Upping the Price of Bias

In Detroit last week U.S. District Court Judge Damon Keith handed down an astonishingly stiff decision in what may become a landmark discrimination case. Ruling that the Detroit Edison Co. (the nation's eleventh largest utility) had systematically discriminated against blacks in hiring and advancement in a manner he labeled "deliberate and by design," Keith awarded the plaintiffs in the case a whopping $4,000,000 in punitive damages--believed to be the largest award of its kind ever in a job discrimination case. "Since these defendants have been extremely obdurate and intransigent in their determination to implement and perpetuate racial discrimination," explained Keith, "the awarding of punitive damages is appropriate and necessary." The money will be paid to the court, which will then provide for its distribution to the plaintiffs.

Moreover, Keith found that those affected by the company's discrimination included not only current employees of Edison and rejected applicants but, in addition, members of the community who might have applied for work but did not because they knew of the company's discriminatory policies. "He's wrong on the facts, wrong on the law and wrong on the extreme remedies ordered," said Edison Vice President Leon Cohan, who promised that the company would appeal.

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