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The Critical Role of the Fritz Pollard Alliance Cyrus Mehri* W hen Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and I got into the fight to change the National Football League (NFL) and its hiring practices, we were outsiders to the NFL. But we had been battling discrimination in different arenas and on different fronts for many years. I had been fighting cases like the Texaco case1 and the Coca-Cola case,2 the two largest race discrimination class actions in history. These were landmark race discrimination cases. Johnnie was, at heart, a civil rights lawyer. We learned lessons from our cases that we would later bring to bear in our NFL experience. As Professor Michael McCann points out,3 racial bias creeps into decision making throughout the United States, but it does not always creep in ways that are hostile to job candidates. Rather, it often appears in terms of favoritism towards other candidates; although it may not be conscious, it may be very subtle. There are two types of hiring processes that depict these racial biases. The first type is the kind of targeted process where you are just going to say “this is the guy” or “here is the person I am going to hire.” In this first type of hiring process, an employer has focused in, with blinders on, for that particular person. The second type of hiring process is a more inclusive one where you cast a wider net and you actually bring candidates in for interviews. This second type of hiring scenario is the type the Rooney Rule strives to encourage. As Professor Jeremi Duru has written, one of the primary reasons that the Rooney Rule has worked to help break down racial barriers in NFL head coach hiring is because getting people into an inclusive hiring process allows candidates to show their value and quality.4 The Rooney Rule has seen great success, including the hirings of Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati, Lovie Smith in Chicago, Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, and Raheem Morris in Tampa Bay. That said, these successes have not come without some tough calls, not just in Cincinnati, but with Lovie Smith being selected as coach for the Chicago Bears.5 With Lovie Smith, Chicago may not have gone into the interview process it did if not for the existence of the Rooney Rule. Also, but for the Rooney Rule, Chicago may not have been able to tip the balance in the favor of the minority candidate being hired 364 Cyrus Mehri simply because of all the historical racial issues we have faced as a country. To break down those historical racial barriers, individuals had to get into the room and appropriately salute and celebrate the diversity which is at the base of the Rule. However, there is another component to the success of the Rooney Rule that is often overlooked. That is the creation of an affinity group that is used as another tool to break down barriers in the workplace, whether it is in or outside of sports. I first learned about affinity groups while investigating discrimination cases in corporate America. I discovered that some major corporations do in fact create and use affinity groups. The first powerful company to found one, I believe, was AT&T, and other companies have followed suit in creating affinity groups.6 Individuals that form affinity groups typically share a common interest, background, or goal, such as members of a protected group including minority or female employees.7 With the use of affinity groups, people are able to face the unique issues that occur in the workplace and are able to crystallize these issues and bring them to management’s attention in order to work collaboratively with management to resolve concerns, including racial employment problems.8 In considering affinity groups and racial issues in the employment context, I noticed that in some of my cases, African American employees in various sales forces were out in the marketplace trying to sell the product for their company, but were facing overt racism from the customers and/ or potential customers of the corporation. These employee salespersons had no real alternative or place to turn while being subjected to racial intimidation by customers or potential customers of the corporate employer. To these affected salespersons, we suggested forming an affinity group. We essentially said, “Look, one idea you can think about is forming an affinity group so that employees who are facing unique racial issues can bring that to the attention of the...

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