offensive posts.

Among the photos in question is an image of a paid bill of $53.80 with a tip of $5.20, which is less than 10 percent, from a customer with an Indian surname. It wasaccompanied by the caption, "What do you expect from a last name like that? Sand ni****s will never change #cheap #jew." Another reads, "Cheap a**, order takeout and eat it at the bar. #notip #monday #cheap #trash." Other posts, on both Facebook and Instagram, took shots at additional customers deemed to have tipped unsatisfactorily. Many were accompanied by hashtags including #deuchbag and #hillbillies.

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(FindLaw) A CVS store is in hot water this week over a racial slur that appeared on a customer's receipt. Customer Hyan Lee was more than dismayed when she found that her CVS receipt for photographs read "Ching Chong Lee."

Lee was furious when she learned that CVS had merely disciplined and counseled the employee responsible for the slur, and has filed a $1 million lawsuit, The Huffington Post reports.

Given the current state of anti-discrimination laws and policies, Lee likely has more than one legal leg to stand on.

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(Marketing Charts) A comprehensive study of multiculturalism in America by Geoscape determines that Asian and Hispanic households will outspend non-Hispanic White households in their lifetimes. The study (executive summary download page here) pegs consumer spending for the remaining lifetime of an average Asian household at roughly $2.4 million, compared to slightly less than $2 million for Hispanics, about $1.6 million for Whites, and $1.3 million for Blacks.

The estimates are largely a result of remaining lifespan being greater for Hispanics (45.7 years) and Asians (41.2 years) than for Blacks (34.2) and Whites (31.1). That’s because while life expectancies range between 80 and 83 years for Hispanics, Asians, and Whites (76.3 for blacks), the median adult age of a Hispanic American (37) is far younger than that of an Asian American (41.1), Black American (42.1) and White American (49.1).

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(UPI) – The owner of a Philadelphia restaurant known as Chink's Steaks since 1949 has officially changed the name to Joe's Steaks.

Joe Groh, 50, who went to work at Chink's when he was 16 and took ownership of the business in 1999, said the first indication that the name would have to be changed came in 2003, when he received a complaint from an Asian American student, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday.

The eatery had been named for its founder, Samuel "Chink" Sherman, who was given the nickname in grade school as a result of his almond shaped eyes.

However, Groh said it was time for the name of the restaurant to change with the times.

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(Huffington Post) Are Latino kids being unfairly targeted as study subjects for obesity in youth and the relationship to drinking a lot of sodas?

There is now a growing controversy over the cottage industry of grant money going to study soda-drinking Hispanic kids, with the center of the storm a $30,000 payout from National Institute of Health to a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.

It sounds like academic overkill to some, particularly the soda beverage lobby, especially the speculation that the final cost of that study might be something like $100,000.

But the fact of the matter is that, these grants aside, obesity among Latino kids – and their soda drinking habits – is a serious national health problem, at least to Hispanic health which already is hard hit by increasing diabetes rates.

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(Reuters) – Hispanic-Americans are leading the way in growing coffee consumption in the United States, while the number of adults under 40 who enjoy the popular drink on a daily basis has dropped, according to an industry study released on Friday.

Of the Hispanic-Americans who participated in the National Coffee Association's (NCA) National Coffee Drinking Trends 2013 market study, 76 percent said they had drunk coffee the previous day. That is up by 13 percentage points from last year.

This compares with 47 percent of African-Americans and 64 percent of Caucasian-Americans who said they had consumed coffee the day before.

This was the second year that the study included ethnicity.

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(National Journal) An overwhelming majority of homes in California’s major cities that are in danger of foreclosure are also in majority-minority ZIP codes, according to a reportreleased this week. 

The report focuses particularly on homes with mortgages serviced by Wells Fargo. Of the 21 major California cities examined, more than eight in 10 homes in danger of foreclosure are in areas where at least half of its residents are minorities—evidence, the report’s authors say, that further supports the idea that the housing crisis has been particularly harmful to African-American and Hispanic homeowners.

The findings come on the heels of the housing-market decline and the ensuing Great Recession that ensnared many homeowners who have been fighting to maintain their financial standing and retain their homes. While the report focuses on the California economy, other Americans are in similar circumstances. Across the nation, homeowners—many of them minorities—struggle to stay afloat as they watch their savings plummet and their dreams of maintaining a middle-class American lifestyle disappear. In its place are notices of default and the impending threat of bankruptcy.

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(New York Times) A digital divide between Latino Americans and white Americans may be closing, but a divide still exists between native- and foreign-born Latinos, according to a report issued Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The report, which examined technology consumption habits, defines foreign-born Latinos as those who were born in another country to parents who were not American citizens, including people born in Puerto Rico. (The island is a commonwealth of the United States whose residents are, in fact, citizens.)

Over all, more than three-quarters of Latinos in the United States used the Internet in 2012, a 14 percentage point increase from 2009, compared to 87 percent of whites, according to the report. Half of those who said they used the Internet were born in the United States; 79 percent of those who said they did not use the Internet were foreign born.

The vast majority of the Hispanic population, 86 percent, own a cellphone, while 49 percent own a smartphone, according to the report. The percentages are similar to those for whites (84 percent own a cellphone, 46 percent own a smartphone) and blacks (90 percent own a cellphone, 50 percent a smartphone).

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(Examiner.com) NASCAR has suspended Jeremy Clements for a racial slur. The racial slur from Clements was allegedly uttered during an interview at Daytona International Speedway back on Feb. 23. According to a report from ESPN early Thursday (Feb. 28), Clements has been suspended from the Nationwide Series indefinitely.

Officials from NASCAR haven't specifically stated what his remarks were and have not verified earlier reports on the topic. What they did state was that Clements used an intolerable and insensitive remark that led to this suspension.

Clements issued a statement of his own, but it might not be good enough to save this from being a public relations nightmare for his team and sponsors. Clements reportedly stated, "I will not get into specifics of what I said, but my comment to the writer was in no way meant to be disrespectful or insensitive to anyone or to be detrimental to NASCAR or the NASCAR Nationwide Series. I will do what I need to do in order to atone for my error in judgment."

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