Discrimination in All Its Forms: Different Treatment and Disparate Impact
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Identifying Prohibited Discrimination Under Title VI
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin1 by recipients of federal financial assistance. When determining whether unlawful discrimination has occurred, investigators will look to see whether a person or group was subject to different treatment or disparate impact because of their race. These two different tests recognize that discrimination shows up in many different forms. Sometimes discrimination is explicit, and a policy or decision-maker is clear that someone is being treated differently because of who they are. Sometimes a policy doesn’t explicitly treat people differently for different groups. Sometimes discrimination is obvious only in its impact. The purpose of our civil rights laws is to eliminate discrimination in all its forms and allow all people to thrive free from the burdens of discrimination.