I was in a seminar in Japan a number of few months back. There was an a visiting US labor law attorney who was a guest speaker. It was right after the Presidential elections. The guy said in a public seminar, I kid you not (and this was addressed primarily to Japanese companies that had operations in the USA), that if the US economy gets even worse in upcoming 2009, and you have to lay off people, you best lay off White People primarily, because they will have less recourse to a discrimination suit against the layoff under US law, than if you laid off say African-Americans first, and particularly your being a Japanese firm. I kid you not. I was floored. I think it may even be illegal to have offered this advice, although it was done on foreign soil. He said that once you lay off minorities back in the USA, and particularly in the upcoming Obama Administration, then you risk a lawsuit in return if you do not have all your reasons for downsizing airtight with HR, and have also made an effort to lay off White Americans first. That will make your blood boil, wont it??
It was boiling the night of the election...because I knew what was coming. The whole country knew.