I am inherently skeptical when it comes to the allegations of racial and national original discrimination at workplace and elsewhere. Most employment lawyers are. They have to be, as the majority of racial harassment and discrimination claims fail for lack of sufficient evidence to support these allegations at workplace or anywhere else. My personal skepticism also comes from the fact that I was lucky enough to have never be or at least feel discriminated at workplace and I always felt that my superiors tried to conduct business and treat their employees "by the book." Today's incident however has changed my perhaps "naive" perception of the persistence of racism in our society.

This incident didn't happen at work and it has nothing to do with any of my clients. It happens in the most unlikely place - at one of the San Francisco's public parks in the Marina District, at the tennis court. My father ran through the court where two, older and seemingly well-to-do white ladies were playing tennis. He English is far from fluent, and his accent is thick, making it often hard for others to understand him. I was sitting at a bench near the courts and observing. These women got annoyed with my father going over the court instead of walking around as the tennis etiquette provides, and he was probably in the wrong. However, the reaction of one of the women shocked me. She approached  him and told him very slowly and clearly:
"When you are in our country, follow our rules! If you want to follow your rules, go home to where you came from!" 
I could not believe my ears. I did not think that the City of San Francisco, that prides itself on open-mindedness and tolerance was a home to people who hold such beliefs.

I was tempted to tell that lady that my father has been living in this country almost 20 years, that he is a US citizen, and that this is his home just as much as hers, but all I did was to tell her that as a civil rights attorney, I was disappointed to hear those words come from someone who looks as well put together as her. I guess people are not always what they appear to be.

This also made me realize that if this kind of person was in any kind of management position at workplace, it would only be a matter of time till she created a racially hostile work environment, insulting or humiliating her co-workers and subordinates.
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The California Fair Employment and Housing Act specifically prohibits harassment based on “race, religious creed, color, and national origin.” Hostile work environment claims based on racial harassment are reviewed under the same standard as those based on sexual harassment. Thus, allegations of a racially hostile workplace must be assessed from the perspective of a reasonable person belonging to the same racial or ethnic group as plaintiff.

The California Standard of Conduct for Racial Harassment
To constitute racial harassment, the conduct must be sufficiently “severe” or “pervasive” to later the conditions of the victim’s employment. The victim of the racial harassment must show a concerted partner of harassment of a repeated, routine or a generalized nature” and that the conduct constituted an “unreasonably abusive or offensive work-related environment or adversely affected the reasonable employee’s ability to do his or her job.”

Although occasional, isolated incidents are usually not enough to create hostile work environment, even a single act by a supervisor may be severe enough to alter the conditions of employment. Thus, while the co-workers single racist remark may not be sufficient to constitute harassment, the same statement by the victim’s direct supervisor might be actionable, due to the authority that the supervisor has over a victim and the increase stress/injury resulting as a result of being subject to harassment by the person in a position of authority.

Employer’s Duty to Prevent Harassment
As with sexual harassment claims, an employer has a duty to prevent and remedy instances of racial and national origin harassment. An employer who fails to remedy problems of which it has actual or constructive knowledge may be held liable for harassment despite the existence of a formal policy against harassment.

Harassment by Member of Same Race At least one federal court held that racial slurs may constitute harassment even if made by one member to another member of the same race, as the court held in Ross v. Douglas County (8th Cir. 2000).

When Racial Harassment is Aimed at OthersBecause the injury from harassment focuses on the workplace environment as a whole, a hostile environment may exist even if some of the hostility is directed at other workers. Thus, where racial slurs have been directed at a minority race of which plaintiff is a member, similar slurs directed at other minorities may contribute to the overall hostility of the working environment.

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