Over the past two decades, courts have gone far in their interpretatio

Over the past two decades, courts have gone far in their interpretations of civil rights legislation to ensure African-American participation throughout the work force. Much ground has been gained in this fight against an institutionalized inequality that has become ingrained in our collective psyche. There are some, though, who remain concerned that the situation of African-American managers has made only limited progress in certain industries.

It is particularly disturbing to find relatively few African-American executives in an industry whose work force consists primarily of African- Americans, namely professional team sports. In the 2001 Racial and Gender Report Card published by the Centre for Sport in Society of Northeastern University, which analysed the composition of players and administrators in professional leagues, only the Women‘s National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Association scored well. According to the report, generally ―who‘s running the league doesn‘t look like who‘s playing in the league.‖ Questions are being posed as to whether general employment principles are properly applicable to the sports business, or whether the sports industry in fact enjoys a special status similar to baseball‘s antitrust exemption. With a growing number of African-Americans achieving the educational standards as well as the practical experience required for executive positions, it is foreseeable that the professional team-sport industry will soon face challenges to its executive employment decisions.

The organizational structures of clubs and leagues are similar to otherlarge businesses. It is within these two organizations that the absence of African-American executives is most noticeable. Some professional club owners justify the absence of African-American executives at these levels by alluding to clubs‘ and leagues‘ organizational structure as being familial in nature. Whether this characterization justifies the exclusion of African-American executives is questionable at best.

The sports industry is within the purview of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which exists to prohibit intentional discrimination in employment on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin. However, recent legal developments call into question whether the principles applied to assure lower level jobs will be applied to protect African-American executives from discrimination while seeking upper level positions. The courts have traditionally been willing to assess an applicant‘s qualifications in resolving claims of discrimination. Yet courts in upper level cases often profess a lack of expertise and refuse to assess an applicant‘s qualifications.

The Supreme Court has not yet confronted the issue of which Title VII standards and rules should apply to discrimination cases involving African-American executives. Lower federal courts have seemingly begun to distort these standards in cases involving executive and professional employees. Given that executive positions have unique characteristics, resolution of these actions becomes all the more difficult. Rules developed to deal with lower level Title VII cases may not always be applicable to executive employment cases.

1. Which of the following would be analogous to the situation described in paragraph 2 regarding the absence of African-American executives in a field with many African-American athletes?

A. The Board of a non-profit Protestant Church youth organization consists solely of middle-aged men and women.
B. A social service agency, which serves minority and disadvantaged youths, is run by a management team of suburban professionals.
C. Fewer than half of the managers of a national feminist bookstore company, which employs mostly female cashiers and clerks, are women.
D. A state anti-smoking campaign is organized and implemented by a group of smokers and non-smokers.
E. A national basketball team only comprises player who weigh more than 100 kgs

2. The author of the passage mentions the Supreme Court in the final paragraph in order to:

A. prove that courts have been slow to respond to Title VII cases initiated by African-American executives who have been denied upper-level positions in professional team sports.
B. suggest that upper courts need to provide standards for the proper application of Title VII posits in upper-level employment discrimination cases.
C. explain that the lower courts have been more willing to handle executive employment decision cases under the auspices of Title VII.
D. argue that the Judicial Branch of the federal government should set precedents for treating executive employment cases that are protected by Title VII.
E. praise the actions taken by the Supreme court with regards to the issue of discrimination in sports

3. The author suggests which of the following about the relatively low number of African-American executives currently employed in the sports industry?

A. It is attributable to flaws in the American educational system.
B. It is caused by baseball‘s antitrust exemption.
C. It is the result of African-American executives‘ lack of managerial experience.
D. It does not compare favourably with the industry‘s labour force as a whole.
E. The number has been hugely exaggerated