The Race Relations Act makes racial discrimination unlawful and gives people the right to bring their complaint before an employment tribunal or a court. Racial discrimination can include harassment and victimization. Coming off the fervor caused by sexual harassment lawsuits, the number and magnitude of racial bias lawsuits have increased dramatically in the last several years.  Many of these lawsuits have greatly handicapped the fiscal abilities of the defendant that has lost. Organizations are finding it imperative to train their employees to be more responsible members of society and to become aware of diversity issues to help prevent racial bias lawsuits. Here are three recent racial bias lawsuits:

• Denny's, which has 891 company-owned and 716 franchised restaurants nationwide, settled a class-action lawsuit in 1994 for $46 million.

• A group of black Amtrak mangers and aspiring ones are seeking up to $100 million in damages for what they say is a pattern of racial discrimination in hiring and promotion at the passenger railroad.

• Alleged discriminatory practices at UPS in the areas of initial job assignment, advancement to skilled positions, extra work opportunities, promotion to part-time supervisor, and promotion to full-time package care driver resulted in parties reaching a $12.14 million settlement of the action, including injunctive relief to address the hiring and promotion practices challenged in the lawsuit.

Because of the impact of racial conditioning, people operating out of personal prejudice and behaving in a discriminatory manner are natural outcomes. All employees, especially top management, must be reeducated to recognize and overcome racial conditioning and address the prejudices that they knowingly or unconsciously carry.