Arab employees face discrimination in ways that others don’t quite understand. It can be about their cultural practices and, worst of all, the terrible assumption that they somehow have a connection to terrorism. These issues can affect the same person at the same time.
A supervisor might mispronounce your name over and over again after you’ve politely corrected him six times. HR will deny your request for a five-minute prayer break while everyone else takes smoking breaks whenever they want. Your colleague makes a joke about checking your bag for explosives right before the team meeting starts. These incidents can look minor when it happens. The problem is that they add up fast. They create this awful pattern that makes it really hard just to show up at work every day.
The law actually does prohibit these behaviors. The challenge is that enforcement relies on the right timing and solid evidence. Most anti-discrimination laws prohibit adverse employment actions and harassment based on membership in a “protected class.” An Arab employee or job applicant may be a member of a protected class based upon:
Let’s talk about the different types of discrimination that can affect Arab workers.
Arab Workers Face Faith and Culture Bias at Work
Arab employees face many forms of discrimination at work. Much of it directly targets their religious practices. Plenty of employers still refuse to give their workers even just a few minutes for prayers. Other cases involve employees getting told that their hijab or religious beard somehow violates company policy. These situations are becoming more common across the country.
Of course, discrimination isn’t always that blatant or easy to find. An Arab employee might suddenly discover that they’re no longer invited to meetings with important clients anymore. Their manager will probably insist that it has nothing to do with their background or religion. Coworkers might always plan team dinners at bars and then act uncomfortable when a colleague doesn’t order alcohol for religious reasons. Every incident looks minor on its own. But they add up and create a hostile environment over time.
The difficult part here is that Arab identity encompasses cultural and religious elements. Discrimination against Arab employees usually targets both aspects at the same time. You can’t separate one from the other in most cases and this makes these situations especially hard to address.
Plenty of employers will try to justify their discriminatory policies with business necessity arguments. They’ll insist that beards pose safety hazards at work or they’ll claim that religious clothing somehow damages the company’s professional image. The courts almost never accept these weak justifications though. Federal law says that employers have to make appropriate accommodations for religious practices and they can only refuse if it would create a genuine hardship for the business operations.
This never-ending discrimination also wears workers down emotionally and professionally. Nobody should have to defend or explain their faith day after day just to earn a paycheck.
Language Discrimination in Your Workplace
Arab employees frequently face harassment at work and much of it centers around language and family background. Coworkers will sometimes mock their accents or pretend they somehow can’t hear a person who speaks plain English. The EEOC has put some protections in place for accent discrimination and these protections are actually pretty strong. An employer can only cite accent problems if it genuinely prevents successful job performance.
Many workplaces have a big problem with assumptions about Arab employees and sometimes it starts with just a name on a resume. A coworker might repeatedly mispronounce that name even after multiple polite corrections have been made. Some colleagues might also assume lower education levels based purely on where they believe that a person originated. Arab Americans who were born in the United States face the exact same assumptions just as frequently as recent immigrants do.
The “perpetual foreigner” treatment genuinely wears employees down day after day after day. A family could have three full generations of American history behind them. But coworkers still somehow feel entitled to ask where a person is “actually” from. In heated workplace moments, some Arab employees hear comments like “go back to where you came from” directed at them. These statements very frequently constitute illegal discrimination based specifically on national origin.
English-only policies at some workplaces cross legal boundaries and become outright discriminatory. Safety meetings and customer service roles might reasonably need English proficiency for legitimate business reasons. A blanket ban on Arabic conversations during lunch breaks or private moments between coworkers crosses into a different territory that is likely illegal under federal law.
Promotion denials sometimes mysteriously cite “communication problems” without any documented evidence to back them up. A manager who suddenly discovers big communication problems right when an Arab employee applies for advancement represents possible discrimination. National origin discrimination carries its own separate set of legal protections and these exist separately from racial discrimination laws. The two categories frequently overlap in these cases. But the law still recognizes them as different forms of workplace discrimination.
Arab Workers and the Security Bias
Arab employees have dealt with a very particular type of workplace discrimination ever since the events of September 11th. Those attacks created a wave of fear and suspicion that continues to affect Arab workers even now, more than twenty years later.
Background checks are one of the biggest problems Arab workers run into these days. Arab employees have to go through much more intensive screening than their coworkers ever have to go through. A security clearance that normally takes a few weeks for other employees can somehow take a few months for an Arab employee, and nobody can ever explain why.
The actual workplace environment can turn hostile in small ways that are hard to document. Coworkers will crack jokes about bombs or terrorists right when an Arab employee walks into the break room. Conversations suddenly stop when Arab workers pass by in the hallway. All these small daily incidents build up over time, and eventually Arab employees are working in a place where they don’t feel welcome or safe anymore. These situations can wear workers down until they have no choice but to leave.
Remote work seemed like it might cut down on discrimination since everyone would be behind a screen. But the discrimination just shifted to online spaces instead. Arab employees mysteriously don’t get invited to important video calls or they discover they’ve been muted in the middle of a meeting. They’ll share an idea in Slack that gets ignored and then a coworker will bring up the exact same idea an hour later and get credit for it.
Arab women who wear hijab have it even worse because they’re dealing with discrimination from two different angles. They’re experiencing anti-Arab sentiment and religious discrimination at the same time. Employers will make up reasons like the hijab not matching the company dress code, or they’ll claim that customers have complained about feeling uncomfortable. Of course, these are just convenient excuses to cover up what’s actually going on.
The statistics from the EEOC paint a pretty disturbing picture. Discrimination charges filed by Arab workers shot up dramatically right after September 11th. And every time there’s any type of conflict or tension in the Middle East, the number of complaints goes up again. It’s been repeating itself for more than two decades, and it shows no signs of stopping.
Federal Laws That Protect Your Rights
Federal law gives Arab employees a few important protections around workplace discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act specifically makes discrimination illegal if it’s based on someone’s religion, national origin or race. Any company with 15 employees or more has to follow this law and it covers every part of employment from when a person applies for a job through promotions and day-to-day treatment at work.
The EEOC pays close attention to discrimination cases about Arab and Muslim workers. They’ve actually designated these cases as priority enforcement matters because discrimination against these groups has become a very persistent problem. What this shows you is that the EEOC will probably take your complaint seriously and investigate it from the top to the bottom.
Your employer also has a legal obligation to accommodate your religious practices whenever possible. Needing breaks during the day for prayer or wearing religious clothing as part of your faith means your employer needs to find a way to make that work. The only exception would be if the accommodation would cause genuine hardship for the business operations. Most employers find that these accommodations are simple to put in place once they know what’s needed.
State laws might offer extra protections on top of what the federal law asks for. Some states extend anti-discrimination laws to businesses that have less than 15 employees so more workers have recourse. Other states have wider definitions of what constitutes discrimination or allow you more time to file complaints after an incident happens. Your state could have stronger protections so it’s worth it to investigate your local laws.
Cases about multiple forms of discrimination usually carry more weight legally. An employer might target a person for being Arab and Muslim, or discrimination might happen because that person is an Arab woman who faces ethnic and gender bias. These intersecting forms of discrimination strengthen your legal position quite a bit. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act gives you another layer of protection by extending the deadline for filing some types of discrimination claims, particularly in situations where the discriminatory treatment continues over an extended period.
How to Build Your Paper Trail
Arab employees who face discrimination at work need to know how to protect themselves with the right documentation strategy. The most helpful step is to write down each incident right after it happens. Don’t wait until the next day or a few hours later because what happened will start to fade. Those emails in which your manager made weird comments about your background or culture need to be saved as quickly as possible. The same goes for any texts from coworkers who saw the unfair treatment happen. When somebody says something discriminatory to you in person, one effective approach is to send them a follow-up email that references what they said. You could write something along the lines of, “[J]ust wanted to follow up on our earlier conversation where you mentioned my accent makes me harder to promote.” Now you have a written record of what was just a verbal exchange.
Your performance reviews are actually going to matter much more here. Courts and lawyers always want to see these documents because they help to determine if your employer’s reasons for the negative treatment actually add up or not. Strong reviews from before the discrimination started can become powerful evidence for your case. They prove that the reason for your treatment had nothing to do with your job performance.
Whenever something happens that crosses the line, you need to report it to HR and do it in writing each time. Even when HR doesn’t respond the way that you want them to or when they brush you off, you’ve at least created that paper trail. Emails are always better than just conversations for this reason. After you have an in-person meeting with HR about an incident, follow up immediately with an email that summarizes everything you talked about in that meeting.
Here’s something workers forget too often. Save copies of everything at home or to your personal email account. Your work computer should never be the only place where these records are stored. Employers can and will cut off your access to your work accounts without any warning whatsoever and then the evidence you collected just vanishes into thin air.
Coworkers who witnessed the discrimination may also be willing to write statements about what they saw and heard. Their outside perspective can help to validate your experiences and will strengthen your case if you need to take legal action later.
When You Need Legal Help?
Discrimination at work is no small matter, and knowing when to contact a lawyer can make or break your case. The timeline matters the most. Federal law gives you just 180 days to file with the EEOC from the date the discrimination occurred, though some states extend that window to 300 days. Once that deadline passes, your case is over.
Employees usually wait far too long to get legal help and I see the same reasons come up again and again. Some hold onto hope that the situation will somehow resolve itself. Others worry about attorney fees and assume they can’t afford representation. Many employees believe they need an airtight case with perfect evidence before even making that first phone call. The problem with waiting is that it actively damages your odds of success. Witnesses take new jobs elsewhere, emails mysteriously disappear, and memories will fade.
Retaliation can strengthen your case. Your employer might suddenly start documenting every little mistake you make. Performance reviews that were always positive might turn negative overnight. Your schedule could become unworkable or you might get excluded from meetings. Every act of retaliation creates more evidence and it shows that you need legal representation right away.
HR departments aren’t always the right first step. It makes sense to go directly to an attorney when the HR personnel were a part of the discrimination itself. The same applies when your filing deadline is approaching fast. And, if a few Arab employees at your company have experienced similar treatment, that pattern of behavior shows the systemic problems that HR won’t adequately address.
Employment attorneys who focus specifically on these cases usually work on contingency arrangements. No money changes hands unless your case succeeds. The lawyer will receive a predetermined percentage of any settlement or judgment instead of billing you hourly rates.
Your first consultation with an employment attorney will cover a few key areas. The lawyer needs to review your documentation and hear everything that happened. Possible damages extend well past just the wages you’ve lost. Compensation for emotional distress applies in discrimination cases and punitive damages could be available too. Experienced employment attorneys also bring valuable feedback and knowledge on the cultural challenges that Arab employees face in American workplace environments.
Do You Need Help From a Lawyer?
If you have been the victim of discrimination, you should consider contacting an employment lawyer. A racial discrimination lawyer can review your claim, guide you through the complaint process, and help you choose the correct cause of action.
Workplace discrimination can make you feel alone and it’s even worse when others judge you based on stereotypes that have nothing to do with your work or who you actually are. It takes courage to stand up for yourself, especially when you need your job to support your family. Thankfully, you have strong legal protections on your side. Using them doesn’t mean you’re trying to cause problems or make waves. You’re just asking for fair treatment and the same respect that every other employee gets.
The path forward can feel pretty hard when discrimination is happening to you right now. Taking action shows true strength. Many employment attorneys know how hard these cases can be for employees and they’ll usually sit down with you for a free consultation just to talk about what happened and help you understand your options. These lawyers know employment law backward and forward and they will work with you to find the best strategy for your goals and for what’s happening at work.
Once you find the right attorney for your case and have access to solid legal support, it makes a big difference. LegalMatch connects employees with attorneys who know employment discrimination cases well and who have handled the specific situations that Arab employees face at work. These attorneys can also review the documentation you’ve collected and help you see how strong your case is and talk about each step of the legal process. An attorney acts as your advocate, a person who knows the law and can fight for your rights when your employer doesn’t respect them. LegalMatch helps you find an attorney so you don’t have to go through this by yourself. You’ll get connected with a person who has handled cases just like yours and knows just what it takes to protect your rights and your career.
